Ready, Set, Green Week One - Recycling plastic bags

I believe in bringing your own reusable bags to grocery stores and the like. Dantzel and I, early in our marriage, discussed whether it was better to buy paper bags or plastic bags, because both can be recycled now. But when it comes down to it, it's much better to not have to cut down that tree or process those petroleum products (and allow the terrorists to win) in the first place. And so, I invested in a Chrome bag:

Oh so green and yellow and full of awesome!

This thing is huge! 2000 cubic inches of pure sexy huge, actually. I mean, you could kidnap a small dog and put him in the bag, including several chew bones and toys to keep the mutt quiet as you sneak out of the house. And it looks really nice. Primarily, its hugeness comes in real handy when I go shopping for groceries. For the most part, I can fit in all my purchases and lug it out the door and onto my bike for the way home.

But sometimes, I'm not perfect. Sometimes (especially when we make impromptu Walmart and Target runs), I forget to bring the bag. And sometimes, we have to use plastic bags. And sometimes, we end up with this:

They replicate like rabbits.

Now, granted, for a couple who's lived in an apartment for three months, this isn't that bad at all. But it's still rather embarrassing (still not 100% plastic bag free). And sometimes the awkwardly still in high school cashier people don't make it easy. One time, I told one guy I was okay carrying my one purchased item out without a bag. Apparently, he didn't hear and stuffed it into a bag and handed it to me. Too hurried to care (I was trying to beat Dantzel home) I ran off with it, grumbling a bit.

Luckily, however, they have a plastic bag recycling bin in the local Smith's grocery store. While recycling is not the best solution in the world (avoiding it all together is the most effective way of reducing waste), it's still not too bad. So I shucked all of the plastic bags into my Chrome bag and biked off after school to recycle them all.

I got a few weird looks, as my Chrome bag was effectively a plastic sack clown car; I kept pulling them out when people were thinking, "There can't possibly be more!" But eventually, we were plastic bag free, and are now once more trying desperately to not accrue any more plastic bags.