Plastic Bags (and polystyrene) can stuff it, part two

I’ve written about these two topics before but it’s been awhile and it’s worth repeating. And I’m a recycler, including topics.

            Plastic bags and polystyrene, the stuff of plates, fast food cups and packing peanuts, makes me cringe.   

            At a recent dinner, I ranted a little about how much we consume and how I get tired sometimes about stressing over each of my actions. I wonder if it even matters that I spend time and energy putting my words and hopes out here for a healthier, conscious world.

            Someone wisely said, ‘it may not always be easy, but it should be simple.’ We should be proactive about reducing consumption, like those insidious plastic bags at stores that are pushed at every turn. Bring your own bags. Make it a habit. It’s simple.

‘But dangit,’ I said, ‘stores also need to train their employees to use less plastic.’ Last week, in a store that kind of rhymes with ‘Margret’, I saw a cashier place one (foam) carton of eggs in a plastic bag and hand it to the customer ahead of me. Why did those eggs need their own bag?

            In a store that rhymes with ‘plier,’ I was buying two half gallons of ice cream for a birthday last year and I handed the cashier my cloth bag, who then put each carton in its own plastic bag and into my cloth bag before I could speak up. More unnecessary plastic in my hands.

            Last week, not wanting to cook, I ordered takeout for the family from a favorite independent restaurant downtown. The food was phenomenal, but opening up the EIGHT foam containers wasn’t. I felt so guilty.

            My life would be easier if stuff was streamlined and compact, not bundled loosely in bags and foam that are terrible for the earth and that I have to deal with. Because you know that I’m going to store all this…stuff…in my basement and garage until I can take it to the only place in Indy where it will actually be recycled. Most recycling services, including the one servicing Noblesville, can’t take polystyrene.

            Most recently my friend Stacy said I’d be proud of her. Her recycling bin was stuffed and when she peered into her garbage bin and saw it had one small bag of garbage, she thought of me. Aww!

            Recycle on!

My dream world the same as reality

            I'm fascinated by dreams.  I love to hear and read about dreams.
Fantastical dreams, dreams that can be mined for meaning and archetypal
symbolism-symbols like snakes and labyrinths and crones-dreams where you
wake up with this incredible story fabricated right out of your own mind
with no conscious effort as you've slept.

            I don't think I've ever really dreamed these great dreams. Back
in high school, I remember one of my teachers telling my class that it helps
to try to recall dreams right upon waking up, but I rarely stay in bed long
enough to try to recall what I may have been dreaming.

            I've tried keeping a dream journal.  It remains largely empty.
Dreams are supposed to be one of the purest sources of knowledge, but I
don't have dreams where figures appear or things happen that have deep
meaning, like a friend who recently dreamed about her teeth falling out,
which apparently means anxiety or concerns about appearance.

            My dreams when I do have them, or recall them, are pretty
literal.  A few months ago I wrote a column titled 'Dreaming of a foam free
world.'  In my dream I was back at my alma mater, Purdue, in my old Windsor
dining hall. I was excited to be back for a visit until I looked around and
was crushed to see polystyrene plates and cups being used in place of real
plates and glasses. 

            As I've said, eco-consciousness permeates everything in my life,
even my occasional dreams.

            So a few weeks ago I had another dream that stuck with me.  Here
it is: I was travelling to area schools and libraries and giving talks on
why they needed to recycle and how to implement recycling programs in their
buildings.  Recycling in my dreams even!  

            Excuse me?  Where are the snakes and labyrinths and crones
again?  

            I guess if someone were to analyze my dreams they'd say I'm an
eco-freak in real life and in my dream world.  That's messed up, isn't it?

Fron lips to landfill 364 days a year...

The night before Earth Day I learned that Starbucks has a yearly campaign to give a free fill-up of coffee or tea to anyone who brings in their own reusable mug on Earth Day.


In the words of Shania Twain: that don’t impress me much.

It sounds good, at first. But a closer look and some critical thinking makes it obvious that Bucks isn’t as green as they claim, and in fact this is a great example of greenwashing, when a company tries to appear more eco-friendly than they really are.

