New Year's resolution 2008

So, there's been a lot going on lately. I'll write about it all later.

Penelope Trunk has blog post called "How to make a New Year's resolution you'll really keep." It's great - read it here. One of her premises is that you can really only accomplish one or two goals per year. When it comes to resolutions she says, pick only one.

Here's mine. I'm going to "just say no" to bags.

Have you ever noticed how many bags you get handed for "free?" Go to the grocery store and get 10-20 bags. Go to a high end shop and get a gorgeous shopping bag - with matching tissue paper. Go to CVS and buy a pack of gum and a magazine and they stick it in a plastic bag.

Bags are habits. We don't need them. And just for a second think of how many bags get handed out every day, in every shop, all over the world.

What happens? You get a bag. You get home. You throw it out. Or, if you're like me, you obsess over it and you don't throw it out. You try to reuse it. Lining garbage cans? Dog poop? But there are too many. And so you go to great lengths to recycle all these useless bags. And then, one Sunday, when you're spending an hour dealing with bags, you think - "Oh my God. What am I doing?"

The truth is that the average plastic bag is used for 12 minutes. After that it just goes into the world. They're deadly to animals. They clog our landfills, choke our city streets, float and gather by the millions in our oceans. They blow down every road.


So this year I decided that whenever I can, I will say "no thanks" to bags.

I'm not the only one - China has outlawed plastic bags.

There's a high-fashion movement, started in the UK, called I am not a plastic bag.

And today New York City passed a bill requiring large stores and retail chains to collect and recycle plastic bags they give to shoppers.

Not only do we not need all these bags, they are a plague on the earth.


So I bought a few reusable bags and I'm trying. It's kind of liberating. Recently I went to Victoria's Secret and bought a great bra. They started the whole ritual with the wrapping in tissue, the gold seal, the fancy bag. And I said - hey - no thanks. I tucked that bra into my backpack - and off I went.