Plastic Bag Menace

I hate to be fussy but what the hell am I supposed to do with my plastic bags? I never or lets say seldom, very seldom use plastic bags for almost anything I buy but one can't help it, they follow you everywhere. You buy milk, its in plastic bags, grain, plastic bags. I carry 7 to 8 cloth bags with me when I shop but I always end up with at least a couple bags. Provisions from stores come in plastic bags. You get the idea. They follow you no matter where you go.

End result, I have a big bursting bag full of small and big plastic bags of various kinds.

Now I obsess about recycling and every last pin that can be recycled is. But the plastic bags. No one wants to take them. Throw them away is the advice. For cows to eat and die on. For the environment to choke on.

And so I went online. I found lots of silly advice. Reuse your plastic bags for doggie poop, use them as freezer bags. Give unto me a break. These solutions are great for one or two bags per day. What about the dozens we collect everyday.

Then I searched some more and found this company Conserve. They buy plastic bags from rag pickers in Delhi and turn them into handbags. Noble. Yes. Useful to me? Resounding yes...well maybe. They don't mind getting raw material, as it were, from us. I plan to send them a sample of what I have. Fingers crossed. Maybe I can be a regular supplier.

Conclusion. My plastic bag waste just might be transformed into pretty handbags that have buyers in all parts of chic Paris and around Europe. Ironic that no Indian retailer stocks the bags that are made here.

My husband jokingly says we should start a kachra (rubbish) courier company and get like minded people to mail their rubbish through us. Right. I give him a wry look.

You can laugh at me all you want. I am looking for the nearest post office as we speak.

Environmentalism across state lines, here I come.