Over My Hill, Over My Hill...

My month of trying to become an uber conscious consumer has been overall a success. In the past 30 days, I used four plastic shopping bags(two were necessary in Japan, where they have NO trash cans!), and my awesome Timbuk2 compact bag has joined the list of things I double-check on my way out the door - phone, wallet, keys, bag, check!

It has also made me more acutely aware of the problems our generation will have to deal with in a decade or so, as the un-sustainable habits our country has leaned on over the past several decades have compiled to create an unfortunately unhealthy environment. There are other communities in the world who realized this much earlier, and have forced people to pay for using plastic bags, fined people for not recycling everything possible, and developed incentives for the use of composting and renewable energies. I have faith that the necessary changes are possible, but in order to create a change on a great enough scale to impact the planet, they must be inspired on an individual level.

Here is a depressing clip - creative wit and humor aside - that will possibly influence your shopping habits too:

"The Majestic Plastic Bag," http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLgh9h2ePYw