We live in a throwaway society where everything is made cheap and disposable in the name of “convenience” from plastic bags to paper cups, but all that convenience has a price. Landfills and stray trash blowing along road sides are all the result of our over-consuming society.

Zero Waste is a Journey

Lately been I’ve been trying to work on reducing more of my own waste, greatly inspired by reading about a woman in France whose family only makes one tiny jar of trash per year. I’ve always been very Eco-conscious anyway, trying to waste as little as possible, recycling, living on solar power now, buying second hand, etc., but I’m still several bags of trash away from the one tiny jar produced by the French family. So I was prompted to take a closer look at the trash I produce and realized that there many more things I could do to create even less waste. It’s also made me realize, however, that the road to zero waste isn’t a quick trip, it’s a journey.

If you try to go zero-waste all at once, you’re likely to get frustrated and give up. However, if you take baby steps, implementing a new less-waste practice, say every month, you’ll be on the road to less waste, and making the world a more beautiful place. If you only have to do one thing at a time, it’s much easier and less daunting. So I thought I’d do a little series, and every few weeks, and talk about another one-thing we can all do to create less waste. So I thought I’d start simple for the first one: Plastic bags.

Use Reusable Bags

If you haven’t seen people walking through the grocery stores with reusable bags, you’ve probably been living under a rock the last several years. My family gave up plastic bags quite a while ago. All our groceries are purchased in reusable cloth bags. The only plastic bags I use now are the ones I wrap about my flower bouquets at farm markets (and even those are all old, used shopping bags and newspaper bags that people have given me to reuse for flowers, so not creating new plastic bags). Even the bags I package my soap in are made of biodegradable plant-fiber plastic.

While many people have embraced the reusable bag change, there are still those who don’t use them. Some believe that reusable bags don’t really make a difference. But in truth they does. Think about how often the average person buys groceries. Usually at least once a week. And they usually bring home multiple bags, so that’s a whole lot of plastic bags adding up over the year. And it’s compounded even more when multiple people are still using plastic bags.

Plastic Bags End up in Landfills and the Oceans

Ocean Crusaders reports that over 5 trillion pieces of plastic debris is in the ocean. A large percentage of that is single-use plastic bags. Approximately 500 billion of these needless plastic bags are used each year, and about only 1 percent are recycled. That’s a lot of plastic bags ending up in landfills and the oceans.

Now think of how many plastic bags you could save each year if you switched to reusable bags. And since someone else might be inspired to as well, think of how many plastic bags could be saved each year if everyone you knew gave up plastic bags. As an added benefit, the reusable bags are much stronger than the old plastic bags. No more having the plastic bags burst and all your groceries tumbling down onto the floor.

Keep them Handy

It can sometimes be difficult to remember to bring the reusable bags. (If you’re anything like me, that’s the last of a million thoughts you’re thinking before leaving the house). So an easy trick is to keep them in your car so you never have to worry about forgetting them. Take them to the grocery store, the shopping mall, the farm markets, or any other place you might normally receive a plastic bag. They’re also great for carrying food and drinks to picnics or soccer games, etc.

See if you can make it through an entire month without bringing home a single plastic bag. It’s a fun challenge, and it’ll keep the world pretty for everyone. And let me know in the comments if you make it through the whole month with no plastic bags.

Written by Amber Reifsteck, The Woodland Elf

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