Plastic bags have become a staple of modern life. First introduced in the 1970’s, they became the standard in the 1980’s. Worldwide, we use about 500 BILLION to 1 TRILLION plastic shopping bags a year .It’s estimated that here in the United States we use about 84 BILLION bags a year. They littler roadsides, flutter from trees, clog catch basins and ultimately end up in landfills and the ocean. Marine life suffers, too: each year over 100,000 whales, turtles, birds and fish die of strangulation or starvation from eating or being caught up in plastic bag litter. There’s even the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, a floating island of trash: most of it plastic! Plastic bags come from petroleum, so every one that’s used requires Middle East oil. The Earth is being destroyed and depleted for our convenience.
Retailers like Wal-Mart have jumped on the bandwagon and are selling reusable bags. While a noble effort, consider where these bags are coming from. Noting Wal-Mart’s reliance on cheap goods from China, I’d hardly think that these bags ARE fair trade. They first had the black bags which were completely made out of recycled plastic. Then they switched to the blue ones but they are only made from about 50% recycled plastic, and last half as long! Leave it to Wal-Mart to LOOK ‘green’ but not be.
Australia, Italy, Ireland, Mumbai (Bombay), and others like Taiwan have begun to charge for plastic bags. Here in the United States, several localities have either started charging for plastic bags or banned them outright. San Francisco has banned the use while Washington DC is imposing a 5 cent fee. Of course, some residents are fuming and the oil lobby and retailer’s association are against it.
Chico bags are a light, easily packable way to reduce your plastic bag consumption. Many of you forget your bags. Chico bags are easily packed into a purse or for you guys, a knapsack. Mine are in my purse all the time. I’ve loaded them the 14oz cans of cat food plenty of times., easily topping over 20 pounds! The good news is — they are really RECYCLABLE! The company that makes them will take them back and rework them into something else!
Each of us on this Earth must make a choice every day to save resources. Whether its turning off lights, buying a solar charger, fixing leaking faucets, switching to a composting toilet or buying a more fuel efficient car: everything — EVERYTHING — we do does have an effect!
The environment is tops on everyone’s list. Browse the ‘new and notable’ tables at your favorite book store and GREEN jumps out at every turn.
You can help introduce your friends and family to environmentally friendly living, too.
Give them a GREEN GIFT of organic personal care, 
or bath salts, 
or perhaps some
mustard bath. 
or a detox seaweed bath 
Henna hair coloring 
is a great way to lessen a loved one’s exposure to possible carcinogens in chemical dyes.
You can promote sustainability, independence and encourage environmentally friendly business in impoverished nations by purchasing fair trade gifts. 
Artisans worldwide produce crafts and are paid a fair wage. This also helps preserve ancient crafts which are rapidly disappearing as populations move to urban areas.
Another great way to introduce environmentally friendly living is to get a GIFT CERTIFICATE to start a friend sampling some environmentally responsible products. Often people are a bit hesitant to give up what they know, but once they try things, they find they are doing TWO things at once: saving the environment and being more environmentally responsible themselves!
This could be toward the purchase of a Sun-Mar composter 
or perhaps a rain barrel…, 
or even for a composting toilet 
or maybe for a portable solar powered battery charger, 
which is great for travellers!
We also have unusual 
art and 
gifts like original art 
by local Virginia artists.
There are many ways that you can spread the word about sustainable, green and helping the environment!
Last weekend here in the Mid-Atlantic states we had a winter storm which knocked out power. Almost a week later, there are still households without electricity. Am amazing portable solar charger can help in times like this.
Solio Classic - 3 solar panels = faster charge
The Solio portable solar charger is completely portable, can charge cell phones, i-Pods, Game Boys, digital cameras anywhere. It even will hold a charge - believe it or not - for a year! Just an hour of solar charging time will give you 20 minutes of talk time, or about an hour of MP-3 music.
Solio Hybrid 1000
These solar chargers are perfect for campers or those whose job may take them away from their car charger for long periods. If you travel to foreign countries where electricity is unreliable or unavailable, this is the perfect charger to have. The Hybrid 1000 is the economy model and works just as well as the bigger solar chargers.
As we saw at the Washington DC Green Fest, portable solar chargers are the coolest things because they go anywhere and charge lots of electronic devices. They’re not only practical just for around-town use, either.
A solar charger is perfect for someone who travels a lot or spends a lot of time outdoors, be it for their job or favorite hobby.
Golfers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, hikers or avid campers can use a portable solar charger. Anyone who travels to foreign countries, where reliable electricity is a problem, can benefit from owning a portable solar charger. There are no electric outlets or car chargers if you’re on a tractor, inspecting a trail, hunting, fishing, on a 100 mile bike ride, on the 12th hole of the course or 1,000 ft high in your Cessna.
Anyplace where there’s lots of direct sun is perfect for a portable solar charger. It even holds the charge for later use.
As a back up for emergency situations, such as power outages or as a saftey item in a car’s emergency kit, a solar powered portable charger could be life saving.