Forgetting to be green

We’ve stopped buying water in plastic bottles, even though our tap water is not exactly of the highest quality. Still, when we filter it in the Brita pitcher, some of the Mississippi mud taste goes away. (It was Mark Twain who described the water in this region quite well: “It’s too thick to drink, and too thin to plow.”)

We thought we were being green by saving up the endless stream of plastic bags from the grocery store in a nifty IKEA plastic bag holder, and bringing them back to the store from time to time, placing them into the Trex collection box, where they’ll be made into vinyl decking planks. But the whole notion of their manufacturing source—petroleum—made me want to stop using them entirely.

So, we acquired a number of canvas bags for shopping. Now it’s just a matter of getting into the habit of remembering to bring them to the store. That’s a several step process: placing them by the front door after emptying the groceries, taking them out to the car so they’ll be there when I arrive at the store, and remembering to bring them in with me when I go shopping.

I’m starting to get into these habits after many years of walking into stores bagless, but it’s not easy to do. More than once I get into the store, pull out the shopping cart, and realize I don’t have my canvas bags with me. So I go back to the car and get them—that is if I’ve remembered to put them in the car in the first place.

If this seems like a stupid post, I’m writing it kind of like when one ties a string around their finger to remember something. It may activate a few brain cells and help me make this a habit.

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