Green. It's a cultural thing.

[tozmervo]

Its been talked about many times - to really go green requires a shift in cultural thinking. On occasion, I'm foolish enough to convince myself that we're in the mist of making that shift. Then something reminds me to not be so naive. This is a small example, almost trivial in the grand scheme, but still indicative of a disposable culture.

I had a canvas bag with me in Kohl's making some returns. I grabbed a couple of replacement shirts and went up to checkout. I asked the cashier to just toss the shirts in my canvas bag and went about my business with the card swiping and such. When I looked back up, she had put the shirts in my canvas bag like I had requested... and had put the canvas bag into a Kohl's plastic bag.

Oy.

I've also failed at convincing cashiers at both Crate + Barrel and Target to not individually wrap my purchases ("no really! its no problem!"). If the bowl is so fragile that it won't make it back to my house without a bunch of paper around it, I shouldn't be buying it in the first place.

What other kind of everyday items and tasks that we otherwise take for granted need to be seriously addressed to really kick the cultural shift into higher gear?

[AuLukey]

well, at least retailers have started acting "green." I found out today that even Circuit City has switched to recycled paper for their weekly ads.

[f0xym0p]

I do find that I am usually the only one with reusable bags at the grocery store but I am happy to see that many stores are at least selling cheap, reusable shopping bags. I bought mine out of state almost a year ago, and at that time hardly any stores here were selling them, but now I see them in the local stores as well as HT and Target. Hopefully more people will start bringing their own bags and the retailers will get used to it. Trader Joe's offers a raffle for customers who bring their own bags.

[voyager12]

I really like my HT reusable tote. The only problem is my continual habit of forgetting it and leaving the house without it. Just going to leave it in my car from now on. Though on the days I don't bring it I do reuse the checkout ones as doggie bags for my pet sitting route.