Declaring war on the “white pollution” choking its cities, farms and waterways, China is banning free plastic shopping bags and calling for a return to the cloth bags of old — steps largely welcomed by merchants and shoppers on Wednesday.

The measure eliminates the flimsiest bags and forces stores to charge for others, making China the latest nation to target plastic bags in a bid to cut waste and conserve resources.

See the rest of the AP article here.

I read this article yesterday and decided that I needed to reclaim my house from the plastic pests. I do use some plastic bags but there are just so many plastic bags that seem to multiply. So I bit the bullet and decided that I was going to take out all of the bags in my pantry and sort them.

In the end, I had two bags of bags that I put in the recycling bin downstairs. Bags of bags! Ugh! I did not rid myself of all plastic because honestly the ones from a couple of retailers are thicker and great to reuse when traveling for putting some wet or potentially leaky things in.

I also decided to do the 30-day plastic bag diet. I had been using cloth or other heavy duty bags and reusing some plastic bags but there were just so many.

Plastic is useful but needs to be managed. I reuse some plastic bags. But before I bit the bullet, I decided that I was going to purge my house of extraneous plastic bags. The past few trips to the grocery store, I have taken my own bags. My cleaning also made me think that I could take my own bags to certain stock up stores. Then I wouldn’t have to worry about their bags not being sturdy enough for me. We’ve all been there when you have had a plastic bag split or tear before you’ve left the register.

In making this change I know I will save money and energy because I do not have to empty six small plastic bags, I can just empty one. Of course this new trend makes people want to spend a lot of money for a fancy bag which is fine but the frugal way to do it is to use some other totes you have at home or buy the sturdy synthetic non-woven bags from the store for a buck. The other day when I went on a fact find mission with my mother, [we went to shop, saw nothing we wanted to buy... we did a lot of looking] I saw fashionable canvas bags.

They were beautiful to look at but wouldn’t hold much because the sides on one bag featured sewn gussets. This beauty was a “bargain” for $18. Another I saw had snaps on the side and was a mere $20. If you go to the dollar store or dollar plus you will be able to find a bag that you can use. Once I bought a bag because I didn’t know I was going to a baseball game after work and bought a bag for 50¢ the only problem with the bag was that there was a misprint. It was a perfectly useful canvas bag. I found several canvas bags that I got free with a museum membership that I can use. Instead of plastic I will be using these more often and the unstructured bags I can tuck into a purse or keep them in my car.

I read a comment that a person made about if we are carrying two pounds of canvas bags in our vehicles we would be using more gas. But if we use less plastic (or even reuse the heavier plastic bags) globally this will make a bigger impact because there will be less of a demand for oil.