Today is day 1 -- URBAN SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY!

The concept of creating this "society" has been ruminating in my head for several years. I've been rescuing plastic bags from my local community reclamation center, where unsuspecting citizens add them to the recycling bin labeled "plastic bag recycling", but where, the attendant employee tells me, they are retrieved and burned in the city's garbage incinerator. "They're oil-based, so they burn real good!" he excitedly tells me. WHAT??!! You BURN them? "Well...we don't have a buyer for them and they're not worth much, so yeah...we just burn 'em every day." And that's when my motivation to get this group going really kicked in. I don't want to live in a city where decent citizens are doing what they can to be green, and where they end up breathing the toxins from their "recycled" bags without even knowing it. I thought seriously about trying to take this issue on with the city government powers-that-be, but the thought overwhelmed me. It seemed so negative. It seemed so down-the-road. It seemed so hopeless. Well -- it just didn't seem like much fun!

So here's what I did instead. I started collecting the plastic bags (with permission) out of the reclamation center bins whenever I had time. I brought them home and sorted them by store and color. I crocheted bag after bag, mostly when I was out and about in public. I've talked to hundreds of people so far, and have shown dozens more how to cut plastic bags into "plarn" and how to crochet with it. While I'm doing that, I also tell them WHY I am crocheting reusible bags out of plastic bags that others have used once and then disposed of. Sometimes people don't get it. "I bet if you just went to a store and asked, they'd GIVE you a bunch of bags!" "I'll take more bags when I shop and save them for you!" No, no, NOOOOO!!! Please don't take any more bags. Please start bringing your own bags so we can STOP taking a new bag every time we purchase something. There is so much more I want to say, but how can you say it all while you're chatting with a stranger in the dentist's office waiting room?

Enter my idea: Start a website. When someone asks, give them a card, (printed on the back of recycled paper, of course!), directing them to this website. Include on the website both the why and the how of Urban Sustainability. If the idea catches on, and there really are people willing to carry "plarn" purses, and who will likewise talk to people and pass out website cards, maybe we, the URBAN SUSTAINABLE SOCIETY MEMBERS, will start to be recognized around the world. Maybe people will see those purses and will ask people, "so what do YOU do in YOUR home to make a green difference in OUR town?" And we will all tell our stories.

THIS HAS TO BE FUN, OR NO ONE'S GOING TO DO IT.

That's the simple truth. If we want to make a difference, we have to have some fun with this! Those Red Hat Society ladies?... They have FUN! So if we want to make positive changes in our own families, we need to have some fun, too. What could be more fun than using a crocheted purse, and pointing to the purple hues while in a check-out line and saying, "That's Taco Bell... And the red, well, that's Target, of course! And I'm sure you know what the white with blue is...can you say WalMart?!" Honestly, I have had more fun showing people the bag, and then watching the recognition on their faces when I name the stores and they "get" that the colors they are seeing really and truly are recycled bags from those very stores. Then I might say something like, "Yeah...I do lots of green things. Did you know that mint is a weed and grows like crazy? I grow cocoa mint in my yard and make my own fresh tea with it. Now I don't ever buy tea bags any more. I LOVE easy gardening and paying less for groceries!"

Little ideas. Little changes. Tell someone here, tell someone there. Start a website, make some how-to videos, upload them. Give away some bags. Ask people if they will do the same. Go, Green!

Thanks, all!
MakeAjoyfulNoise, your friendly Urban Sustainable Society founder