Let’s start with the paper cups, which are bleached. Not good. Why don’t they use unbleached cups? And if you think the paper cup is recyclable? Think again.

The cup goes from your lips to the landfill. It’s got a plastic coating, making the recycling process much harder (and the plastic coating nixes its compostability.) Supply creates demand though, and if Starbucks collected the cups for recycling—numbering around three billion a YEAR—recycling centers would respond.

And? There are compostable paper cups in green coffee shops RIGHT NOW…but not in Starbucks.

Coffee shops truly trying to be green will promote reusable mugs and cups. Do Starbucks employees ever ask ‘for here or to go?’ and serve ‘for here’ customers drinks in ceramic mugs?

I’ve never seen that happen.

Bucks also touts on their website that they give 10 cents off customers drinks when they bring their own mug. Even though ten cents is lame, how many people know about the ten cents off? If Bucks really wants to make an environmental change, where are the signs reminding customers to bring their reusable mug or to get their drink in a ‘for here’ mug?

Admittedly, I rarely step inside a Starbucks, but I’ve never seen such a sign.

Clearly, paper throwaway cups are the standard, which is totally backwards. And if you do bring your own mug, baristas often forget that you did and put your drink in a paper cup anyway. Or, they measure your Cinnamon Dolce in a paper cup before pouring into your reusable cup. Both defeat the purpose. Palm to forehead.

Back to Earth Day and the Starbucks free drink promo. Seems like a way to get all warm and fuzzy, like you’re actually helping the Earth by driving to Bucks for a free cup o’joe. It’s a good gimmick, but little more than that.

Start to Finish--Recycling Cover

Read it here.

Recycling plant like a trip to Disney World for this eco-freak

I got to tour a recycling plant for this week’s cover story. How many people get to climb into the hard hat area of a three story automated recycling sorter? I crunched over broken glass and I felt the little earthquake as the shaker did its job, tumbling and sorting the glass from the paper and cardboard.

It was great.

I’ve wanted to tour a recycling facility for years. I was the kid that convinced my family to start recycling. I’ve been a die-hard recycler ever since.

Noblesville residents Craig Lutz and Laura Blank, who work for Republic, gave me the tour of the 96th Street Transfer Station, also known as an MRF—Materials Recovery Facility. This is where all of your trash and recycling goes until the trash gets hauled to one of two landfills—one near Terre Haute or one near Frankfort. You’ll read about what happens to the recycling.

I could talk all day about recycling but I do have a word limit. I know I’ve gotten questions about phone book recycling, and Republic DOES take phone books. The green and yellow Paper Retriever bins around town DON’T—hence the confusion. If you have any other recycling questions, contact me.

I learned a few things—one is that everything is recyclable if you’re willing to go far enough. Republic simply can’t take everything, such as Styrofoam or bubble wrap, but they do take a large variety of items.

My recycling assignment led me through the alleys of downtown Noblesville, watching and waiting for the recycling truck to come through. I finally flagged it down. Thanks, Roger, for letting me take your picture.

That was fun, too.

I spoke with Street Department Commissioner Len Finchum and learned that 50% of the money made through the recycling program comes back to the city to offset cost increases in the contract with Republic. So, it behooves all of us to participate as much as possible in the recycling program.

One more thing—don’t throw E-waste in the trash. As of January 1, all e-waste such as computer monitors, computers, televisions, printers, keyboards, mice, DVD players, VCR’s, etc. can’t go to landfills or be incinerated (Indiana Code 13-20.5). These items, which contain toxic heavy metals, need to be taken to the Hamilton County Hazardous Waste Center, located at 1717 Pleasant St., for safe disposal.

Rock on, recyclers!

Bring your own bags, or pay the price

How would your plastic bag usage change if you had to pay for them? I recently read about IN House Bill 1521, a bill that if passed would mean consumers would be charged 10 cents per plastic bag they use at stores. I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to politics and don’t want to get my hopes up, but I can’t help but be giddy at the thought of a fee to use plastics and how it would hopefully make people think twice before loading up on the things.

