Plastic bags are bad. But not using them in our day and age is almost impossible. They seem to be everywhere. Yeah, you can ask for paper at the grocery store, but as this Paper vs. Plastic article shows, paper is no panacea, and actually is more environmentally damaging to produce than plastic. The problem with plastic is that once it’s here, it never leaves. And it has a nasty propensity to suffocate marine life. So given no other choice, I guess I’ll choose paper for now.

So what’s the real solution? Bringing our own reusable bags, which, let’s face it, is a major pain in the ass. And when you have a cart full of groceries, you’re not going to have enough reusables to fit all that stuff. Biodegradable plastic bags are one possibility - they are not widely available yet, but they do exist. Of course they have their own set of environmental issues, but that’s a topic for another day.

So, in the spirit of ‘every little bit counts,’ I therefore vow to:

• Use paper at the grocery store whenever possible
  (When I asked for paper the other day, I got a handle-less paper bag inside a plastic bag. So beware the devious checkout clerk.)
• Don’t take a bag when you don’t need one
  (This happens all the time: you buy a small item, and before you know what hit you, the clerk is handing you a plastic bag. So you have to be vigilant, and be prepared to extricate your items and leave the bag behind.)
• Purchase a couple of re-usable bags and begin carrying them around.

This blog is an experiment in making my lifestyle greener. I’m not planning on quitting my job and moving to a farm any time soon, or become a hippie, or make my own clothes. All I want is to make little changes in my life that will make me more environmentally responsible.

Why am I doing this? Well, it all started with an article on salon.com about plastic bags. You can read the article yourself, but the bottom line is: plastic bags are bad. A lot worse than you think. After reading the article, I happened to be in a bookstore, and picked up a couple of books about ‘going green.’ The books were:

• It’s Easy Being Green by Crissy Trask, and
• The Green Book by Elizabeth Rogers and Thomas M. Kostigen

I have found both of the books helpful so far. They take the approach of making small changes in your life rather than trying to do everything at once. What I especially like about the Trask book is that it has a chapter full of tips in different categories such as ‘Energy’ or ‘At work.’ The reader can check off the tips s/he is most interested in, and then return after trying them out, and rate their success implementing a particular tip.

One thing I’ve noticed after becoming interested in this, is that it made me see everything I do in everyday life in a different light. To give just one example: I started paying attention to what I eat, how it’s packaged, how much garbage it generates, how much food I throw away, etc. Once I started paying attention, I saw how one person can make a difference, and how little actions multiplied over a lifetime can have a large environmental impact. I also saw that a lot of the time there is no clear-cut ‘best’ solution (i.e. paper vs. plastic bags), and it really takes some thinking and research to figure out what makes the most sense.

I plan to use this blog to report my own progress, the things that I am doing to change my behavior, what I am learning, and where I am succeeding or failing. So without further ado…