Cloth Bags

We've used cloth bags for grocery shopping for a number of years. On the page supporting the continued use of plastic bags, The American Plastic Manufacturing Association states, "The equivalent of approximately 12 million barrels of oil goes into the annual US supply of plastic bags." It goes on to say this about the 12 million barrels of oil, "Bag manufacturing is a fraction of 1% of US oil comsumption." I guess I would rather fuel cars with that oil than carry my groceries in plastic bags. For me, we can't fuel our cars with cloth shopping bags, but we can re-use them for years.

So why is this news to post on bits? Because there is actually some discussion that Cuyahoga County Ohio may finally do something progressive and start making plastic litter (shopping bags) less attractive. This is radical thinking for the land of Northeast Ohio, and all of Ohio in general. From the state which has given up trying to charge bottle deposits because business buys their way through the election every time that opportunity to reduce roadside trash and landfill size is raised, this is big news. We are used to seeing shoppers routinely bring cloth bags whenever we are on the coasts, but always appear to be part of a very small minority when we take our reusable bags to our local store. Maybe the Northcoast can finally begin to become that progressive attractive place it always dreams of being.