By Coco Clayman-Cook

More and more people are seeing the light and using reusable shopping bags.  Why?   What harm can a little plastic shopping bag do?  You'd be surprised.  Plastic and paper shopping bags require a great deal of energy to create.  Once they are used they clog landfills and the plastic bags pose a threat to sea and wild life.  As the bags decompose they shred into smaller pieces that animals mistake for food.  Ingesting the bags can make the animals sick and potentially kill them.  The cost of recycling plastic bags is significant.  It is much smarter to use the new, hipper reusable shopping bags.

If you haven't noticed stores have risen to the design challenge warranted by the occasion.  There are some very cute reusable shopping bags available right now. Whole Foods Markets has rolled out a wide variety of bags, they are even having guest designers make limited edition bags.  More and more stores are combining fashion, advertising and ecology to create functional, fashionable bags that reduce global warming.  If you haven't already jumped on this band wagon, it is worthwhile!