Alas! Poor Plastic. I Knew It, Horatio! And Just Like That, Plastic Grocery Bags Are No Longer a Mt. Pleasant Staple

Connecticut said no to plastic grocery bags in August and I don't miss them at the grocery store. I have my bags and it is now routine to bring them in, use them, unload them, and store them in car. It's easy to do and the trick was simply to remember to bring them into the store with you. Once that habit was created, the rest was easy.

Still, I always recycled the bags and in one cubby in the kitchen, the one for Glamis's food, I've stored globs and blogs of plastic bags because it is what I've always used to pick up her doobie-doo-doo when we go for walks. I wrap them up and know where the strategic public garbage cans are on our 3 - 5 mile walk. Chitunga, Abu, Lossine, Ali, Kanyea, Omar, etc. They always knew where the bags were and they, too, took part in keeping dog shit off the lawns of others.

Alas. I knew it was coming. Yesterday morning, during Glamis's walk after my run, we put the last grocery bag into doggie-duty operation. Starting tomorrow, there are no more plastic bags, which means I will have to begin buying those rolled ones for dogs that some of my friends, use.

Is this trading plastic for plastic? Recycling for simply putting the purchase of plastic bags onto the consumer rather than the merchant?

What I do know is that I will never again have a full closet of grocery plastic bags. I know longer will have easy to grab garbage can liners for the smaller bins in the house. Nope. The times have changes and I'm okay with it. We're such wasteful, grotesque beings (channeling Grendel here). But let the transitions begin...

All this as I head to the American Beauty years. That plastic bag made an impression on me in my late 20s. Here I am thinking about it in my late 40s.