I'm back in the world of blogging.
It has been terribly too long since I have written anything, so it may take me awhile to gain my few readers back. But I think I'm up for a challenge.
I am going to try to post more of my writing more often because I am currently watching Julie and Julia, and it seems like the right thing to do.
Here is a column that I wrote about plastic bags that was published in the last issue of my newspaper, The Threefold Advocate.
Hopefully you will read it and start using reusable bags! If you do, the Earth will love you...and I will too!
Bag lady's wisdom
Grace Pennington, Editor-in-Chief
Aren't plastic bags annoying?
They break easily, they're ugly, they never seem to go away, and being plastic, they really won't go away.
After you have used them to bring groceries or things back to your dorm or house, you have no other need for them. Then, for most people, they just end up being stuffed into a corner or a forgotten cabinet, waiting for Christ's return. Then, something that was intended to make your life easier and faster becomes a cluttered, ugly thing that won't leave you alone.
I used to feel this way about paper bags until I discovered an alternative for carrying groceries while living out of the country. It was very interesting to learn that in Europe, it is almost expected for a shopper to bring a reusable bag with them for their purchases.
The cash register tellers would ask first if you had your own bag. If you answered no, they would look at you a bit perplexed, then reluctantly help you pile your things into bright orange plastic sacks. Bringing a reusable bag was the norm at these grocery stores, and after my first plastic bag trip, I began to discover why.
First, plastic bags do not hold up well when you have to walk twenty minutes to get home. I once had to hold a ripped plastic bag together half of the way home, probably looking like another American idiot, after discovering this problem.
Next, instead of fitting all of your things into one reusable bag, the size and shape of plastic sacks force you to use several sacks for even just a few items. When you are walking home with a purse and heavy book bag, the last thing you should add onto it are loads of plastic sacks.
Finally, you look much more like a classy European when you are carrying one canvas bag filled with groceries, than when you load up a pile of artificially orange colored sacks on your shoulders.
I think us over using Americans need to learn a lesson on the benefits of using a reusable bag.
Here are the facts: A reusable bag is cheap (usually no more than $1), sturdy, takes up less room, is reusable (as the name implies) and gets rid of those horrid plastic sacks that trash all of our lives. Oh, and did I mention that it is a very green and Earth - conscious thing to do?
According to reusablebags.com, four out of five grocery bags in the U.S. are plastic, and our society's consumption rate is estimated at more than 500 billion, which is about 1 million per minute. The website states that the plastic bags we use today will be on our planet for up to 1,000 years. Also, the average family accumulates 60 plastic bags in four trips to the grocery store.
So much energy on our part and the Earth's part could be saved by us making $1 purchase of a reusable bag and actually using it. Although plastic sacks seem easier at the time of purchase, they will only turn into a decision that will haunt us and our precious Earth for years.
Other alternatives of green shopping can include asking for paper sacks, which can be recycled, recycling those unwanted and unused plastic sacks, or not using a sack at all. If you are only buying a bag of chips or a CD at a store, just ask the person to not put your purchase in a sack.
Here is what I suggest: Buy a reusable bag, keep it in your car for when you go shopping, don't be afraid to use it, and introduce other people to this smart way to shop. It will save you time, hassle and help keep the Earth clean.
According to reusablebags.com, by using a reusable bag, you have the potential to eliminate 1,000 plastic bags. I can promise you from my experience that using a reusable bag is fun, easy and simply makes you feel a lot smarter. So, I challenge you to shop smart and never leave your reusable bag behind.
Stay tuned for some of my recent poetry.