What I’d really like to see is a ban on plastic bags altogether like San Francisco has done, but hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. This is after all the Midwest, not exactly known for its progressive prowess. But speaking of San Francisco, has anyone been to the city since the plastic bag ban was instituted? I would love to hear from you. People are surviving okay without them, right?

The reasons to avoid plastic bags as much as possible are obvious and it can only be good news for all of us and for the environment.If passed, the plastic bag fees will become effective January 1, 2012. I’m hopeful that this topic will get exposure and becovered widely in the media and that more and more people will become conscious of wasteful plastic bags.

I love that our awesome library stopped offering plastic bags to patrons over a year ago (way to go, HEPL!). People seem to have adapted just fine. You go into Aldi's, you pay for your bags or bring your own. You go into Costco? No free bags there, either. You learn to bring your own, or pay for plastic, and it’s really not that hard. Once again, just like most things, it becomes a habit.

Some reader responses—keep ‘em coming

I’m writing this column in the midst of ‘Icepocalypse,’ or ‘Icephoon’ or whatever-you-call-it, hoping the power stays on long enough to finish this and my other writing deadlines. Hopefully it will be on the way to becoming a distant memory by the time you read this.

I’ve gotten some great comments on several of my recent columns, and as always I appreciate and enjoy dialogue with you.

One reader wrote in response to my ‘Six Items or Less’ clothing challenge column two weeks ago that he was disappointed I wasn’t taking part, because “if anyone can do it you can.” He went on to say, “my niece asked me a few weeks ago why I have the same few pullovers/shirts on every time she sees me. I told her the less I have, the less I have to think about what to put on!”

Maybe I will participate after all, but I’ll wimp out and do it in the spring or summer for my own sake, since right now I wear about six items at once in my c-c-cold house where the thermostat sits at a cool 65 degrees.

Another reader said that she is taking on the challenge this month because it’s a short month (good thinking!) and she’ll let me know how it goes.

In response to my ‘foam free’ world dream, a reader commented that the wax-lined paper cups are just as bad, if not worse, than polystyrene cups. I don’t necessarily disagree, which is why the best solution is to bring your own travel mug to the coffee shop.

And if you forget your own mug or make an unexpected coffee stop? Most people don’t know this, but Noble Coffee and Starbucks will serve you your drink in a real mug if you ask. That’s so much better than foam or paper cups.

Going green seems to be the road less traveled

I feel like an eco-freak a lot of the time. Sometimes it’s pretty easy to forget when I’m in my own little world here. My little world is an oasis, an environmentally friendly oasis. I feel kinda good, like I’m making some sort of difference: recycling everything I can, reducing and reusing, collecting wine corks that would otherwise be thrown away, and on and on.

Eco-consciousness colors everything I do.

And then I get a jolt. Recently I went on a trip and was acutely aware of waste at every turn—from the large, bleached paper napkins the size of hand towels to the auto flush toilets that trigger three times per trip on average. At least they’re low-flow, right? And then there were the pretty much non-existent recycling options. It’s enough to make me crazy!

I felt so guilty at every turn, from the jet fuel spewing over the landscape on the flights to the fifty-six seat charter bus for our meager tour party of seventeen. The bus idled during the times we weren’t on the road. You know I’m anti-idling. Twist the knife again!

I did what I could. I asked for a real mug instead of the typical polystyrene cup when we stopped at the local coffee shop. I wiped my hands on my pants in the restroom as opposed to paper towel usage when there weren’t auto hand dryers, and I declined maid service during our hotel stay because we didn’t need daily fresh towels and sheets.

I brought my own stainless steel water bottle and travel mug along with me, so that also helped assuage my guilt a tiny bit.

And I wondered. What did the hotel do with the heaps of extra food left after the breakfast buffet? The perfectly good scrambled eggs, potatoes, and bacon didn’t go into the dumpster, did they?

