At last the human race has pulled its head out of the sand just in time (we hope) to notice that life as we know it on Planet Earth, is irreversibly depleting the planet. Basically the hippies were right all along. Eco tourism, eco buildings, recycling, bio degradable plastics, solar heating, bio fuel, smart cars etc are the way of the future.

They do say however that conservation begins at home…or was that Christianity? Anyway for me each day gets scarier and scarier as I start to notice the number of plastic bags that I can accumulate in one day. Sometimes I think the best way to prevent the daily influx, is to stay home. I try this one day but need to venture out in the afternoon, to buy something for dinner. I go to the fish market. When I come out I have 1 fish, 1scoop of prawns, and 3 plastic bags. This I carefully put in my green recyclable carry bag, designed, to remove the need for plastic bags. I stop at Subway, when I come out I have 1 Italian half- sub- toasted and 2 plastic bags, do they really have to use plastic bags? At the butcher I buy chicken and steak, both of these are in plastic bags.

At the counter I decline the extra large plastic bag they try to give me and take my meaty packages to the car and put in the green bag with the fish. In the old days butchers used to wrap meat in brown paper didn’t they? On the way home I stop to pick up a jacket I have on lay by at a local fashion boutique. They fold it up carefully in tissue paper, and then put it in a plastic bag that has the store’s name printed on it. Not very positive advertising surely and totally unnecessary, clothes don’t drip do they? I make a mental note to mention this to them, but know that I probably never will.

Ok now we get to the really scary part. I go to Woolworth’s Supermarket, and even though I have recyclable green supermarket bags all over the house and car, I find myself, yet again at the checkout without them, and my groceries being happily packaged into plastic. Such is the power of habit. It would be so great if the supermarkets could help out by having gigantic neon reminder signs in their car parks or something. Or perhaps they could broadcast it over the loudspeakers and provide a special parking bay for trolleys, to allow you to rush outside and get the bloody bags from the car (assuming you remember to put them in the car) before you go through the checkout. Or…maybe an automatically generated text message to your mobile phone when you drive in… “Welcome to Woolworth’s please bring your green bags.”

Or, maybe I could just remember…