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Going Green Y'all, originally uploaded by nbklx17 (Sandy) I'll Be Back - I Promise!.
I love these bags from HEB. Not only am I doing my part to make the earth green, but I'm making things easier for myself. They hold a lot of groceries and are much easier to carry than those little plastic bags. I've never needed more than 4 or 5 even when I bought $150 dollars worth of groceries. That makes a difference when you have to carry everything up three flights of stairs to your apartment.
They're great for more than just groceries, too. I use them when I'm traveling to hold any odds and ends that don't fit in my suitcase...to hold dirty clothes when traveling...to the beach or the pool...picnic supplies to the park...any time I have to take something to a friend's house...at only 99 cents they are the perfect little tote for just about anything.
Have you made any changes to do your part? Every little bit helps.
DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS
It means don't litter, for those unfamiliar...
22 comments:
I do most of my shopping at Walmart and I love their black bags (they're better than the blue ones they had for awhile). You're right....these kinds of bags hold more and are easier to carry!
yeah, we recycle...got the boys involved by painting big boxes for them to go in...they have fun with it now. we reduced paper products, increased energy efficiancy and put the thermo on a constant comfortable temp...
and happy earth day!
WE must try to take care of what we have. New technology learns new ways to use up our enviornment.
Take care of Texas, we will be ther in late summer.
Ireland charged for the plastic bags a few years ago. And they purposefully charged an annoying figure that made people think. It now 23cent per bag.
It worked, no longer do we have plastic blowing about the countryside.
at the beginning I hated the thought of buying reusable bags but now I love it.Both my husband and I have bags in the car.
I love your proverb because I truly believe in this
I think this whole world is recycled. You can't believe after millions of years you will still find the same things on top of the earths crust.:)
I always hate it when I get up to the check out and find that I have forgotten my canvas bags (I keep 4-5 of them in my truck). The local supermarket gives a 5 cent per bag rebate. Happy Earth Day.
I have to be totally honest...I have never changed doing anything. I don't recycle, but I also am very careful not to litter. I know, I am a slacker!
Here in OZ those old plastic bags have been banned for some time now, we all use the new trendy bags. As you suggest they have a million uses, shopping centres are printing their own and of course different colours etc. Lets all hope it makes a difference...
I first observed Earth Day in 1990 when some hippies I knew from college told me about it. I really bought into it. It was the year I started recycling. At the time I lived at a house I shared with two guys my age.
There was no curbside pickup. I bought separate indoor trash cans for colored glass, clear glass, and aluminum. The recycling hippies who told me about Earth Day said there was nowhere that would accept the plastic so I didn't save it.
The haul at that house was predominantly glass adult beverage contairs and aluminum adult beverage containers. The glass always got full the fastest and I let the empties amass into quite the pile in the basement. About every month, I would borrow my dad's pickup to haul it and and the aluminum to a grocery store parking lot collection site several miles away. I still remember the way the truck smelled like a bar garbage can after a load had been hauled, and having to hose out the bed of my dad's truck before I brought it back to him.
The place that got the recycling stuff was run by a Conservancy. It sold the cans to keep the place going, but I found out later it lost its buyer for everything but the aluminum and wound having to pay to haul everything that wasn't cans to the landfill..
Where I live now has curbside recycling pickup and the garbage people come get it it. I put my paper and cardboard in used paper grocery bags off to the side of the bin like they said to do when they handed out the bins 12 years ago. I save the aluminum and sell it myself, the last pickup load got like $80. Although, it takes a long time to have that many due to the lack of beer-guzzling 20-something men and their friends around this house.
They use a separate truck for recycling and it only has to stop at about 10 percent of the garbage customer addresses in my town because only that many people here recycle. I think only one other town in my county has curbside recycling.
I know the stuff I put out in my bin goes to the landfill place just like the garbage. I like to believe that it gets separated and winds up in the recycling circle the hippies told me about years ago. I like to believe they were right when they said I could make a difference keeping most of the trash at my house out of the dump, so I keep doing it.
Oh and I have a few of those reusable shopping bags but I usually forget to take them with me to the store. If the place has the old-timey paper grocery bags (getting tough to find) I always ask for those since they come in handy for the paper and cardboard are and also to bag up the homegrown tomatoes I give away to my friends in summer and fall. I have 48 plants and use up a bunch of bags as I pick.
That was very likely more than anybody wanted to hear about recycling, but it's always what I think about when Earth Day rolls around. Well that, and the guy who started Earth Day later killing somebody, stuffing them in a big steamer trunk and fleeing the country.
As you say much better than those awful plastic carriers that, apart from the obvious environmental issues, will certainly cut into your hands and have a good chance of splitting. You can get so many pretty reusable bags as well, I know I have quite a collection.
In Michigan, we've had a bottle return law in effect for almost 35yrs...it real;ly made a huge difference. We need one on water bottles now...
@Kelly: I don't think I own a Wal-Mart bag...I've been taking my HEB bags into Wal-Mart and no one has said anything about it.
@Brian Miller: Mine is on a constant, almost uncomfortable temp. I pinch pennies there, too.
@jack69: Which part of Texas? Late summer is miserable in Houston.
@Vince: That sounds like a good idea. People would throw fits at first, though.
@aladay'slife: Or floating in the ocean in a huge whirlpool...
@sage: I bought one canvas bag. Those are nice but expensive.
@otin: I don't recycle, either. I felt guilty until I learned that the Waste Management company that manages my apartment's dumpsters pays people to sort out any recyclables they can make a profit from. Who would have thought there was so much money in wastepaper and plastic scrap?
@Tempo: They are banned? I like that idea. Our government has never been known for protecting the environment...it's always been the American citizens (and consumers refusing to buy the bad stuff) that have to lead the charge.
@Rob: Damn. That's not a comment, that's a blog post. How sick am I that I thought, "Well, he didn't put her in a dumpster..."
@Petty Witter: They cut off circulation and leave welps on my arms!
@buffalodick: I don't buy those any more. I've bought a water filter for my faucet and use the refillable metal ones.
Bags are the EASIEST way to change your ways and be more green. AND, every time I bring mine in, the cashier thanks me for doing my part. It feels nice :)
Live Love LA
@Neekoh: It does feel nice. The Wal-Mart girl thanked me even though I was using bags from another store.
You would think so, but no. I think people are really hacked off with those things. And honestly if it can be done in Ireland it would work in Texas. I just put a cardboard box in the boot of the car, or get one at the store, and its two less jobs for you do not have to pack and unpack the bags.
We have a decent collection of shopping bags that we've picked up over the years - but those ones look really good and sturdy :)
@Vince: I could not carry a box full of groceries up three flights. The bags work better for me. The charging for bags idea probably would work in Texas as long as they didn't try to legislate it. It costs the stores to provide bags, so it's a logical next step that I hope they take on their own.
@Rachel Cotterill: I carried 6 cans, 1 bottle of salsa, 2 packages of meat, and a bundle of green onions all in one bag with plenty of room left over and no need to double sack. The straps make it easy to throw over one shoulder, just like a purse.
admirable idea,
what a shout out!
Happy Friday!
@Jingle: Thanks! Happy Friday and a pleasant weekend to you, too.
I just bought and used my first two bags! Love them.....
@gayle: Yay! Everyone should do the same!
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