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NoraLou wrote:

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IYRKM...

...you'd know that I care very much about our environment. I use "green" cleaning products, recylce everything I can and always use my canvas bags for trips to the store.

I am not as good about the cleaning products, I guess (I'll have to look into that), but I am also a stickler for recycling and using reusable canvas, cloth or string bags for most of my grocery shopping, and I used reusable cloth diapers (through a diaper service) when my kids were small. On those occasions when I do end up getting plastic shopping bags, I always save them and reuse them later as garbage bags and for other purposes. My city's sanitation department recycles paper, glass, metal and some kinds of plastic, and I'm careful to wash out the recyclables before I put them in the bin. I also wash out and save other kinds of plastic containers with lids for reuse by my sister-in-law who is an art teacher and uses them for paints and stuff with her classes.

A cool thing about the cloth bags is that I have been bringing them to the store and using them for quite a number of years now, and I used to get a lot of puzzled or surprised looks from the cashiers in the stores when I presented them. Lately I have noticed several supermarkets actually selling reusable grocery bags and encouraging their use. In fact, one of my neighborhood supermarkets recently instituted a policy in which customers get 5 cents back for every bag they bring in to pack groceries in instead of using new plastic bags! Go Green! (Of course, the cynic in me tells me that the store is saving money by encouraging people to bring their own bags, but the outcome is still positive even if the motives are not entirely pure. )