Confession of the Day

So here's the thing. I'm all about going green, right? I recycle at home, try to turn off lights when I leave a room, and don't leave the water running when I'm brushing my teeth. But there's one little thing that I just haven't quite adopted yet-reusable bags. Now, don't get me wrong, I HAVE some and I WANT to use them, but often times I just forget. I put them in my trunk and I forget to take them into the store with me. Or, hallelujah, I remember that part but when I unload my groceries in my house, I forget to put the bags back in my car. Oy vey!

I came across an article this morning called "Why You Should Use a Reusable Grocery Bag" and I was sold. I'm making a New Resolution [I've decided that these can be done at any time, not just in January] and I am committing myself to remembering to use my bags. If you're still using plastic bags, check out the reasons below why you should change that.

1. Plastic bags take anywhere from 15 to 1000 years to decompose.
2. Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled in the United States. The rest end up in landfills, the ocean, or some other place in the environment. There's actually a giant garbage heap made mostly of plastic floating in the ocean that's twice the size of the United States.
3. It's estimated that 1 million birds and thousands of turtles and other sea animals die each year after ingesting discarded plastic bags.
4. More than 10 percent of washed-up debris polluting the U.S. coastline is made up of plastic bags.
5. It takes 12 million barrels of oil to produce the estimated 100 billion plastic bags Americans use each year.
6. The petroleum used to produce 14 plastic bags can drive a car one mile.