Earth Conscious

In the past I would periodically drag my extra canvas bags with me to the grocery. Eventually I ended up needing my bags to transport books, clothing, music, etc. so earlier this year I purchased from Winn-Dixie (for .99 each) 4 extremely sturdy bags made of recycled materials. I now take these bags with me to every shopping trip and it has made my world a better place. I can put all of my groceries into 4 recycled bags instead of 12 plastic ones. I love the surprised (sometimes offended) look of the cashier when I say, "no, don't bag those, I'll do it myself, I have my own bags." When I get home, I don't have to sort through all of the plastic bags to see which are still 'good' to re-use! My little 'plastic bag dispenser/container' isn't popping its seams anymore, it holds just enough. And did I mention that it's so much easier to carry 4 sturdy bags with handles rather than 12 iffy bags with even iffier handles?

Today I saw this slide show and thought I'd tell my little section of the world how important it is to consider the products we buy and how they are packaged...and ultimately how they leave the store.

So, here's my little plea to the general population; please be aware, we each make an impact and each of us can, in turn, make a difference. Just about *every* grocery store these days is offering these recycled grocery bags. I've seen them in Albertsons, Associated Grocer's (A.G.) food stores, Target and Winn-Dixie. I'm sure the bags can be found in other stores, I just haven't checked. As I stated before, mine were reasonably priced at .99 each and have been used more times than I can now count. Also, they are very washable. I had some milk to accidentally spill in one of the bags, I held it in the sink, rinsed it out several times and let it drip-dry in the dish rack. Ta-dah!

Every little bit makes a difference...you can too.