About Those Reusable Bags

There's a trick to replacing your plastic and paper bags with reusable ones. In order to make a difference, you have to use them! Quite a few articles have come my way recently talking about the incredible number of reusable bags being given away by corporations, environmental groups, and stores everywhere.

The truth about reusable shopping bags is that most of them are manufactured in China, shipped thousands of miles overseas, are made with plastic and could take years to decompose. So if you are not going to use them, you are actually worse of by taking one that's offered to you. However, if you change your habits (and this one does take a little work), each bag used multiple times - at least once a week - can replace 520 plastic bags a year. You might need four or five of them to hit that mark but think of the impact.

Simples hints for changing your habits are to put the bags in your car or by the door you use to go out of the house. You can even put a reminder on your grocery list. That way when you are checking to see if you have everything you need on the list - it will trigger your memory! And if, like me, you get stuck in the grocery line without it at times, you have two choices. One is to go back out to the car and get it (and that's extra exercise too) or the other is to take whichever bag you know you will reuse most - paper or plastic.

Here's to your success in making a difference by taking one simple little step to preserve the planet!

This LIttle Piggy Went to Market!

Remember that? I can still make small children laugh with that simple little tradition. Enter Trisha from Ten Tiny Piggies Cloth Diapers - another example of necessity truly being the mother of invention. When Trisha, the mother of small children in diapers, searched for a more baby friendly, earth friendly alternative to disposable diapers, her frustration with a lack of viable alternatives led her in the direction of starting her own company. Trisha contacted me about her company, Ten Tiny Piggies, and I have been enamored ever since.

As Trisha's website so clearly states: "Using cloth diapers prevents about 6000 disposable diapers per child from ending up in the landfill where it will take hundreds of years to decompose. Using cloth diapers uses less than 1/2 the amount of water to launder than it does to manufacture disposable ones. It prevents contamination of our ground water by placing fecal matter where it belongs; our sewage system. AND it can save you thousands of dollars!" How can you argue with that logic? And why would you want to?

If you decide to take a minute out of your busy day to visit her website at www.tentinypiggies.com., you will be delighted or at least find yourself grinning at how adorable she is and hopefully realize that this is one person making a difference for the planet. Trisha has thought of everything. She gives compelling reasons why using cloth diapers are better for your child and for the planet, she gives you instructions on how to use them that are detailed and leave no margin for error and she has other great community information, links and activities posted on her site as well.

My hats off to this budding entrepreneur, mother of I believe 5 young children and someone whose tag line is: saving the planet one cloth diaper at a time. Gotta love it and her!