Earth Day Plastic Bag Pledge

“You cannot go through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

-Jane Goodall

It’s Earth Day beautiful people and this year – instead of a long list of things you can do to celebrate (aka temporarily make a couple of changes that may or may not last more than a week) we decided to take our own advice and focus on just one thing that we can commit to 100%.

Never using plastic grocery bags again.

I’m sure you know about the impact that plastic grocery bags have on the environment. Here are a few of major facts:
-American use and throw away over 100 billion plastic bags every year, which requires 12 billion barrels of oil a year to manufacture.
-Scientists estimate that every square mile of the ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic.
-A single bag can take 500 years to degrade.

So here’s what you can do about it – buy yourself 10 or so big reusable grocery bags. At our local chain grocery store they sell them for $.99. Buying ten big ones means that you can use them and store 8 or so  in your pantry. Leave 1 or 2 in your car for those last minute trips top the store. This is critical to making the commitment. This is where I always find myself guiltily needing a plastic grocery bag.

Even better – we are amazed at the number of tote type bags that seem to just accumulate over the lifetime of a 40 something person. You have these bags at home. You know you do. You don’t want to throw them away (for some reason that NPR bag is not a garage sale worthy item and the school picture tote just cannot be parted with) so use them as your grocery bags! You may get a little snicker from that high school sophomore bagging your items, but you’ll be smiling on the inside thinking – “I’m saving your ocean, buddy. You can thank me later.”

We can do this! This is so doable! This is how real change happens. Lots of people doing little things. So raise your right hand and pledge: On this day I promise to never use plastic grocery bags again. Then pat yourself on the back. And dig those totes out of the closet. You got this!

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