BYOB

For most of people, BYOB means

Bring Your Own Beer
Bring Your Own Bottle
Bring Your Own Burgers..

For me, who do not consume any alcohol beverage or meat,
BYOB means Bring Your Own Bag.

meaning bring your own reusable bag to the stores.
This weekend, I bought a reusable bag at Whole Foods and started using it.
It was made of 100% recycled material, very durable and very light too!

I just found some facts about plastic bags, which are:

1. We are consuming 500 billions to 1 trillion plastic bags worldwide annually
2. Americans use and trash about 100 billion plastic bags a year, which are produced by 12 million barrels of oil
3. Manufacturing of 14 plastic bags uses the same amount of oil as it takes to drive one mile!

I'm thinking now how many plastic bags I have at home, and with those bags, how many miles I can drive... so many! What a waste... we have to stop this right now.

Just last month, IKEA announced that they are going to charge 5 cents per each plastic bag, beginning March 15. They are taking a stand to be an environmentally responsible store. I think it will be the first store ever to take such an action in US! (article is here) They are also reducing a price of their blue iconic reusable bag from 99cents to 59cents to encourage customers to use it.

I am a big fan of IKEA, and now I love it even more for taking environmental initiatives!! I'd love to see other big stores, like Wal-Mart, Target, Meijer etc follow this action!! We don't need plastic bags. Let's get rid of all!