My father, who sells ad specialty items [like those bags you see for sale everywhere nowadays], put it best and bluntly when he said to me, "Everyone wants to go green until they see the price tag." And that's why you can buy those shopping bags from Meijer for $1. Partly, I think, because Meijer wants to foster good will and make people think that they are NOT, in fact, positioning themselves to be the next WalMart, but also because some guy like my father priced out a few options of bags that they could put their logo on and sell to customers. Meijer execs would have taken one look at the price tag on a higher quality, organic cotton bag or something along those lines and said "absolutely not!" So instead, we get these bags produced who knows where and who knows how, that make us feel good about our more environmentally-friendly approach to life.
Actually, I should say "you" instead of "we" because I stopped shopping at Meijer stores some time ago, in favor of my local food co-op. Find yours here! Their motto is "Big enough to meet your needs, small enough to meet your neighbors," and that is exactly why I go there.
Anyway, this was supposed to just be a quick post to remind you to think a little outside the box when it comes to reusing materials. While I was in Italy, my father sent me a birthday package that had some of those weird air-filled plastic shipping bubbles in it. Those can be re-used for shipping, of course, so I left a few of them on the farm for other people. Then I took a few of them, carefully tore holes in one end to fit around specific bottles of stuff [shampoo, sunscreen, etc.] and packed them away! That way, in case one of the bottles exploded in transit, the rest of my luggage was protected! And it worked.
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