Case in point, over packaging and dreaded plastic bags.  On a recent shopping excursion, I realized that I was accumulating a lot of bags.  The dainty hair clips I bought for my daughter were put in a bag that could hold a week's worth of her clothing.  Ouch!  The skin care line I purchased came encased in a plastic fortress three times the size of the bottles within.  Pow!  Even the book on green living I bought was given to me in a big plastic bag.  Yowza!

    I accumulated a fair amount of packaging – and it was weighing heavily on my mind.  What was to become of all this stuff?  Sure the bags can be re-purposed to as waste basket liners or to carry my lunch to work, but eventually they are going to be tossed away. 

    Then I realized I had one of my trusty green bags in my purse.  Can I use this at a non-grocery store?  Can I be that person?  As long as I had my receipt, I couldn't see why not.  And the brief uncomfortable feeling I had asking to use my green bag would surely be rewarded with the satisfaction of having one less plastic bag to worry about.  So, when it came time to make my next purchase, I brought out my bag and asked the salesperson if I could use it instead of plastic.  The look on her face was priceless.  It was as if I had sprouted an extra head or something.  "Uhhhhh, sure." She said. 

    I paid for my item, and left knowing that there will be one less plastic bag in my local landfill with my name on it.  And I didn't care that the sales person looked at me like I was crazy – well, at least not as much as I thought I would.

Megan Temple is the Director of Marketing for KSTW-TV.