Category Archives: being green

“There is no sense and no sanity in objecting to the desecration of the American flag when we tolerate, encourage, and as a daily business promote the desecration of the country for which it stands.” –Wendell Berry, “Waste”

We stopped by Ikea in Atlanta when we drove home from Carolina earlier this month and I was pleasantly surprised to see that Ikea is now charging a nickel for plastic bags! Way to go, Ikea! They’ve also reduced the cost of their big blue bags to $.59 in an effort to get people to buy a reusable bag at the register instead of a plastic one. I was really excited. Well, a shopping trip to Ikea almost always makes me excited, but this was really great icing on the cake.

Every year, 500 billion to a TRILLION plastic bags are consumed worldwide.  You know, those plastic bags they give you for “free” when you go to the grocery or big box store.  Like diamonds, plastics are forever.  They don’t biodegrade.  They photodegrade and ruin the soil.  Not to mention the extreme litter they create worldwide and the threat to sea life when they are dumped in the oceans.  Paper bags are better in some ways (they biodegrade) but require a lot more energy to produce.  Recycling costs much more than original production and very few bags worldwide are ever recycled (even if they are collected to be, sadly.) 

One of the simplest ways you, dear reader, can be a little more green is to bring your own bags.  Some stores even give you a credit for bringing your own bags ($.05+ a bag), as well they should since they have to pay for the bags they give out for “free” to consumers.  

If you’d like, you can get some of those tote bags you are imagining in your head right now, they work fine.  I splurged on some neat bags from Reusable Bags when I had a 20% off coupon code.  We got a bargain shopping set they are not running any longer that had three different types of bags.  I highly recommend the Acme Workhorse (they fold up REALLY small and you can keep them in your purse) and the Acme Earthtote.  They are the size of a standard plastic and paper bag respectively, but hold much more than their disposable counterparts as they are built much tougher.  It’s amazing how many fewer bags I use per shopping trip.  I have heard good things about Chicobags, too.  So bring your own bags, friends.  And work to reuse and retool the disposable ones you end up with as packing material, planters, and whatever else you fancy.  It’s an easy way to be green. 

I am going to start a series of posts on “being green” — small things we’re doing to be good stewards of the planet.  I think Kermit was wrong on this one (unusual, since Muppets are so trustworthy!)