earth-friendly friday - live green, save green

This week I am highlighting plastic bags. An estimated 89 billion plastic bags, sacks, and wraps are used in the US every year. Not only are the bags costly on the environment to manufacture, but if they are not recycled, they take an estimated 100 years to break down, and many times the bags end up in our waterways.

In 2007, San Fransisco became the first US city to ban the use of plastic shopping bags and in January of this year Washington DC became the first US city to charge a $.05 tax per bag to consumers who choose to use plastic or paper bags. (Guess what? DC's use of plastic bags has cut in half!)

All sorts of plastic bags and wrapping can be recycled, and here is a resource to learn about what can/cannot be recycled and drop-off locations.

We have an assortment of reusable shopping bags. My favorite is the chicobag because it folds into it's own little pouch. When I unpack my merchandise, I fold them back up and toss them in my diaper bag so they will be there the next time I'm at the store. They also come in handy for many other purposes, such as containing soiled clothing, and are machine washable. I also recently purchased four nylon sandwich bags to reduce our use of plastic sandwich bags.

It is easy to forget to bring the bags with you when you are going shopping, which is why mine usually go directly back into my diaper bag. My cousin told me she kept forgetting her reusable bags so she started punishing herself by requiring herself to buy new reusable bags every time she forgot them. It worked!

How do reusable bags save money? Read here about how it indirectly saves money. Also, many stores such as Target and Rainbow give a $.05 credit per reusable bag, and some stores such as Aldi charge for plastic or paper bags. And my sandwich bags will pay for themselves after about 100 uses each...