LAist met Marc J. Sahara, of The Inconvenient Bag at The Earth Day celebration last week. We asked Marc to share his tips for being green in LA.

Marc: Living the Inconvenient Lifestyle, or eco-friendly lifestyle in Los Angeles, is not easy, and I must admit, I struggle with it because I’m also used to living conveniently and care-free. However, I have decided to make that lifestyle change and now learn everyday new ways to be a cool Eco-Angeleno. When I catch myself doing things out of habit that are not eco-friendly it makes me sad.

As a next-generation light green environmentalist, I figure there at least five things we can do, that will not change our lives drastically, but will make a huge difference if “We The People” all join together and decide to live a greener life… for each other:

1) Recycle Plastic Bottles – The best solution is to stop using plastic bottles altogether and use eco-friendly bottles, like the stainless steel bottles at klean kanteen. The leading beverage of choice today is water, which is great because it is healthier than soda and beer. However, this growth has created a plastic bottle dilemma. Because most people take a bottle of water with them, these beverages are consumed (i.e., office, home, etc.) where there are no recycling receptacles nearby. Therefore, take a drink and throw the empty bottle on the passenger floor in your car. As I finish a bottle, I throw it the back seat… yes, it builds, up and looks ugly, but just when it turns into my own plastic bottle patch, I unload them into our recycle bin.

2) Turn off your computer screen! When leaving your computer for a period of 10 minutes or more, i.e., lunch, break, phone call, meeting, etc. make sure you turn off your screen manually, and don’t just have your control panel set to turn off display or sleep. Leaving your screen on 24 hours a day can cost hundreds of dollars per year more (multiply that by the Los Angeles population that uses CPUs!), and such displays dump approximately 1,000 + pounds of C02 in the air, per CPU. It would take more than 300 trees to offset just one CPU; we have millions of CPUs in Los Angeles. Turn off that monitor!

3) Go take a hike! Ok, I’m not trying to be mean, but take a jog around the block instead of using a treadmill or exercise bike. These machines take electricity to use. I have been a member of my fitness club for many years and going there is like social time for me as well as exercise and I love it and the people there are fun. However, I now go less (because it takes a car drive to get there, plus I use machines), and started jogging around my neighborhood. I have found two great things: 1) when I go to the gym now, I get more done, and have less days of bad workouts from gym burnout, and 2) I have found that jogging to be rather enjoying and gives me a timeout that I don’t even get at the gym. I’m not recommending to quit your gym membership, just find other ways to get workouts in, and when you do go, you just may get a better workout also!

4) Go to your local Farmers Market – Just about every city has a Farmers Market near them. The food and produce in the grocery store probably has traveled thousands of miles before it reaches the shelf (burning of energy, oil consumption, etc.). Farmers’ Markets are local growers, many of them are certified organic, and food just tastes better fresh. Farmers’ Markets are fun, social and great for the entire family. You can find me at my two favorite markets: Tuesdays at Culver City and Saturdays in Irvine.

5) Bring your own bag! I believe many of us do not know that we are addicted to plastic bags – they are all around us and its hard to avoid them, i.e., store, fast food, market, etc. I have been struggling, just like all my fellow Eco-Americans to break this plastic bag addiction. Typically a plastic bag is used for less than 10-20 minutes, yet takes thousands of years to break down into toxins. Meanwhile, such bags create litter, so much that we now have a plastic bag island twice the size of Texas in the Pacific Ocean in between San Francisco and Hawaii! Therefore, although it is hard to remember, we need to bring our own bags and break our addiction and dependence on plastic and paper bags. My company makes an “eco-cool” bag called the inconvenient bag, which is one of many choices for the eco-consumer.

We are in this together, making conscious decisions to change our lifestyle. We do not need to wait for our government to make laws or force us to change – we do it out of love. I believe in you and in our great city. Until we see each other again, God bless and be inconvenient – paper nor plastic!

Thanks Marc!
The Inconvenient Bag