Okay, I'll admit I was slow to embrace this whole reusable shopping bag movement. My "excuse" was that I would have to keep up with—and wash—the bags. But then I discovered a startling statistic: An estimated 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Those bags require energy and petroleum to produce and, after use, more resources to be recycled… unless, of course, they're sent to landfills to photodegrade or they're scattered to the four winds.
I mean, a trillion plastic bags? And that's not even counting paper bags, which of course require trees to be produced. Anyway, after reading that statistic, I bought two reusable bags, for 99 cents each, at Whole Foods. At the time, I think Whole Foods was the only store that sold reusable bags, but many stores sell them now, so you don't need to go all-out with $30 canvas bags. For the tiny price of $1.98, you can make a difference. Sometimes it's that easy. As for the so-called chore of having to wash the bags, they stay clean and presentable for months! It turns out that most things sold in stores, including groceries, are not dirty. Why I thought I'd be washing bags all the time, I don't know. My only learning curve was remembering to actually bring the bags to the stores—not just the grocery store, but Target and wherever else. It's just something I had to get into the habit of doing. Now, after I put away my purchases, I simply fold the bags and lay them by my purse, so I'll remember to take them out to the car. They have their own special place in the car, and I just grab them whenever I'm heading into a store.
No matter what you think about climate change, this reusable bag thing is super-duper easy. Just try it and you'll see what I'm talking about. And if you already use reusable bags, or if you just like to do things in threes, there are a couple of other easy things you can do as well: Recycle your trash (or some of it, at least) and turn off your lights and electronics when not in use. You can find your nearest recycling center at earth911.com. Also, you can get unbiased info about climate change here.