Grocery Bag Snobbery

I'm obsessed with those plastic-y reusable grocery bags that everyone seems to have now for toting their groceries around in lieu of the very disposable and environmentally un-friendly bags the store provides. I bring my own large collection (really too many for any amount of groceries I usually buy) every time I shop, a little gargantuan sense of pride and maybe a little bit of snobbery, my nose up-turned at those who are still shlepping those flimsy and oh-so harmful plastic bags you get if you don't bring your own bags.

But, really, I'm a huge poser. We don't recycle (I'm to lazy to find out what we're supposed to do with our recyclables in this town). I used to have a compost bin, but it was a miserable failure (I'd like to try again, though). And we suck at turning off lights and conserving anything. Those damn reusable bags are the only things that are keeping Captain Planet coming down on my litter bug butt.

What's more, one of my major motivators for buying these bags is that they're adorable. Our grocery store chain sells a huge variety of the bags in all sorts colors, patterns and with lots of cute little illustrations. One of my favorites has a recipe for pie on it. It's awesome.

So, yeah, big poser. Hipster level posing, for sure. Yet, I still feel really great when I leave the grocery store with my from-home bags filled with food. Maybe it's my still somewhat self-absorbed 23-year-old brain that's obsessed with my "image", and these bags somehow contribute to that. Maybe it's the cutesy homey-ness of colorful bags filled with all sorts of tastey things. It's probably a combonation of the two.

I have to wonder to myself--should I go the next step and start a real recycling project in our home? Should I resurect the compost bin? Should I maybe finally go downstairs and turn off the den light that's been on for about a week (yeah, I really should, if only for our electric bill)? I do believe in the idea that we are meant to be caretakers for the earth, but I'm not, at best, a consistent caretaker of my home, I don't know how I'm going to take care of the earth, too.

Well, I've got my grocery bags for now. Maybe the next step is right around the corner.