February, a month of love. Remembering love, emphasizing the importance of love in our lives and of course the celebration of Valentine's Day on the 14th and Random Acts of Kindness Day on the 17th. This month I encourage you to be intentional about creating more space in your life for love & kindness to enter. I chose to create more space with focus on a single material possessions - plastic bags.
Material possessions we accumulate are cluttering up our lives and our earth. They are distracting us from pursuing our purpose and stealing our joy. We are speedy through life and allowing convenience to harm our planet. The other day I was shopping and watched my little girls proudly pack our grocery's in plastic bags. After leaving the store and as I was loading up my car several of the bags broke, contents overpacked and poked through the bags. Yes, the plastic bags were easy to have the kidos load the groceries in but for the first time it really caught my attention. I came home and started looking into the impact of plastic bags. I was shocked when I took the time to look at the impact.
Plastic Bags are Harmful...
Estimated # of plastic bags used each year, world-wide: 1,000,000,000,000
# of plastic shopping bags used each year, in the US alone: 380,000,000,000
Annual cost to US retailers for giving away "free" bags: $4,000,000,000
Barrels of oil required for US annual plastic bag consumption: 12,000,000
Worldwide, # of plastic bags are used each minute: 2,000,000
# of marine animals killed each year due to plastic bags: 100,000
Average # of pieces of plastic in each square mile of ocean: 46,000
Average # of plastic shopping bags American family takes home a year: 1,500
Average # of minutes plastic bags are used: 12
Sources: Environmental Protection Agency, United Nations, Seattle Public Utilities, Science (the journal), Washington Department of Ecology, Michigan State University Associate Packaging Professor Rafael Auras
This month, I have made the decision to Show Some Love to our planet - The choice is clear: I will be carrying my own bag. If fact, I have purchased and already been using my LeapyGreen and love it! Best reusable Grocery bag I have had + more love to the planet.
This month I encourage you to be intentional about creating more space in your life for love & kindness to enter. I chose to create more space with focus on a single material possession plastic bags. Maybe for you, creating more space in your life will also focus on those darn plastic bags or maybe it is tackling your clothes, that mountain of unread books my your nightstand, your kids towers of toys, or piles of papers. I challenge you to take some time during the next couple of weeks is to focus on that one focus item and “open up” some space in your life so you’ll have room for more good things to move into it! Keep me posted on your stories I would love to hear them.
Leah Morris
Owner & Chief Organizer
