One less plastic bag

Being green has basically become a way of life for me, but there are times when I make some not-so-green choices.  Whether its a conscious bad decision or one I realize later was not so good, I am certainly not perfect when it comes to making the most environmentally conscious choice.  I ALWAYS bring my canvas shopping bags when I do my weekly grocery shopping, but there are plenty of times where I run out to pick something up and forget my bags.  If it's only one or two items I will most definitely carry them out in my own two hands, but if it's more then a few things I have to resort to the *gasp* dreaded plastic bag :(  Now any plastic bag that manages to make it's way into my house always gets a second life, usually consisting of picking up doggie waste.  So I was thinking about how many plastic bags are getting used on a daily basis and it really made me feel guilty about ever forgetting my reusable bag. Let's think for a minute... almost 3 million people live on Long Island... so if everyone used 1 plastic bag a day that would be 3 million plastic bags a day, 21 million in a week, 93 million a month and 1 billion 95 million a year.  Now we're just talking Long Island here and we're only talking 1 per day. How many bags do you think the average person gets at the grocery store... 20? 30? What about department stores, drug stores... etc... we're getting into some serious #'s here!! So the point of this is that the reverse is also true... if everyone refused 1 plastic bag per day on Long Island that would be 3 million less plastic bags in the environment a day... etc... So I challenge you my friends to really try to start reducing your plastic bag consumption.  If you forget your reusable bags, use your two hands if it's only a few items.  If you don't have any reusable bags, you can get some almost anywhere now-a-days. 
So why should we even care about reducing our dependence on plastic bags anyway??? Well... were do I even start.  Let's start with aesthetics.  I don't know if anyone else has noticed, but I feel like every time I am driving around lately I see some random plastic bag flying through the air, usually until it finds itself lodged in a tree, also a hideous sight.  If it doesn't get stuck in a tree some where, it might make it's way to the ocean.  I don't know how many of you know this, but sea turtles eat jellyfish.  Now have you ever seen a plastic bag floating in the water? Well from underwater, plastic bags often resemble jellyfish, which the turtles then try to snack on, which you can imagine is not healthy for the turtles.  And if you're still not convinced, there's always that pesky little fact that plastic is made from oil and if anyone has been to the gas station lately you can see how this could be a problem.
So my overall point is, don't beat yourself up if you forget to bring your reusable bags sometimes.  Just try to make a conscious decision to reduce plastic bag consumption whenever possible and be one more person using one less plastic bag.