Lately, all I hear about is the environment. Hybrid cars, saving electricity with new and improved technologies, small things the individual can do to reduce our “carbon footprints” Etc. I find it funny that practices such as buying hybrid cars, energy efficient appliances, turning off lights when you leave a room, and bringing your own re-usable bags to the grocery store have become such popular ones just within the last six months. After the Live Earth concert in the summer that was broadcast around the world, and An Inconvenient Truth everyone seems to be jumping on the ban wagon one-by-one, little-by-little.
I work at a grocery store, and the latest trend is bring your own re-usable bags that are sold at the store for $1. I think this is a great idea! We do still sell plastic bags for a few cents, but the number of people who are bringing their own bags have increased dramatically! There used to be a very small percentage of people who brought their own bags to the grocery store. Probably about every 10-15 customers if that. They would either use the boxes available or buy the plastic bags. Now, just about every other customer has their own bags with them. Just this past weekend I saw all kinds of re-usable, decomposable bags bought from at least a dozen different stores. It almost seems taboo to use plastic bags now a days!
Eliminating plastic bags from our everyday life would be amazing for the environment, and for the wild life that choke and die from them. This article I found says that Europe, Australia, and Asia are all ready to rule out plastic bags, Canada seems to be well on its way, but America is years behind.
All of these environmental issues have existed for decades, and even centuries, but it took an international concert and tons of media coverage to get the message through to the public! Another example of how the media are helping to save the world!
