I received an email from kailian Ben Padua enjoining me to register with www.wecansolveit.org as an expression of support for the fight against global warming. Let me extend the invitation to you, too. That said, I must tell you that I see a lot of these campaigns gathering people’s signatures (or virtual signatures, for that matter) no doubt to spread the word about the urgency of THE problem. However, I thought it’s about time I should go beyond merely appending my name to such campaigns and into really doing something concrete to help alleviate the problem.

I got the inspiration while killing time at the salon one day, waiting for the hairdresser to finish my hair. In a magazine was an article about a livelihood project for a cause. There’s a group of women sewing canvas bags with a statement for the environment, particularly in the fight against plastic bags. I thought it would be a good Christmas gift to some friends and so I ordered several from Ichay, the lady who started it all. Not only does it campaign against the use of plastic bags, the project also helps provide/augment the livelihood of the sewers. Of course, the conviction should be beyond just buying the bags; we must use them, too.

At this point, I got skeptical. Would the grocery store management allow me to use the bag for my groceries, instead of their signature plastic bags? I tested it one day and true enough, the bagger didn’t get my point: when I told him to put my stuff in the canvas bag, he said couldn’t he put them first in their plastic bag and then put the whole thing in my canvas bag? So here’s one more earthling who is unaware of the need to reduce the use of plastic, or probably so dense he could’t get my point. It got me into thinking, if this kind of effort for the environment is to make a significant difference, everybody must recognize the problem as well as the steps being taken to solve it. It should be part of the corporate social responsiblity of department store owners to adopt measures to reduce their use of plastic bags – if not to sell a reusable bag of their own, probably with their company logo, then at least let their shoppers bring and use their own reusable bags. How other stores where I plan to use my bag will react remains to be seen. Have you any experiences in talking your way into using your own reusable shopping bags? Share!

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