Grocery Chain Abandons Plastic Bags

I found an interesting story today.

It talks about Duluth Whole Foods supermarket stopping the use of all plastic bags from each of its stores. The most interesting thing about this story is that this is not that unusual.

There are not only whole food chains that have stopped using the plastic bag, but some cities have also joined in to help fight the plastic covered streets by getting the community to buy reusable bags. Cedar Rapids, Iowa is one of those cities. Members from Prairiewoods Franciscan Spirituality Center are working with local businesses like Hy-Vee to help shoppers make the transition. They handed out nearly 100 free reusable cloth bags to shoppers by noon on Earth Day.

If you want to get your own reusable bag, try places like http://www.reusablebags.com/. For those of you that might not want the standard canvas bag, they have a huge selection of bags that are trendy and will match anyone's personality.

Let's Go Green Together

I've got to be honest with you, I haven't been the most "green" individual, but it's Earth Day today and I have an idea.

Let's go green together.

All of the things a person hears everyday about going green, saving the environment, and stopping our waste can make some people go crazy. However, I think that would be the wrong response. We need to come together and start taking action. My first step is creating this blog, and I'll admit, it's a big one for me.

Let me give you an example. My family and I create about a full trash bag every two days which equates to about 5,500 lbs a year. That's a lot of garbage. One of my children is in diapers so that creates a lot of it, but hey, that's no excuse. Another example. Every time I get groceries, I come home with around 20 plastic sacks. Each one we end up using for something else down the line (like wrapping up the diapers) but we could do without them.

My goal is to help my family to be more efficient with our habits, and along the way, get everyone I can to join us. Let's go green together.

How this will work:

• Each Sunday I will post one thing to implement into our lives. I choose only one per week because for anyone that does not currently participate in being green, is going to have a hard time with too many changes all at once. This will result in them giving up and going back to their old lives.
• During the week, I will post articles about the weekly topic. They may be fun, educational, or even recommend a great product.
  

So I have decided that my first royal decree, is to stop taking plastic bags from the store, and switch to reusable bags. I have been looking around for different reusable bags and have found a wealth of options. I chose to go with organic cloth bags. We bought six bags as we tend to get a lot of items in one trip. I think most people could do with about four or five bags. These bags come from a renewable material and is treated without chemicals.

Final thoughts. I encourage you, your family, and your friends to join me in helping our earth and providing a future for us and our children. Please bookmark this page and check back often for updates. Also, comment anytime with your own thoughts and ideas as to ways we can all "go green", together.