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Just found this hep-cool green blog. Lots of good green references and shopping tips.

Greenloop

Lots of recycling this weekend. Ralph made me clean out my stash of plastic bags which I have such guilt about releasing back into the world. They seem so inocuos in our broom closet. But Westminster Council has installed a new bag recylcing container so now we can guilt-free get rid of them knowing they are going into recycling loop. When we got there with our bag full of bags we found a like-minded yuppy doing the same things. Bonding in at the recyling depot in W2.

We've been really really good about not using shopping bags - we either stuff already used bags in ours pockets before we go to the store or use our durable canvas style bags. But still a few sneak through every now when we find oursleves bagless and in need of stuff.

It amazing the interest from grocery employees who really dig the fact that we bring our own bags. One French woman who works at the little corner store near us told me she was so fed up with giving school kids bags for a can of soda that she's started to refuse bags to shoppers who, in her opinion, don't need them. And she's gone to the local school to ask them to teach the kids about recycling and being ecologically responsible.

I'm appalled that the government here in the UK hasn't gone the Irish route to charge for plastic bags. I see people take large plastic bags for gum or a small snack bar during lunch breaks all of the time. I want to flick them on the back of the head. How so many people can be so clueless about such basics is staggering. They really should be shamed into being less idiotic.

The government should be launching awereness campaigns and apply necessary taxes to force people to be responsible. Why the UK is so far behind, I don't know.

It's been a few years since I lived in the US. Are there any states that have plastic bag charges? Must research.

Mission for this week: To only buy goods in recyclable packaging. Will let you know how we get on and which products have eco-friendly packaging and which don't.

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