50% Green

I saw something really interesting today.

A mom, probably mid thirties, two kids sitting in a cute little car shaped cart, shopping in Safeway. Organic groceries, all natural ingredients, but what caught my eye was that she had the bags Safeway sells to reuse so you can feel better about your shopping experience and claim to be a "green" person. She was in line ahead of me at the checkout lane, and very adament about using her "green" bags, that are actually black in color.

I walked out of the store a few minutes later, and saw her putting away her groceries in a huge, gas-chugging Escalade. All the "green" progress she made in her shopping bags was completely shot the minute she just started her engine, let alone drove to wherever she lived.

So, instead of throwing away plastic bags in the garbage, she's letting out tons of harmful gases in the air. It just seemed an interesting contradiction to me.

I'm not trying to diss on people with big vehicles or those who enjoy using the reusable shopping bags, but it made me think of how many ways I think I'm saving energy or recycling etc, and then turn around and completely undo those things in some other way.