LAist Rants: Not Getting Green Fast Enough

LAist Rants are strictly the opinions of the author in question. Uncanny as it is, they are written in first person! We keep them on Sundays because even the hive mind needs a rest.

I always had them in my car trunk with good intentions. Though, for years, I would forget to use them and give myself the obligatory mental swift kick in the arse, each and every time at the grocery store check out line when asked the ubiquitous paper/plastic question.

Then it all changed. Those visual aids - they really make a difference. A couple Saturdays ago on Earth Day at WorldFest in Woodley Park, a vendor selling reusable Onya Bags put out a display of 750 plastic grocery bags in a massive pile. 750 is that average number of bags used by one household per year.

Enough said, the guilt about previous grocery store trips settled in quite nicely at that very moment.

Two-weeks into the game and I'm going strong. But being the odd one out in a group of shoppers makes you notice that you are one of the very few using those reusable bags. Last year San Francisco proposed a 17-cent tax on plastic bags (It didn't work out that way). Following suit, L.A. City Councilman, Ed Reyes announced a plastic bag initiative that has seemed to go by the wayside.

If L.A. is going to become truly green, it needs to treat it like our current community policing model: 25% officers, 75% community. Waiting for City Hall won't get L.A. anywhere fast. We're a community and it starts with you.

We've seen cowboy boots and overly large sunglasses as a hipster trend. What next? Showing off your fashionable and reusable bag at the store? Probably not... you never know though.

Plastic Bag Fun:
Treehugger: Q&A: Retail Carry Bags - Paper or Plastic?
Treehugger: Official 2005 Australian ‘Local Hero’ an environmentalist
Foresight Design: 2005 Chicago Sustainable Design Challenge
Plastic Bag Economics: Homepage

Picture by soupermanultra via Flickr