How About a Year Without a Bag?

Yesterday's citywide public relations blitz, "A Day Without a Bag," to bring awareness to our bad habits of using and and ditching paper and plastic bags in the trash was a quaint effort by city and county leaders -- a step in the right direction, as it were. Though, in a nation where the average household consumes 750 plastic bags a year, one day, or two bags, is hardly habit forming.

And habit is where it's at. We've been doing the reusable bag thing for sometime now and admittedly, it wasn't the conscious switch to reusable bags that was the hard part, it was the habit of always having the bag with us when we went shopping. It was also about getting over that this was not just about grocery bags, but shopping for amenities at Target, hardware stores, clothing boutiques, etc.

A New Year's resolution for the public? Start the daily habit, it won't happen over night.
A New Year's resolution for Eric Garcetti, Wendy Greuel and the rest of the city and county leadership? Let's finish up that bag talk and get the tough regulations on the books.

Photo: City of Los Angeles Public Works Board Commissioner Paula Daniels, left, and Sanitation Bureau Director Enrique C. Zaldivar, right, display official City reusable bags with Green Santa Claus at The Grove shopping center in the Fairfax District yesterday. Provided by the Bureau of Sanitation.