2. Bring your own re-usable / canvas bag. Hopefully soon, plastic bags won't be offered anymore.

3. Yes. Please recycle your water bottles; better, get a re-usable, stainless steel water / drink bottle (or at least a nalgene-type bottle).

4. Buy in bulk and avoid single-use items (wrt packaging). While this doesn't entirely solve the problem, at least it reduces the amount of packaging you must deal with. (additionally, buy second-hand (think Amazon marketplace, Craigslist, etc.) and don't buy what you don't need)

1. Daily, the U.S.P.S. delivers trash mail on a regular basis. I stop by my trash can even before entering the house to deposit 90% of what comes in the mailbox. I have NO CONTROL over this;

2. Grocery stores no longer offer paper bags. They and stores like WAL-MART have only plastic--although it is recycleable. Again, no CHOICE for us;

3. Every liquid item from soft drinks to laundry detergent comes in plastic. No longer glass containers. The claim is that it is lighter in weight and there are fewer broken items in shipment. But the downside is that these plastics do not always get recycled--and this is especially true of plastic water bottles that end up in rivers and lakes, and along the roadsides. This we consumers CAN do something about;

4. And lastly, PACKAGING. Everything these days is packed in shrinkwrap or large plastic to avoid shoplifting, I suspect. Just bring items from WAL-MART, TARGET, or COSCO home. The trash is twice the size of the items purchased.

So, in your next installment, why not point the finger at the real culprit--the retail industry and plastics producers.

Accordionjim Centreville