I was reading the idealbite website for some green tips and energy saving ideas. One thing I must admit is that when living in a place like southern Indiana, being green isn't very trendy. If I were in San Francisco, or somewhere similarly eco-friendly, it would come naturally for me to use a canvas bag at the grocery store or to buy my own coffee container to use when I buy coffee, instead of the paper cups. I'm not much to yield to peer pressure, but when reducing, reusing and recycling are not popular, sometimes bad habits emerge. I do recycle my plastic bags and my paper, but it would of course, be better not to use them at all, if possible. Accordingly, I have decided that I need to take the plunge and buy a tote bag to bring to the grocery store and my own coffee container to be refilled when I buy coffee. If each person brought their own bag or container, we might be able to kiss all of those plastic bags and paper cups goodbye at some point. I suppose it's one thing if a bag or cup is reused for another purpose, but in most cases, people toss them after one use--or at least with the plastic bags, after they are maybe reused for a diaper or something. In any event, we need to reconsider our packaging and use of bags and containers as one way to reduce energy consumption and trash in our landfills. Just think of all of the oil (for the plastic) and trees (for the cups) we would spare from this alone.