Bagging Day

It's January, and "The Holidays" are officially over. Sure there are more holidays coming up throughout the year, but that big year-end clump is all over and done with. No more feasting, gift-giving, or boxing. Seriously, Boxing Day, what's your deal? We've heard many differing explanations, from "It's the day that the rich folks used to give bonus boxes to their serfs and servants," to "It's the day that all of the boxes from Christmas gifts get thrown away," to "It's the day that you put on padded gloves and punch somebody until they lose consciousness." At any rate, here in America the debate is somewhat irrelevant. We don't celebrate Boxing Day. We here at Tee Hugger, however, would like to suggest a new holiday for December 26th: Bagging Day.

The new Bagging Day tradition is easy to understand and easy to celebrate, for Bagging Day is the day that we all resolve to use less plastic bags in the upcoming year. According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, somewhere between 500 billion and a full trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. These bags end up in our landfills and oceans, wreaking all kinds of havoc with wildlife, as seen in this graphic slideshow put together by PoconoGreen: http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/multimedia02/80505016

According to that same slideshow, if just one in every five Americans stopped using plastic bags, we would save 1,330,560,000,000 bags in our lifetime. That's a messload and a half of bags! Show the world that you're ready to jump on our Bagging Day bandwagon with one of our 100% organic "No Thank You - I brought my own bag" shirts (http://www.teehugger.com/product_p/thjs1002.htm). Modeled after the ubiquitous "Thank You" bag that you'll find in your neighborhood treetops and storm drains, this shirt is the official uniform of our grocery-schlepping revolution.

But Bagging Day is about more than fashion. Here are some simple things you can do to achieve your Bagging Day goals:

1. Use a cloth bag. It's a no brainer. You've got stuff to carry, you're going to need a bag. Use one that you can reuse indefinitely. You can get 'em in all shapes and sizes at the appropriately named ReusableBags.com: http://www.reusablebags.com/

2. But what about the thousand plastic bags you already undoubtedly have stuffed in a kitchen cabinet? You can get crafty and use those to make something great, like an entire 1950s outfit: http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2007/08/plastic_bag_crafts.html

3. Bring 'em back where they came from. According to Salon.com, plastic bags are a troublesome nuisance to recycle at municipal recycling facilities, which may end up sending that bag you thought you recycled to the dump (http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/08/10/plastic_bags/index1.html). According to them, "If you want to recycle a plastic bag it's better to bring it back to the store where you got it." Some states, such as California, actually mandate bag recycling programs at large grocery stores.

Happy Bagging Day, everyone! Let's keep it up until plastic bags are a historical footnote, and, much like Boxing Day, our holiday's origins are only a clouded memory.