I saw all this waste and I felt like an island. An eco-freak island. Does anybody else care, I wondered? I know there are other eco-freaks out there, where are you? Treading lightly on the Earth, inasmuch as we can, should be a priority. If your complaint is that it’s too hard, the only way it will get easier is to practice it daily and together.

dreaming of a 'foam free' world

I had this vivid dream recently in which I visited my alma mater and decided to eat in my old dining hall in this beautiful, classic, historic dorm. I was dismayed to find the wooden dining tables covered with bleached white paper tablecloths. The white china plates, real glasses and silverware that I remembered languished on shelves in favor of polystyrene (foam) plates and cups and plastic utensils. There was no clink of silverware on plates. No thud of glasses being set on tables. Just the quiet, annoying scraping of plastic on foam. Yuck.
I asked who was in charge and (this part is fuzzy) got his name. “Why spend all this money and create all this waste when you’ve got the real deal right here?” I’d tell him, gesturing toward the shelves of dishes. But somehow I woke up and never got to talk to him. Darn.

In the real world, I avoid No. 6 plastic polystyrene, aka Styrofoam™, at all costs. My kids will tell you that when they get the rare Chick-fil-A treat, drinks aren’t included in the deal because, “Mom hates Styrofoam™!”

Avoidance isn’t easy. On the rare occasion when we go to restaurants and order kids drinks, they come in a foam cup unless I remember to ask for real cups. And then there’s the food takeout. You ask for a box, and a foam clamshell appears. Thwarted again.

So, what’s wrong with polystyrene? Everything. It’s petroleum derived, hazardous to make, difficult to recycle, and will eventually end up in the landfill and never break down.

Someone I know spearheaded efforts to rid their college campus of polystyrene. Their campus is now 100 percent “foam free.” He was happy to detail to me their efforts to make it happen, and I’m adding it to my list of “causes” I’d love to have a part in changing. I would love to see our local coffee shops and restaurants commit to finding alternatives to polystyrene. It can be done!

In the meantime, what’s the solution, besides avoiding it? (A). Save it and make a unique (and buoyant!) sculpture. (B). Drop it off at Arthouse Noblesville, 195 S. 10th St. where it will be recycled in art classes. Or (C). visit www.earth911.com and type “polystyrene” in the search box and your zip for Indy locations that will recycle it. Unfortunately, Noblesville doesn’t recycle No. 6 at this time.

Recycle your Christmas tree and lights

Want a greener option for your Christmas tree once its lifecycle in your home is over? Neither the City of Noblesville or the Parks Department have a Christmas Tree Recycling program, so residents should be aware that discarded Christmas trees placed at the curb will be picked up by trash trucks and go to the landfill.


However, there are plenty of places to recycle your tree in and around Noblesville. GreenCycle Landscape will be collecting Christmas trees beginning Monday, January 3 and continuing through February. It’s free, and residents can simply bring their tree to GreenCycle during business hours (Monday through Friday 9AM-4PM) and drop it off. GreenCycle will then chip the trees into mulch. Please be sure that trees are stripped of all lights, wire, ornaments, garland and tinsel.

GreenCycle is located at 2695 Cicero Road (State Road 19), halfway between 196th and 206th St. Visit www.greencycle.net or call 773.3350 for more information.

The Fishers Parks Department is also collecting Christmas trees for recycling. Trees can be brought to one of three parks: Cumberland Park, 10580 Cumberland Road, Roy G.Holland Park, One Park Drive, or Brooks School Park, 11780 Brooks School Road, beginning December 26 and continuing through January. Be sure trees are stripped of all lights, wire, ornaments, garland, and tinsel. Visit www.fishers.in.us/parks or call 595.3150 for more information.

If you have strands of broken Christmas light sets, don’t pitch them, because those can be recycled too. Residents can simply take them to the Hamilton County Hazardous Waste Center, where they will be taken to a facility that will grind them up and separate and recycle the compounds. The Center is located at 1717 Pleasant Street, just west of the 4-H Fairgrounds, from 8AM-5PM Tuesday –Friday and Saturday 8AM-1:30PM. Call 776.4005 with questions.

