Awesome idea. I feel like a total loser every time I shop at our natural foods store (tangential, but "natural foods" seems sadly oxymoronic to me) and they ask if I need a bag and I sheepishly say "yeah . . ." But this I can do - finally a use for old t-shirts other than cutting them up into cleaning towels.

Also tangential, but this makes me think of all the old t-shirts I used to have that I loved and are now gone. Like I had a sweet Skinny Puppy shirt, and I don't even remember what happened to it. That was during my "cut the sleeves off everything" phase though, so I imagine that as I grew out of that phase I just tossed them. Sad.

That is awesome. I have a few old t-shirts I've been holding onto for sentimental reasons and this would be a perfect thing to do with them!

My daughter gets fixated on particular t-shirts and will wear them until they are comically too small. She gets so upset when it's time to retire them. I've been secretly saving them so that I can have them all made into a quilt for her when she grows up. It'll be ugly, but I think she'll be so happy to see Buzz Lightyear and Theodore Tugboat again that she won't care.

My son is stressing out about life and death issues lately. At school, the fourth grade has been studying the effects of global warming and he came home yesterday completely beside himself over the potential effects. So I told him he needed to come up with an idea or plan of action against global warming instead of sitting around feeling sad about it.

This is going to come off really snarky, and it's not meant that way. I don't mean it to reflect on the cool idea that this design is. But sometimes it bothers me that so much is made of these teeny tiny drop-in-the-bucket efforts, which are not really doing anything to reduce the solid waste our society creates. We tend to make much of feel-good small efforts while turning a bling eye to the enormous consumer maw our culture is. If we could get one global company to use less packaging - like, for instance, getting Amazon.com to stop using enormous boxes full of empty plastic pillows cushioning one tiny paperback book and shipping AIR around the globe - it would make a much bigger difference than if every single American made and reused a T-shirt bag or made envelopes out of old calendar pages (while throwing out many times the weight of paper in the weekly junk mail/circular pile). I mean, I do what I can - use traveling coffee mugs and refill them instead of purchasing,pack small purchases in my messenger bag, recycle plastic grocery bags as trash bags, and use rags instead of paper towels...but then my heart sinks when I walk into any mall or discount store -- or the dump, for that matter -- and witness the mountains of packaging material that we're still throwing out. More than ever. We need more system-wide solutions as well as individual awareness.

We were having this conversation about the Prius the other day; as good as the Prius is, my friend that owns one and drives 30 miles a day roundtrip to work is still putting more carbon into the atmosphere than I am, even though I own a fuel guzzler, but drive only 2 miles to work and bike some days. I should bike all the time, but have yet to master the logistical issues of hauling stuff back and forth and making it to evening events too.

Sometimes I think we're generally a lot more interested in self-congratulation and easy getures than in really making changes. There's a lot of truth in "50 Difficult Things You Can Do to Save the Earth," unpleasant as it may be. The mom who invented this bag has her heart in the right place, but to make a dent, she should probably have brought her son to the store and bought a stockpile of those squiggly lightbulbs like Al Gore and Madonna told us to do the other night.

Oops, forgot to link "50 Difficult Things..."

I'm really cranky today. Not feeling so great. Sorry for the downer comment.

Not a downer Miko. I mean, you're right. But if more of us started doing the little things, maybe the difficult things would become, well, easier, more obvious. And, with credit to an old U2 song, I may not be able to change the world, but I can change the world in me.

That's true, of course. Everybody needs a gateway. It just sadddens me that since the 'green revolution' of the early 90s, we've only produced morewaste than we ever had before.

All this is true, but I gotta say, when I returned home from Japan, I was overjoyed at the relative lack of disposable packaging around American products. There, you get a snack, say a little rice cracker wrapped in nori seaweed, and it's nested in Russian dolls of cellophane wrappers and trays. Just about everything comes in extra packaging, as if whatever you might pick up at the grocery store were a possible birthday gift.

I liked your long comment above, Miko, criticising the self-congratulation about trivial achievements. But don't the criticisms apply equally to some of the list of "50 Difficult Things..."?

For instance, "Spend a month tree-sitting" and "Go to jail for something you believe in" seem fairly self-indulgent and self-righteous objectives that don't necessarily accomplish very much for the environment, compared with spending all that time on more productive activities. Surely things like campaigning for nuclear power and GM crops in the first world, while encouraging cheap medicines and reducing overpopulation in the developing world, are better for the planet in the long run.

