Living green is not about sacrifice, it’s about making conscientious choices. It’s about our day to day actions and how they affect the care we give ourselves, our families, our community and our surroundings. It sounds really simple doesn’t it? As individuals, we can make a difference everyday.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m far from the eco-friendly, sustainable living, energy conserving “greenie”, but I have made a conscious effort in the past few years to pay closer attention. We have established several green practices in our home but one of my favorite and most recent is the “Reusable Grocery Tote”.
Man, I love these things. It takes me back to the days of old when you got real bags. Paper bags. Square - with nice high sides and easy to pack, although sometimes awkward if not packed properly. But, they too were not very environmentally friendly. The new movement toward reusable grocery bags brings lots of good qualities for consumers and our environment.
A few of which are:
*Reduced landfill waste
*Reduced petroleum consumption
* Reusable (of course J)
* Lightweight
* Long Handles for Carrying
* Bottom Inserts for Support (not all of them have this feature)
*and my personal favorite…they are square, which makes it so easy to pack your groceries neatly without split bags and torn handles.
Do I forget to carry them into the supermarket sometimes, yes. Do I forget to take them back to the car after unpacking, yes. Do my children wear them around the house on their heads, yes. (which mind you is safer than a plastic bag) Despite my inability to remember them, when I do – I love them. Some of you are probably thinking that it’s probably more hassle than it’s worth but let me show you why, if you use them, you are making a BIG difference.
1. Retailers spend approximately $4 billion a year for these bags and the cost is passed on to the consumer in the form of higher prices. Ouch!
2. Over a billion plastic bags are handed out daily, daily I said, do you hear me - DAILY!
3. In a landfill, plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade. (I’m not sure how they know this since plastic is not anywhere close to 1,000 years old – science! isn’t it great!)
4. Plastic is made from petroleum – enough said!
As if this information is not staggering enough; in 1997 an alarming discovery was made by an American sailor, Charles Moore in the Pacific Ocean. This discovery is what is now known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch located in the North Pacific Tropical Gyre. This patch of “plastic soup” is constantly growing in size and poses extreme risks to marine life and the marine eco-system and possibly an impact on human health. Mr. Moore has been studying this waste and estimates there is about 100 million tons of plastic circulating in the Northern Pacific, which is equal to about 2 ½ percent of all the plastic produced since 1950 or one years worth of plastic being produced in the world today. If you are trying to visualize, brace yourself - it is twice the size of the state of TEXAS. That is a LOT of plastic. When I first heard this story in late 2007 I was amazed, stunned, disbelieving - but now I am scared. Scared for the people who will have to deal with the future of this. If this is the result of a little over a hundred years of plastics consumption what will the ocean be like in another hundred?
We can make a difference – one reusable bag at a time.
Supermarkets and retail stores are seeing the trend and making these bags available for a small fee, anywhere from .89 to $1.99. They come in all different colors and usually are branded for some free advertising space. My favorite ones come with a stiff insert (either covered cardboard or plastic) to add stability to the bottom. I even got a freebie from our local grocer who teamed up with some well known manufacturers to promote green living. Not only was it free but it zips up into a small wallet size for easy carrying and storage (think glove compartment or console size).
All that said, those new bags seem like a small sacrifice conscientious choice in order to make a difference – don’t they? I thought you would agree, see how simple that is.
You can read more about green living and plastics in the environment here. Tell me what you think?
