Thursday, October 2, 2008

Plastic Baggies & Creation Care

Did anyone else read the recent SD Reader article on plastic bags?  I knew they were problematic for the environment but I didn't realize the scale, and the facts check out in other places...crowding landfills, 1000 years for many of the bags to biodegrade, and on.  The article reinvigorated curiosity on my part for our family's usage of these unassuming bandits.  Let me tell you, we use baggies a lot.  We use them for our lunches and the separation of food inside our lunches.  We have one or two Target bags full of other plastic bags at any given time.  Bigger bags are used for the gym, clothing changes, Sunday School supplies, or in which we can throw the content of our cars or kitchen tables.  Little bags are used for food or goopy trash, to go inside the trash.  

We are people who care about the environment because we care about and are called to creation care.  We recycle everything, but what about those plastic bags?   Now that we have two children, we don't want to add to environmental issues (two little people can help generate big waste) and we want to model creation care for them.  This means that from a young age, we talk with them about why we bring our colorful totes to the grocery store or why lunch boxes are so great, beyond the awesome Lightening McQueen image.  

Want to change your use of plastic bags?  Use canvas or another alternative. This website
provides a great alternative. Cheap, durable, ethically made nylon bags made especially for grocery shopping and just about anything else: www.baggubag.com.


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