That's interesting, Hugh. I've never been to Japan, but whenever I get into Japanese culture I always notice this attention to wrapping, packaging, and containers. In fact it's one of my favorite Japanophile things, as I too have some sort of a thing for nifty containers like bento boxes and origami change purses.

Some of it's great; after all, reusing is even better than recycling and renewing, so I have plenty of clever boxes and beautiful packaging I've found useful. But there's really way too much individual packaging and cellophane use over there, and it all gets dumped into landfill in Tokyo Bay and Southeast Asia. Or put on decrepit garbage scows that ought to have been scrapped a few voyages ago and "accidentally" steered into a storm, where they swamp and sink. The owners get an insurance payment greater than the scrap value of the unseaworthy vessel would have been, and the municipality doesn't have to pay the government of Vietnam to dispose of the garbage after all. That scam happens here, too, with garbage ending up in the Atlantic instead of in mopuntains of garbage in Guatemala.

Makes me mad.

What the hell is a mopuntain, Hugh?

mopuntain is the evolution of poutine, in which you get mo' poutine, eventually becoming bastardized by talking with full mouthing into mopuntain.
Much gravy is involved.

Phew! I was afraid it might be mo' putain, of which the world probably has enough.

Miko, you're absolutely right. Though I'm not sure those 'squiggly lightbulbs' heh, are any better for the enviroment in the long run.

I understand Miko's sentiment but in response I offer:

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
Margaret Mead

If I believed as Miko does, I would have given up on political action, environmentalism and sustainability in elementary school over 35 years ago. If I'd waited for it to become popular or "actionable", or had fallen prey to the rampant cynicism seemingly pervasive these days, I never would have done a thing. I never needed a crowd of supporters to do what's right. For years I was disparaged for being the lone weirdo. These days, I'm disparaged -by my own- because my individual accomplishments weren't significant enough, or big enough or dramatic enough.

Although I know Miko nor his supporters do not intend such, these sentiments disparage and disrespect the very significant accomplishments that others have made. We've been here all along; you didn't invent the movement, others laid the ground work to give you a platform to complain from. As someone who's made significant lifelong sacrifices, it is unkind, unfair and inaccurate to minimize all of our efforts with one cynical observation. One person can have dramatic impact. Like the kid throwing starfish back into the ocean, it doesn't make a dent in the total numbers of starfish on the beach but it makes a life of difference to the ones who were thrown back.

The way I see it, it's taken everyone else this long to catch up. Some of us have a life-long commitment transcending current fads and our profound years long commitments don't deserve to be cynically minimized.

And thanks for the plug on the site.
best
Kathleen

I hate to jump in here and shoot my mouth off (that's a lie; I do it all the time), but I don't think you read Miko's comment all too carefully, Kathleen. It seems to me she was saying, "these individual steps are fine, but we have such a huge hill to climb that we shouldn't spend our energy congratulating ourselves and one another on how far we've come; we should realize what a huge trek lies before us and save our breath for the climb."

You're taking something very personally that didn't seem to me to be so aimed. Your hand-wringing over disrespect and disparagement are misguided. If one cynical comment can minimize all your efforts, maybe you should seek your own satisfaction and dignity rather than the respect, kindness, fairness, and accuracy of others.

Margaret Mead was a Quaker, right? I love her (and your) commitment to the idea that it takes just one to convince two, and two to convince four, and so on until the whole world breathes, lives, and bleeds together; I myself went to a Quaker school and found that I needed an adjustment period after graduation to learn to seek not the respect of others, but satisfaction with myself.

In short, I think what you're doing is great, and your ideas are sound, but if you look for, expect, or perceive personal criticism where none is leveled, you're setting yourself up for failure -- failure to convince the people you reach out to that your ideas are more resilient than your feelings.

Welcome, Kathleen. I know you probably joined just to comment in this thread, but I do hope you'll look around and decide to join us.

I can see where you might take offense to Miko's comment, and I hesitate to speak for her, but I think she was commenting more on the hugeness of the problem than on your efforts in particular. I think it was more about the kind of people who would take these reusable grocery bags to Whole Foods, stock them full of organic produce, then stuff them all in the back of their Escalade for the long, solo ride home.

(As for the squiggly light bulbs, we use them, but I hate them, the light they cast and their inability to respond properly to the dimmer switch.)

