Reducing our use of plastic bags

Plastic bag caught
in tree branches

It was interesting to hear of the impact Andy Keller had on reducing his community's use of plastic bags on The Story of Stuff.  One of the things he did was make reusable "ChicoBags", which he developed into a business.  He also helped to generate awareness of the 500 bags the the average US citizen uses in one year.  To do this Andy created the "Bagmonster" (pictured right) by adhering 500 plastic bags to himself to help make a visual image of the bags we use.

It was pointed out that simply recycling plastic bags is not the best solution.  Often times these 'recycled' bags don't get properly recycled and sometimes are even burned.

Our household still needs practice to bring bags along when we go shopping.  Old habits are hard to break, but not impossible!  We can do our small part to minimize plastic waste.  Let's be the change we want to see in the world.