I was reading an article in the Evansville Courier & Press about plastic bags. I expected that the article would discuss how much oil is used to produce these bags and in essence, how these bags only increase our dependence on fossil fuels. Yet, the article instead simply focused on the waste issue--they are clogging our landfills and don't easily degrade. If we could curb the use or at least, the constant disposal of these bags, perhaps we could keep our landfills free for other items and lessen our oil dependency. How hard can it be? It seems more an issue of convenience and bad habits than anything. Why does everything at the grocery store need to sit in a plastic bag with only one or two other items? Is this some grocery store requirement, so that items don't come crashing through the bottom? To me, it seems like we could start by having those bagging the groceries, group the items a bit more. Also, why don't more stores charge for the bags or add a tax for them? If they sold more reusable tote bags or other canvas bags specifically for groceries, perhaps people would opt for these rather than pay a bag fee or tax? At IKEA, plastic bags are now coming with a price and will soon be phased out altogether. You would think that this practice will also keep prices of the goods lower, since the company won't need to shell out millions for plastic bags. Although this type of measure might cut into our convenience and ease at which we take goods home, we can and need to adapt. I was surprised to read that Bangladesh has eliminated plastic bags, because of the environmental problems with their disposal. With all of the negatives we read about developing nations attitude towards the environment, I think Bangladesh deserves a lot of praise for taking this measure.