The Little Changes, Big Difference series is about making small, simple changes in your life that make a big difference for our climate, our planet, and/or our animals. I was an environmental studies major in college. It was an interdisciplinary combination of Biology and Geology. All my professors were very heady and quite fond of big words and complicated studies. I like to keep it simple. The point, for me, was always to communicate the problems and solutions to the masses of people. Clearly, the environmental movement has failed miserably at this task. Of course it's awesome if you can build an earthen, off-grid house and either not drive or charge your electric car from your off-grid system. It's fantasmagoric if you can have that home as the center piece of a permaculture design where you are not only self sustaining but providing food that nourishes both people and planet to others. This series of posts is for those of you that can't or don't want to do that. These are things that, from my perspective, can make a big difference for one of our big problem areas. Our first installment in the series was about cloth diapers. Now we're gonna talk about reusable bags!

Plastic bags are a key component of several problem areas. Some of the raw numbers are pretty startling. As I was researching statistics and more statistics, there were a few things that absolutely shocked me. When you go to the grocery or to Target or whatever, it is so easy to see just a couple bags. I don't ever want to make people feel bad. I find that to be genuinely unhelpful if nothing else. God knows I have used my fair share of plastic bags in this life. However, I want to give you some facts that might help you remember to grab your reusable bags every time you go to the store. I'll also give you a few strategies for finding and remembering them.

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Some shocking facts

* 12 million barrels of oil

Plastic, of course, is yet another beast in the long line of things made from petroleum. In fact, the United States' yearly plastic bag consumption (100 - 380 billion bags depending on who you ask) requires at least 12 million barrels of oil which works out to about 240 million gallons of gas plus 132 million gallons of diesel. So right off the bat, we are using a lot of petroleum, as well as natural gas, with a whole ream of consequences for our planet and particularly the people who happen to live near those resources, especially the poor ones.

* The bags take up to 1000 years to decompose.

If the US alone is consuming 100 billion bags each year, and only approximately 2% of these are being recycled, in the last 50 years we have put 4.9 trillion bags either into a landfill or just randomly floating through the air, rivers, oceans, and digestive tracts of animals.

* Plastic trash causes the death of over a million birds and 100,000 turtles each year.

Living on the beach, I can tell you the number of plastic bags I see on the shore and floating in the water is disturbing. Many sea animals get their mouths or fins trapped by the plastic, and many others ingest the plastic thinking it's food (it's actually crazy how much a floating bag looks like a jellyfish). The plastic blocks their digestive tract, and they starve to death. Right in this area where I live we have two species of croc, manatee, dolphin, several species of turtle, ray, whale, and numerous species of sharks, including migratory whale sharks. Not to mention the second largest barrier reef in the world and numerous species of fish and sea birds. It's incredibly depressing when a dead magnificent animal washes up, and they find a belly full of plastic.

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Now, maybe you want to know if a ban or a tax really has an effect. Personally I'd rather see stores charge people for the bags and people actually make the decision to change based on overwhelming evidence that should definitely be shown in schools, but the numbers are pretty clear.

* Ireland's use of plastic bags dropped 90% between 2002 and 2012.

Ireland put a high tax on plastic bags in 2002 with incredible results. 90% in 10 years is pretty fabulous. More than 30 countries around the world are now at least partially covered by a ban or a tax on plastic bags.

* Each reusable bag replaces more than 700 plastic bags.

By using reusable bags, we can make significant dents in problems of trash, petroleum extraction and refining, and wildlife death, including many endangered species. When this shift happens on a community or country wide scale, the difference is quite substantial.

Getting and Remembering Bags

I haven't had much trouble getting bags. My parents are members of Lion's Club, and every convention they go to results in me having a new stash of reusable bags. If you're having trouble finding them and don't want to buy them, I highly suggest getting in touch with anyone you know who goes to a lot of conventions, whether for their work, a club, or a hobby. My mom also gets quite a few from donating to organizations like the World Wildlife Fund. You may even be able to get some from a local convention center. Remember, you won't need nearly as many as you might think because you can pack them full, and they're usually pretty big.

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Remembering to actually bring your bags to the store is a whole other level. This is where I have usually experienced a problem. I have tried to keep them in the car, but then they come into the house with groceries in them, and I forget to take them back to the car. Two things have really helped in this realm. One is the bags that stuff into a tiny bag and have a little carabiner so you can attach them to your keychain. Those saved me dozens of times. The big save, though, has been a practice of discipline I have instituted into my life in the last 2 years. I started following the FLY lady, and that is mostly a routine for keeping my house clean, but she also started me on the habit of gathering all my things for the following day before I go to bed. She calls it the launch pad. So when I know I'm going to the store the next day, I grab my bags and my egg cartons and put them by the door. I still forget to take them into the store half the time, but I just believe it's worth it to go out to get them.

It's an incredibly simple change. Get some bags and remember to take them with you. You'll make fewer trips from the car to the house, too. I can back a lot more on my shoulders than I can on my wrists. This is really my biggest mission with this series is to help people see they can make changes that are cheap and easy to make that, especially on a large scale, can make a tremendous difference. It makes a big difference to this adorable little guy. I promise this isn't one of those videos where they pull strings of plastic from a turtles mouth or butt or show you want they found in the stomach of a dead turtle. I do recommend seeing those videos, but I thought I'd keep it at least a little light up in here.

As always, all pics are mine or pixabay unless otherwise noted.

I’m a passenger on the @ecotrain, as well as a member of @teamgirlpowa and @steemitmamas. All three are worth taking a look at, and all three are on discord.