MOMS Club Article

Here's my latest article for our local Mothers Offering Mothers Support (MOMS) Club...

“Worldwide, an estimated 4 billion plastic bags end up as litter each year. Tied end to end that’s enough to circle the earth 63 times.” - www.reusablebags.com

Plastic bags, you get them every time you shop. What’s the big deal?
Each year, an estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide. That comes out to over one million per minute. Billions end up as litter each year. Drive through the countryside sometime, you’ll see hundreds of them caught in fencing, or in brush alongside the roads. Trust me, I’m from Kansas. It’s not pretty.
It’s even worse on the coasts. Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles, whales and other marine mammals die every year from eating discarded plastic bags mistaken for food. Plastic bags don’t go away. They photodegrade. They break down into smaller and smaller toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food web when animals accidentally ingest them. Yikes!
The Solution:
You can return them to the store where they came from. Most stores like Walmart and Meijer have plastic bag recycling. Unfortunately, I constantly forget to do this. It’s easier for me to bring my own bag. Purchasing and using high quality reusable shopping bag has the potential to eliminate hundreds, if not thousands, of plastic bags over its lifetime. AND many stores offer a $.05 or $.10 credit per bag for bringing your own. I shop frequently at Target and Hollywood Grocery, both offer credits. Ask your local shop if they give an incentive. One of my favorite stores, Trader Joe’s, has a “ballot box”. When you bring in your own grocery bag, you fill out a ballot and place it in a box. One ballot is drawn each month and the winner receives a $50 gift card. Pretty cool, huh?
Goldie’s Tip:
Many places sell the bags for a dollar or give them away for free. Get several of them. You can also get cute designer-style bags online. I find that I like to use my Target bag at Target and my Meijer bag at Meijer, but my cute bag gets the most use because it’s, well, cute. Now here’s the real tip, store them in your car or in your coat closet. I keep one in my car for random visits to the store and the rest in a basket at the bottom of our coat closet. When I grab my coat, I look down and realize that I’ll need some bags too. As soon as you get home, empty the bag and replace in the car or the closet. Voila, you’re green and trendy!

For more info visit:
www.reusablebags.com