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I went to the store this morning to get a few groceries. Just ahead of me in the checkout line a well manicured woman was complaining that California grocery stores were now charging customers ten cents for each plastic bag. The cashier replied that someone must be getting rich, given how cheaply these plastic bags are sold to retailers. Neither woman appeared aware that the ten cent fee was meant to deter the use of these bags.

April 22 was Earth Day. Perhaps that is why the overheard conversation so infuriated me. Plastic shopping bags are used for an average of 20 minutes, yet remain in our landfills, along our roads, in our waterways or elsewhere in our environment for hundreds or even thousands of years. Plastic bags floating in our oceans choke and strangle marine life. Photo-degradation of the bags contaminates our soil and water with smaller and smaller plastic bits that enter our food web when accidentally ingested by wildlife.

12 million barrels of oil a year are needed to make the plastic bags used annually in the United States. We in America throw away 100 billion bags a year. Given the expensive process required, fewer than 1 percent of all bags sent to recycling plants actually get recycled.

Sure, those plastic bags are convenient. But keeping reusable bags in the back of the car and grabbing a couple to bring into the store isn’t especially inconvenient. Can’t each of us make this tiny sacrifice for the Earth, for our wildlife, for ourselves?

ROBIN HELM

Sandpoint