Cloth diapers: worth the hassle

I’m about out of my diapering days now, but I wanted to share a little about why I love cloth diapers and how that came to be.
When I had my daughter in my early twenties, being the earth mother that I was (and am), I told my mother that I wanted to use cloth diapers. She pointed out that I was living in a trailer seven miles from the nearest Laundromat (this is true, I swear) and, as such, using cloth would be too much work.

So, I yielded and used disposables for the next seven months until we moved, then I switched to cloth for the majority of the time and haven’t looked back.

Why cloth diaper? Here are three reasons:

1. Environment: disposables equate to a hefty amount of garbage, usually more than half of the volume of trash a family produces. They require billions of gallons of oil annually to make, and no one alive today has seen disposables break down in landfills (it’s estimated to be 300-500 years).

2. Money: compared to the constant cost of purchasing disposables, cloth diapers are usually a one time investment since they can be used for years and multiple children, and then even be re-sold later.

3. Health: it’s better for babies. The majority of disposable diapers contain dioxin, which is a carcinogen. Many also contain fragrance (as do baby wipes) and super absorbent polymers that become gel-like when wet. What are the effects of these being next to a baby’s skin 24/7 for at least two years?

Curious about cloth? Local diaper company Toasty Baby (www.toastybaby.com or 863.0402) has an array of cute cloth diapering options and a diaper service. They’re offering 10% off your entire order through March 31, 2011. Just enter ToastyBaby10 at checkout. One use per customer.

Have yourself an eco-friendly Christmas

I’m looking at the calendar and I see that there are only (gasp!) eighteen shopping days left till Christmas.


I may start to panic at some point, but nah, not yet, because I’m keeping it simple. That is always my goal, but it does take conscious effort to not be swayed by savvy marketing and incessant whispers of more, more, more!

But wait. Doing, buying, and having less is the goal, so that’s what I’m trying to keep in mind. One of the books I read this year was The Story of Stuff by Annie Leonard, (www.storyofstuff.com) which breaks down our over consumption and its resulting effect on us and our planet.

Considering that landfill waste increases considerably after Thanksgiving, here are some earth friendly thoughts for a holiday season that treads more lightly on the Earth.

1. How will your consumption affect your enjoyment of the season? Will buying new ornaments/snowman sweaters/reindeer antlers for every family member really enhance your holiday? Can your kids still have a happy Christmas without a Pillow Pet™?

2. When out shopping, bring your own bags. Having reusable bags that you can tuck in your purse or coat pocket makes it easy, and they hold so much more. Take your reusable mug, too, for the inevitable coffee shop stop.

3. Buy green, buy local, buy used, buy handmade, buy sustainable. Check out www.etsy.com for artisan wares.

4. Consider gifting not just ‘stuff’ but experiences. How about music lessons, art lessons, theater tickets, sporting event tickets, museum memberships?

5. Use less wrapping and packaging. Reuse gift wrap, or wrap in kraft paper, which can be reused and then recycled, and reuse those gift bags that we all collect.

6. After the holidays, recycle your real Christmas tree (more on that in another column).

My Green Gift Guide

See the Current in Noblesville story here.

In review: my eight great causes

Over the past year, I’ve stirred up a little fury with my thoughts on a few controversial topics. Vaccinations? No sticks, please. Circumcision? Go natural. And, perhaps, divisive topics: Hummers and the oil spill. What a waste. What a shame.

To celebrate my first anniversary at Current, my editor thought it would be a cool idea to compile a review list of some of the hot button causes I have championed – a couple of which he reminds resulted in a few cancellation threats which were eventually quelled.

Here goes everything:

1. Reduce/Reuse/Recycle/DIY. I’ve written about include reusable bags, glass straws, line drying, cloth diapers, the tradition of curb shopping that I want to revive, my hippie parties where we make our own body care, and, of course, recycling. No Hummers!

2. Vaccination. My 2-year-old, if we followed the CDC vaccination schedule, would have received 27 sticks so far for a combination of 37 vaccines, an average of 1.5 per month. I can only foresee even more vaxes being added to the already (over) full schedule. Research and challenge with questions.

