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If you are serious about reducing your carbon footprint, you need to know where to start. The best line of defense is to look at the products that you have been throwing away. Out of personal convenience, and an immediate wish to de-clutter your space, the logical choice is to discard any and all items in your way. Especially if you've reached a boiling point. When considering how to collect these things, naturally the stash of Walmart plastic bags you have stuffed in the utility closet seem like the perfect option.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many bags. With such a high consumption rate of petroleum-based materials, the sobering fact is that these bags are not recyclable. It has been estimated that the bags we send to landfills would take 1,000 years to decompose.

One might believe the institution of America would erode given the absence of Walmart plastic bags. My wife recently was shopping at a local chain store and they were out of these bags. Their solution? Closing the point of sale until more plastic bags came. This was not only irresponsible on the part of the store, but poor salesmanship. The thought of offering a more responsible choice obviously did not come to mind.

You may have noticed that many of the stores you've been going to for years are starting to offer reusable bags as an option. Of course, they're selling them, so that normally doesn't seem all too appealing if you've already met your budget requirement on groceries. You reason, "After buying all this stuff to feed my horse-eating children, I'm not going to spend more on a bag to put it in!"

Two things. If you are smart, buying reusable bags will not be as recurrent a procedure as say buying groceries. You shouldn't have to get a new bag every time. If you have a fixed budget and a meal plan, you should know with a little planning roughly how many bags you will need. Reusable bags are not usually that expensive, and even if they are think of the long-term justification for splurging for the bags. You will be contributing to a better environment.

Secondly, you don't have to buy reusable bags if you don't want to. You can think of a creative alternative to plastic, can't you? If you are a woman or married to a woman then you should have lots of carrying bags lying around or stuck away on a shelf that are of a substantial size. Maybe a bookbag? A diaper bag? Even a cardboard box would do if you can fit it in your shopping cart.

The point is you have it within your power to make this world a cleaner, healthier place to live. Don't just think of your own convenience when throwing things away. Consider how your convenience might affect the condition of your world and other people.

Learn more about this author, R. Douglas Williams.
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