You should hate them more for the inevitable increase in mercury that will enter landfills as they burn out. I'm waiting for more widely available LED lighting sources which use a fraction of the power that CF bulbs use (which use a fraction of incandescents) and should last practically forever. Also, LEDs are following Moore's law and the prices are going down as the efficiency goes up exponentially.

I'm not offended. More...disappointed I think. I understand the whole argument, using an suv to transport reusable bags, people like that get old. I write about it. I try to lead my visitors to sustainable principles in manufacturing but most of them think buying organic cotton is *all* they need to do. Then they try to convince me how white (okay, green) they are just because they spent a little extra (a pass through cost so there's really no sacrifice on their part) to buy organic fabrics. The youngest ones are often the worst about it. They haven't looked around the site or read anything so they just assume somebody with 30 years in the business thinks lightbulbs are the extent of my personal commitment.

I tell them that if they really cared, if they truly made personal 'sacrifices' and commitment beyond costs they'll pass onto the consumer anyway, then they should become vegetarians. None of them do. Okay, maybe I have five converts. Likewise, I get tired of people and their pissing contests over who's greener, measuring things that have so little impact while diet is something hugely impactful and all but a few are willing to do it.

The big thing tho is manufacturing models. NO ONE in the green community is listening and it's distressing because some of the "greenest" outfits out there (admired in the community) are the worst offenders. There are two kinds of models; one push, one pull. All of the green producers are using push (bad) and I can't get a word in edgewise. To use pull, they'd have to do more work (at the outset) learn more, change (CHANGE), but they'd save tons of money in addition to wasting less. But none of them want to listen. They've convinced themselves they're the good guys. I'm talking about small, one person operations too. Okay, it's not that none listen, I exaggerate. I have more than a few converts. It's just that push manufacturing equivocates to the SUV driving and businesses, regardless of size and persuasion are usually equally guilty.

I like this metachat thing. What kind of software does this use?

We use B2Evolution, but it's been hacked by dodgygeezer and seanyboy, to some degree, for our purposes.

I hope you stay and talk to us more, kathleen. Also, miko probably hasn't seen the updates here... I'll email her, because, really, I think you would like each other a lot.

Thanks for the heads-up, about the thread continuing, taz!

Yes, Kathleen, you and I are definitely coming from the same place philosophically, without a doubt, and thanks to everyone who chimed in my behalf. Some of what I've said in my posting history probably lets those folks feel comfortable speaking for me because they know I'm not in opposition.

Like you, I'm also an advocacy/activist sort of person (mostly on food/agriculture issues, some media, and some nonprofit education orgs. these days) and have been all my life as well. I'm not someone 'looking for a platform to complain from.' I'm really bemoaning the bigger reality about change, that we often choose the easier and less significant actions while turning a blind eye to the really large and frequent choices that might make a much bigger difference. Like biking to work, as I mentioned, or growing some of your own food, or pushing to pass better legislation. I include myself in that generalization.

The big thing tho is manufacturing models.

That's the point I was trying to make. I wasn't criticizing anyone else's work so much as I was heaving a momentary sigh that the problems are big, and that many of them are at the systems level, not the consumer level. I don't think that gets talked about enough. I also believe a few people can change the world (and I'm a Quaker myself!), but as you note, change is a tough, compromise-laden job.

Environmental change will have to come not just from changing the minds and habits of shoppers/end users, but also those of people who have the resources and decision-making power to change the large-scale systems that determine most of the choices for consumers. As a small example, in my town this spring a group I'm involved with worked successfully with the summer concessions stand in the local park, which serves about 2,000 people weekly, Thursday through Sunday while concerts and plays are going on. They were able to switch from mostly junk and fried food (sourced from Sysco) to a menu featuring mostly locally sourced ingredients: locally brewed sodas, wraps and brownies and cookies from a local bakery, salads and fruit from three CSA-type farms, and ice cream from the local shop. My own efforts to buy local have to end at my food budget, but by working on a slightly larger-scale problem, we made more of a $50,000 or so difference in the local economy, guaranteed a buyer for the CSA growers, and reduced a whole lotta fossil fuel usage from food transport. That doesn't mean I'm going to stop doing my individual efforts by any means, but I recognize that making changes at the level of the bulk buyer has had a greater impact than my daily choices do by themselves. In concert they work really well, actually: either one alone is not a whole functioning system (individuals can buy small-yield, highly seasonal crops while concessions stands can't, for instance, but by having a bigger buyer small farmers get a cushion we can't be relied upon to give them at the farmstand).

