my vow to QUIT plastic (for good!)

i know i already blogged today, but there is a pressing issue weighing heavy on my mind.

the wind blew like mad today, and i live across from an acre or so of large, old beautiful trees...

which now are decked out in plastic bags, like a Christmas tree would be in ornaments.

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 it breaks my heart, seeing nature marred by garbage.

there are plastic bags EVERYWHERE.

in trees. in fields. on the roadside. in the river. in our oceans. on playgrounds...

it's depressing and gross.

and i feel guilty.

i can't believe how many plastic bags just one grocery trip to WalMart or Safeway can yield. i keep them and use them as garbage basket liners, lunch bags and Honey's poopy bags for walks, but still aquire WAY too many....

i even have a few cloth totes in my pantry, just sitting there....

waiting to be used, and used and used again.

sometimes i ask for paper, but not enough.

this is going to STOP.

i'm breaking out my cloth totes, especially after doing some research on the horrible effects that plastic bags have on our earth:

Here are some facts (found here) about the environmental impact of plastic bags:

• Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistaken them for food
• The manufacture of plastic bags add tons of carbon emissions into the air annually
• Between 500 billion and 1 trillion plastic bags are used worldwide each year
• Approximately 60 - 100 million barrels of oil are required to make the world’s plastic bags each year
• Most plastic bags take over 400 years to biodegrade. Some figures indicate that plastic bags could take over 1000 years to break down. (I guess nobody will live long enough to find out!). This means not one plastic bag has ever naturally biodegraded.
• China uses around 3 billion plastic bags each day!

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i don't know about you but just reading this makes me NEVER want to use plastic bags for shopping AGAIN!

i found a really great website called reuseit.com dedicated to all things "reusable." they have a great selection of {fun} and even cute reusable grocery bags and totes.

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i know i'm going to put mine to use (and purchase a few more for those big trips to the store!)

i also know i'm just one person...

but i'm not going to let that stop me.

we often underestimate the power of one.

we continue to act in harmful ways because "what difference am i gonna make anyway?"

Well, it takes EACH of us to make a difference for ALL of us.

If everyone in the U.S. reused a paper grocery bag, even for just one shopping trip this year, we'd save millions of trees.

If everyone recycled just ONE additional plastic bottle this year, we'd reduce the plastic in our landfills by 200 million pounds.

If each of us simply kept our tires properly inflated this year, nationwide gasoline use would drop by millions of barrels.

If every American home replaced just one old-style light bulb with a compact fluorescent bulb, that would be like taking a million cars off the road for a year.

If every American paid his or her bills online instead of by mail, we'd save 16.5 million trees and eliminate the equivalent of 56,000 garbage trucks full of solid waste.

If each of us simply turned our water heaters down to 120F we would prevent tons of CO2 emissions per year.

If each of us simply reduced our computer default margin to .75" on all sides of our documents, we would save 6 million trees and eliminate 1.5 billion pounds of greenhouse gases per year.

*statistics from the book "1: How many people does it take to make a difference?"

i'm GLAD the wind blew today.

 it brought me a wake-up call.