As the last of the fall leaves hang from their branches in proud defiance of the annual debacle that is winter, we Minnesotans prepare for the annual debacle that is the holiday season.
Now don't get me wrong, it's not all bad - I do enjoy getting gifts. They can be sent to Lakeshore Weekly News, 1001 Twelve Oaks Center Drive, Wayzata, 55391, along with any love/hate mail.
I enjoy giving gifts too. Feel free to send me your address.
I enjoy pumpkin pie, hanukkah latkes and a good nog.
I enjoy sharing smiles with strangers and the general merriment.
What I do not enjoy is witnessing all the damage we do to the world while celebrating.
Before the department stores and coffee shops purchased this six-week period, the holidays were about celebrating birth and bravery.
It's a sad irony that during this time we turn up our collective disinterest to the environment and push it farther over the brink.
So let's make this year different. And we can start simple with, drum roll please, shopping bags.
Until our New Year's resolutions are firmly thrown down in January, we will spend our time doing what consumers do best: shopping.
We will buy food and gifts and booze and maybe some driveway salt and in the spirit of all that's brave and pure during this our favorite season, we will also spend, at most, $1.50 on a reusable canvas shopping bag. Paper or plastic? That's so 20th century.
The paper vs. plastic question has been part of the public discourse for some time now, and though efforts to recycle or landfill shopping bags have been stepped up, problems persist.
"During the past 35 years, the amount of waste each person creates has almost doubled from 2.7 to 4.4 pounds per day," according to a 2006 Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) report by the EPA.
And of what, you may wonder, is this waste comprised?
"Paper is still the most abundant material in the municipal solid waste stream," according to the EPA report.
Not to mention the 14 million trees chopped down annually to produce paper bags.
Though plastic gets off easier in waste accumulation estimates because it is more easily compressed in landfills, it has its problems too.
"Stray plastic bags, which have been estimated at one to three percent of the hundreds of billions that are produced each year, are now found almost everywhere on the planet. Plastic bags pose a threat to marine life, because, if ingested, the bags can block the stomach and cause starvation. Sea turtles, for example, mistake plastic bags for jellyfish," according to a study by the Environmental Literary Council, updated in 2007.
Thankfully, the good people at Cub Foods and Lunds and Byerly's now offer reusable canvas bags to protect your purchases. The Cub bags are $1, and those at Lunds and Byerly's are $1.50. And, they are gorgeous.
"The bags are selling very well," said Lunds and Byerly's spokesperson Aaron Sorenson.
"People are buying 5 or 6 and using them as bags to do anything," said Sorenson.
So starting this Thanksgiving, when the bagger asks, "paper or plastic?" pull your easily foldable canvas bag from your pocket, much like Robin Hood rips an altruistic arrow and say, "Neither. I brought my own."