I definitely applaud you for your work to raise awareness and present alternatives. I did want to add something to this comment on your page from the submitter:

My hope is that this project is used as inspiration for my kids and other people. At the fourth grade level, projects need to be simple. These simple projects are to inspire my kids to possibly create something GREAT when they are adults. I also hope this project gives inspiration to adults of today to create something GREAT or solve a larger issue.

I agree that it's great for kids to think about thing they can do and will do as adults. I want to add that kids at the fourth grade level can also extend their awareness and problem-solving skills to amazing degrees with adults' leadership. Like maybe weighing the trash they throw out in the classroom each day. They could analyze classroom waste by category, seeing how much came from non-renewable resources (plastics, foams) and how much from renewable ones (paper, cloth, cardboard, cellulose, food waste). There is some great math potential there, with graphing, weights and measures, and operations like cumulative addition and averaging. They could also look into the impact of various production methods - paper is renewable, sure, but the process of paper making uses a lot of clean water and some hazardous dye/bleaching chemicals. good fodder for language arts research/reporting/presenting there. Then they could brainstorm ways to reduce the amount of trash they're producing. They could graph it over some period of time and see how low they could get it - could they get it to none? If not, why not? What systems are reinforcing the daily waste and making it hard not to produce waste?

This kind of project does what the designer wants - introduces concepts of resource use in a simple way at a developmentally appropriate level, lets kids do the problem-solving, gives them a goal to aim for and feel good about, AND demonstrates a systems analysis process that is a good example for future use in school, nonprofit, or business work. Lest that sound silly or too heavy for fourth grade, I can attest that it works quite well after a couple of years of running The Ort Report at the environmental education school where I used to teach (not the one in the link; my eyebrows remained intact).

But I get the message - I'm sorry if I made folks feel bad. I knew it was a cranky post when I made it, and I apologize for the hurt it's caused. I'm not saying anyone should feel badabout their efforts to make changes, no matter how small. Basically, I think we are in agreement about what the problems are and that we share some ideas for solving them.

I know, I drive folks here nuts (including myself) because I'm at once an idealist, a perfectionist, and an absolutist. I really don't mean any insult or put-down; I actually want a better world so much that I'm pretty hard on everyone (see note above regarding self) about getting there. But hey, it brought us a new member. Welcome!

What's the next contest?

don't the criticisms apply equally to some of the list of "50 Difficult Things..."?

Oh, totally, matthewr. That piece is pretty old. It was designed to be inflamamtory and provocative, not actual suggestions. It does make you think, but I wouldn't want to live by it.

So nice to meet you Miko. I don't want to give away the punchline, but you may enjoy this entry. It's hard to fit yourself in side wise sometimes with an established comfy group, so Taz, I don't take your welcome lightly. I agree, I wouldn't have discovered this site without the controversy. I am confused over site navigation, I'm certain you're habituating certain topic areas but don't know how to find them.

I doubt there are any hard feelings. The person from my site (Abigail Vargas, owner of Poppylarity, a children's wear line) said this in a private email:

Hey at least my bag started a conversation on making a bigger change at this site. That's what it is all about, starting the conversation....Love it!

Abigail effectively aborted our contest (hers was the first entry) because in an instant, everyone knew hers was the most logical choice if we're true to our purposes (I don't like tees anyway so the entry made utility of them I could scant argue). The entry was still a rousing success even if the contest wasn't. It was timely, the meme propagated across the web. I'm open to any contests. Ideas? The ones I generate have been too arcane or advanced and it's only after the fact that I realize it. It's no fun for the average participant if the bar is set too high.

Not to discard the topic nor the welcome prematurely but I have to go check out b2evolution (and dodgygeezer and seanyboy to inquire if they're for hire). I've been shopping for a blog system that will support blogs within one blog with multiple authors for a continuing education site (on patterns and sewing) that I've long wanted to launch. Again, thank you everyone.

It's hard to fit yourself in side wise sometimes with an established comfy group, so Taz, I don't take your welcome lightly

Although there is a real lot of tribal knowledge here that just comes from having a fair number of longtime and frequent users, the great thing is that it's also a very welcoming community. I generally feel that all that's required to 'fit in' here is being basically well-meaning and open.

On your blog, I like your rumination about indirect vs. direct impact.