3. Birth matters. My first column here was on homebirth, which is a valid option for women who want to seek out the alternative to hospital birth. I think all low-risk women would do well to consider it, and there are homebirth midwives that serve this area.

4. Shop local. These business owners are the people who live and work and give back to your community. It’s so much more satisfying to shop local than to funnel more dollars into yet another chain store or restaurant.

5. Circumcision. More controversy here, but again, it’s worth questioning why this cosmetic procedure is even done with (in most cases) no medical reason.

6. Breastfeeding. Mothers should feel comfortable nursing their babies anytime, anywhere, without fear of harassment, embarrassment, or references to it being ‘creepy’.

7. Community. Here’s to block parties, house parties, book clubs, supper clubs, and just visiting on porches with neighbors. I think we all crave community and are somewhat at a loss to regain what we know intuitively that we’re missing in our lives. I’m trying to make efforts to help create it in my neighborhood, and so are my friends.

8. Soulfulness. I guess this is what it comes down to: being willing to question and change direction when necessary, seeking to go deeper relationally with yourself and others, and being your authentic self.

Thanks for reading me, whether you agree with me or not I just want you to think about it.

County's Hazardous Waste Center prepared for Fall Cleanup

Fall is not only a time when Noblesville residents rake up leaves and prepare their yards for the winter, but an ideal time to give their homes and garages a clean sweep, too.

If you have a collection of old paint cans just lying around, or old electronics, dead batteries, and other miscellaneous items that should never be thrown in the regular trash or dumped down the drain or sewer, the Hamilton County Hazardous Waste Center is ready to take them off your hands.

The Hazardous Waste Center provides a place for toxic chemicals and other hazardous items to be disposed of in a way that impacts the environment in the least damaging way.
The center is open to any Hamilton County resident and is located at 1717 Pleasant Street, Noblesville, just west of the 4-H Fairgrounds.  Hours are 8AM-5PM Tuesday through Friday and Saturday from 8AM-1:30PM.

Some of the items the center will collect include:

• Paint products (empty or full): Latex and oil based paints, stains, and varnish, mineral spirits, paint thinners and strippers

• Automotive products: motor oil, filters, antifreeze, batteries, brake and transmission fluid, and tires

• Aerosols (empty or full): spray paint, primers, cleaners, bug spray

• Fuels: kerosene, gasoline, lighter fluid

• Pesticides and Herbicides

• Cleaners: soaps, shampoos, household cleaners, oven cleaners, toilet and drain cleaners

• Electronics: monitor, computers, keyboards, mice, printers, TVs, microwaves, DVDs and VCRs, phones, cell phones

• Batteries: rechargeable, lithium, button cells

• Pool Chemicals

• Beauty Aids: nail polish/remover, hair spray, cologne and perfume

• Fluorescent lights

• Freon Appliances: empty refrigerators and freezers, dehumidifiers, window AC units

• Miscellaneous: cooking oil, driveway sealer, printer cartridges

For a longer listing of acceptable items, as well as items the center does not accept,  visit www.hamiltoncounty.in.gov or call 776.4005.

Does she or doesn't she? She doesn't - no poo!

I’ve given up shampoo. Yep, I’ve gone hard-core hippie. It actually took me a couple of years from when I first learned about going what some call ‘no-poo’ to make the leap, but true to my I-must-question-everything nature, I did some reading about shampoo and conditioner and the reasons to not use them made a lot of sense.
Regular shampoos generally contain sodium laureth sulfate (SLS), which is not a soap but a detergent. As such, it strips the natural oils from hair. This is where conditioner comes in, to replace the oils that were stripped out.

Since the SLS detergents are harsh, the scalp works overtime to replace the natural oils and hair gets oily quickly, meaning, you guessed it, you feel like you need to wash your hair daily or it will drive you crazy. And it’s a vicious cycle.

