Okay, has anyone noticed the lovely new colors in our trees? I see leaves of blue, white, green, tan, even some with red Target circles. Unfortunately, these days we can see the leaves change color any time of the year. We just have to live next to some trees and someone who doesn’t pick up their trash. The evil plastic bags take flight and land in our trees. Does anyone else notice this? It’s like it’s not enough I have to look at cans on the side of the road, now I have to see plastic bags in the trees. They are like an urban and even rural tumbleweed…like a daily reminder for you to put your reusable shopping bags back in your car and bring them with you to any shopping you do. I was going to try to stay away from the crazy hippy information but, plastic shopping bags can last up to a thousand years in a landfill. Worldwide 500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are used every year.

I know it is hard to make the switch and remember your reusable bags, but don’t forget it is also something that hits our collective man purse. The enormous demand for plastic bags ties into the surging global demand for oil — plastic bags are made from ethylene, a petroleum byproduct. In the United States alone, an estimated 12 million barrels of oil is used annually to make plastic bags that Americans consume.

One last bonus, the reusable bags carry more stuff and if you’re lazy like me, it means fewer trips out to the car to bring in the groceries where the nice bagger person loaded like 2 items in one plastic bag. So be lazy and get reusable bags.

This is the first of a weekly blentry on green topics.