The clock that should never ding

Ever since I started grocery shopping on my own in 2010, I've used reusable bags. I started with just 2 bags. We were a family of 2, newly married, with a very basic kitchen and didn't know much about cooking. I couldn't carry more than 2 bags anyway as I had to take the bus to the grocery store. This number eventually increased when we bought a car and start to cook food that actually tasted like food :)

There were times I forgot to take the bags and had to use the plastic bags provided by the store. When that happened, I felt a "ding" every time the person at the counter reached for a new plastic bag to pack my groceries. Its like a clock dinging when earth's life is decreased by 100 years. I remember counting at least 15 plastic bags from a shopping trip one day. The lady behind the counter put only 3 or 4 items in a single bag. She was being generous with the bags but not doing good to the environment. All such grocery bags would be thrown away as trash or would end up in a recycle bin. Recycling is good, but it is like treating the symptoms without preventing the disease in the first place. Even after recycling, plastic remains plastic. I don't know if there's any cure for that.

However, I still kept forgetting my reusable bags once in a while. Then something happened that put an end to it.

One day, I was pushing my cart to the car with reusable bags full of groceries. A lady, who I thought in her 60s or 70s, approached and stopped me by touching my hand. She said "Thank you for bringing reusable bags. You are so thoughtful and care for the environment". That's when I realized what I am doing really matters. She just gave me a compliment on the environment's behalf. A compliment on everyone else's behalf. 

From that day onward, I too started giving compliments, and encouraging who loves mother earth. It could be a small comment on a photo album of organic gardening, composting, recycling. It could be giving advice, plants or roots to someone who wants to start a garden. It could be giving a thumbs up to someone reusing zip locks, plastic bags, food containers from restaurants etc.. because I know if I could inspire only one person, it would be a win. How do I know that?

Think about the number of plastic bags I have avoided using for all these 9 years thanks to my reusable shopping companions. Roughly, it is 4320 bags considering 10 bags per week on average. If I could get one other person to do the same, it would double the impact. So at last, I want to say thank you for being so thoughtful and love you <3 for the ones who already do this, and ask others to do our mother earth a much-needed favor, by starting to practice it. Don't let her clock ding. Mother earth will pay your children back, so generously for that :):)