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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Belated Earth Day & Musings...

Can you imagine that Nana Sadie missed Earth Day?? On this blog?

No excuse, really except that I’ve been thinking Earth Day was going to be celebrated in my community on the 19th and so I’d already started my celebrations! (Granted I still forgot to get anything up on this blog about it! Hehe)

Saturday was recycling day and my car was packed to the gills...(this has been accumulating since the last run right after Christmas, I don’t do this much waste routinely, I promise!)

Then on Monday night, when we trundled to the grocery store, my DGS#1 and I, I discovered that this store has decided to carry their own branded bag...so now I have at least one from each major grocery in the valley. I have two from the store that offers a rebate of 5 cents per bag every time you use them at the checkout. I'm usually a two-bag shopper, but occasionally I'll go in and stock up, so I think four bags make sense (remember it's just me, two kitties and a part-time grandson...) That's the only store I care about making sure I use their brand of bag - it's a nice incentive.

But I’m seeing something on blogs around the blogisphere, that people don't want to take branded bags into competing stores! What’s with that? Too many stores have failed to get on the bandwagon and put out their own, but by the same token, please tell me, are you going to buy a bag from EVERY store you shop at, in the event they finally start offering them? I suspect you’ll spend way more than is necessary on bags (and it’s nonsensical to me that the very idea of controlling waste by using a reusable bag means you have to buy more and more of the reusable ones?). I guess I just don't get that "branded bags only at whichever brand store" concept.

Isn’t it far better to realize that whatever is on your bag, the whole idea is that we’re helping the planet. And nothing else matters...



On the left side of that photo, you'll also see one of the two organizers I bought ages ago to hold things like sacks of veggies, laundry detergent, sodas, and other bulky items that are easier carried without a bag. I love those things...there are 4 sections in each organizer and they collapse on themselves to fold up with a velcro strap to tuck them away neatly, and they hold rolly-polly things upright in the trunk of the Forester.

I have a couple of string bags from way back in the 70s when we first started this idea, anyway, and all my bags reside in the floorboard of the backseat of my car. I’m considering knitting a string bag (the Knitting Daily Hemp Market Bag to be exact) of sari silk and a European silk/linen blend yarn I was gifted with at Christmas. I think something that will turn out that elegantly will be the bag I carry into the “upscale” shops in my area. After all, I have the yarns in stash, so I’m not buying anything and frankly I can’t think of anything else I want to make of those yarns...and string bags are easier to carry fresh foods from our farmer's markets in than any other kind of bag. I feel so...so...

French! Pop in a fresh baguette and herbs and such from the market stands...all I need is a short skirt, a silk scarf at my neck and 25 years off my age. Oh...and Paris street music playing in the background! LOL!
Whatcha think?

1 comment:

Ruinwen Dagorielle said...

Hey don't sweat it 'cuz Earth Day is every day right? The bag thing is a little crazy. I have one for each shop because they frown on not using their bag. This isn't about the stores it is about helping the Earth sheesh! And our recyling will not take store plastic bags as of May 1st. So I'm using up the old ones on cat litter duty and then I will not allow another one in my house. :)