Helping the environment is not a new idea; for years now, citizens have been urged to conserve valuable resources by reusing, reducing and recycling.

What is perhaps new is the increased urgency to deal with anything in our lifestyles that contribute to such problems as global warming; thus, we have the Kyoto Accord, signed on by most of the industrialized world with a pledge to cut emissions of those gases that cause global warming, like carbon dioxide.

Others are concerned with those items that could be eliminated from filling up our landfills; the most recent example of this is a campaign to stop using those plastic bags from grocery stores.

Depending on one's need at the time, everyone goes to the grocery store for large or small amounts of food items, and usually they put all the stuff into a grocery bag to take home. Some stores encourage people to bring them back and reuse them. For large amounts of food, some even have plastic bins for sale for reuse in carrying larger volumes of food, including heavy cans and large volume packages.

This is a good direction to pursue, and may in fact help in reducing the amount of plastic bags we use. To a certain extent, however, it's more an issue of training ourselves to think in that direction. How many times have we made a run to buy milk or munchies for the big game, or those missing ingredients for that supper underway, and we simply don't remember to grab a bag or a box in which to bring those items home in?

It depends if each of us considers it an issue of any actual importance. Consider then, that each person, each family, produces a certain volume of waste each day in the course of daily living. This waste accumulates to where residents require a weekly pickup or removal of that waste - and where does it end up?

For those in towns and cities, at least, there is a landfill, and eventually that landfill simply reaches the absolute saturation point and can no longer take in any more waste. The municipality or municipalities are then forced to search for a new piece of land somewhere to serve as the host of a new landfill for the next two, three or more decades. Those who don't think this would be that difficult should consider the rather stringent list of rules, regulations and conditions that have to be met to ensure any new landfill is safe and will be safe into the future.

Thus, the campaign is on to reduce the amount of garbage that goes into the landfills, and one of the most prolific items that fill landfills are those plastic bags.

Some places can recycle those plastic bags, and make them into new, other products; if this was more widely available as an option, it would greatly help in dealing with the excess number of these bags.

If stores and communities are serious about cutting back on plastic bags, then the alternative needs to be available at a low cost to be viable, for people to take it seriously and make the change in their lifestyle. - Greg Nikkel