“Would you like a bag for that?”

That was the question posed to me at Starbucks after I purchased a single bag of coffee beans (and a beverage, of course ). That’s right; other than my beverage, the only thing for me to carry out of that store as a result of our transaction was a single bag of coffee beans, and I was offered a bag to carry it in.

This reminded me of an email conversation I had with my cousin a couple weeks prior, in which we discussed how out of control our society has become with plastic bags and plastic packaging. We both cited instances where we’d gone to the grocery store to buy only a couple of items, like a bag of bread and some orange juice, and the store clerks were incredulous when we said we didn’t need bags. I bought a deodorant stick at a sports store once, and they automatically put the item in a plastic bag after ringing it up. When I took it out, handed the bag back, and said, “You can keep this, I don’t need it.”, the clerk’s eyes just bugged out, and she asked, “Are you sure??“

Over 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used annually in the U.S. alone. This plastic is made from oil, which is an ever-shrinking natural resource, and one that keeps going up in cost as a result. If we could greatly lessen the demand for plastic, we lessen the demand for oil, and thus keep the cost down (theoretically).

A lot of you might be thinking, “Well, I recycle mine, so I’m OK.” Many people, maybe even most these days, throw in their plastic shopping bags along with the rest of their plastic that they send for recycling. The problem is that the plastic bags are not as easily recyclable as plastic bottles and other containers. So what happens is that these bags get filtered out at the waste/recycling facility, and they simply get thrown in the landfills along with rest of the garbage. And biodegradable they are not….

So the first part of my tip, Refuse, means this: Don’t accept or request plastic bags when you purchase items unless you really need a bag to carry everything. When you only have one or a few items that you can easily carry by hand or put in your pockets, leave the bag.

The second part of my tip, Reuse, means this: reuse those plastic bags! When you buy groceries for the week, or an assortement of household items at Wal-Mart, save those bags that you carry everything home in. Then, when you go shopping the next time, bring those bags back with you, and have the clerks bag your items using those same plastic bags! So that you don’t forget to bring them, keep your empty shopping bags in your car. That way you’ll always have them with you when you go shopping.

Some of the info used for this post was obtained from the Boone County (Kentucky) Public Works/Solid Waste Management website. You can view the original source here.