Not for me, not any more! I finally tried not using shampoo. I basically use the following: Dr. Bronner’s liquid castile soap, which is very gentle and doesn’t strip oil, baking soda, and apple cider vinegar. I love it a whole lot. I use a little bit of castile soap, lather it in and add some baking soda. (By the way, baking soda is a mild abrasive, and great for getting rid of product build-up.) Then I rinse that out and use about ¼ of a cup of vinegar diluted with warm water to equal a cup or so, work it into my hair, and rinse well.

That’s it! It works really well for me, and as a bonus, it’s another way to stick it to the Man. I don’t need their artificially scented shampoos and conditioners, thank you very much, and I save money and am treading more lightly on the earth by saying no, thanks.

Plastic Bags can stuff it, but not with my stuff

And the winner (drawn by Lily) is.....Arthouse!  Congrats!  Thanks all, for entering, and I loved reading your comments.  Here's to fewer plastic bags in our lives.  If you have trouble remembering, making this pact to NOT use plastic will help, because carrying groceries one by one isn't fun. ;)  Also, these little bags that roll up into pouches do make it easy to always have one with you.  It becomes a habit and second nature after awhile, too.

It's time for another eco-conscious rant, and this topic that gets me riled up as much as anything: those annoying, ubiquitous plastic shopping bags.

Can’t stand them and go to great lengths to avoid them. I won’t use plastic bags when shopping, which leads me to either plan ahead and bring my own bags, or not get everything I went to the store for--buying only what I can carry.
I’ve always tried to minimize my plastic bag usage, and so even before I started using reusable bags I was disgusted at how many plastic bags I accumulated even though I was such a minimalist. The recycling bins inside several stores helped, but, still, what a pain to bag up and recycle all those plastic bags that I didn’t want to possess in the first place!

Then I got this big, huge beach bag. Since I don’t go to the beach too often, I realized it would be perfectly suited to hauling groceries, and it held so much. That was quite awhile ago, and I have an assortment of reusable bags now, from cotton totes to my little nylon bags that fold up into little pouches, perfect for stashing in a purse or pocket.

Hopefully cashiers are getting more used to customers bringing their own bags.  They are often surprised how much mine hold, especially considering that cashiers sometimes only put one or two items in each bag when using plastic.  Unless you bring your own, you could easily walk out of a shopping trip with dozens of those things.  Yikes!

Here's a challenge:  count how many plastic bags come into your house in the course of a week.   Leave a comment on my blog about how you’re reducing your plastic bag consumption.  I’m giving away a cool green flip & tumble bag that will fit in the palm of your hand.  I'll pick a winner Sept. 21.

Don't be an American idler; turn off your engine in line

“Idling gets you nowhere.” That’s the slogan of one of the many anti-idling campaigns cropping up across the country in an effort to curb voluntary idling in carpool lanes, an important message school back in session.
Why the anti-idling campaign? One vehicle by itself idling for a few minutes may not seem like a big deal, but multiply one times hundreds of cars, and throw in a bunch of school buses and a large student population, and that’s a lot of fumes to inhale.
With the rise of asthma and allergies coupled with the fact that children’s lungs are still developing and are more susceptible to the polluting effects of their environment, that’s a great reason to raise awareness and be more diligent about reducing emissions. Not to mention the fact that they are smaller and therefore closer to the exhaust, inhaling more of it than adults. That’s the health aspect.
Then there’s the environmental impact. The cumulative effects of carbon dioxide being spewed into the atmosphere needlessly is preventable, as is the consequent wasting of fuel by sitting and idling unnecessarily. It’s estimated that Americans waste 2-3 million gallons of gas every day by voluntary idling. That’s also a lot of wasted money!
I’ve spent my share of time in carpool lanes, and until the line is actually moving, I always, always cut the engine. Rule of thumb: if you’ll be idling for more than 10 seconds, turn it off. Obviously this doesn’t apply to being in traffic, but it does also apply to idling in carwash lines, concert lines, talking on the phone inside your vehicle in your driveway, and idling in any drive up lanes including banks and fast food drive thrus.
Are any area schools are adopting this important campaign?