I had an experience at the grocery store yesterday that really bothered me. I was buying some items and the clerk placed one in a plastic bag. I took the item out of the plastic bag two seconds later, placed the item in my cart and told the clerk that I did not need the bag. Like a robot, she continued ringing up my purchases and placed the next items in another plastic bag. Why she did not just place them in the bag I had just returned to her is a mystery to me. She then took the plastic bag that I placed on top of the plastic bag carousel and threw it in the trash. I was upset with myself for not saying anything. Given our rampant consumption of plastic bags in this country and the way in which they use petroleum and clog up landfills, the last thing we need is for people to throw one away that has been used for two seconds. Yet, how many of us have brought plastic bags home and then tossed them in the garbage, when they could easily be reused? I admit to having done this in the past, although I now make sure to use the bags again or bring them back to the store for recycling. The real key seems to be to stop using so many. Some stores sell their own bags to be reused--made of canvas or some other fiber. In my mind, this should be a given for stores to provide. They could give customers an incentive for using them--e.g. a small discount of some sort--and save a lot of money on plastic bags in the process. Otherwise, our wasteful practices are not likely to end anytime soon.