Meet the Family

We want to introduce you to the Green Family. They have been nice enough to let us record their conversations during dinner. Every evening their family discusses a wide variety of subjects from planting trees to reducing waste. For them, taking care of the environment is very important.

Mom

She is a botanist (studies plants) and works at the local nursery. Mom encourages the children to learn more about environmental conservation and energy efficiency. When she has free time, she likes to garden.

Dad

The company he works for is now involved in forest conservation activities as a part of their commitment to giving back to the community. He thinks this is great because his favorite weekend activities are hiking and fishing.

Summer

Brady’s big sister. She has influenced Brady’s interest in environment. When she grows up her dream is to become a climatologist and study the effects of climate change on the earth. She loves to read and go to the beach with her friends.

Brady

He participated in Solar Academy class and now he is more interested in what he can do to save the earth. His favorite subject in school is science and his favorite thing to do on the weekend is play with his dog, Eco.

Eco

He is the family dog and loves to go walk with Brady. His favorite activity is running around in the local wilderness park and smelling all the many different things in the nature. He cares about the children very much.

Reusable Grocery Bags

Is everyone here? I have gifts to all of you today… Here you go! These are my hand-made cloth bags!

Wow!!

I made each one of them with love! Here is for you, Dad. Here is one for you, Summer. This little one is for Brady, and Eco also gets one.

Thank you, Mom!

Arf (thank you)!!

They are so cool! Mine has my favorite print of a beetle.

Everyone’s got a different size and prints.

Yes. I made them to fit each of you, and also used the fabrics that match your unique style.

This is a great idea! I always wanted to have my own cloth grocery bag. I was kind of embarrassed to borrow Mom’s bright pink bag when I go to grocery stores…

I think it’s important for all of us, including men and dogs, to have their own bags and avoid using plastics bags, so that we can protect the environment.

Yes. I will definitely use this bag when I go shopping! I promise!!

Me, too!

I will put this bag into my suitcase so that I can use it whenever I need it.

I’m glad that everyone likes it. It was fun to make them by hand!

These days more people are talking about reducing the use of plastic bags.

It’s not only the consumers, but stores and communities are very enthusiastic about it. Even cities are making changes.

Really? Which city is that??

For example, the City of San Francisco approved groundbreaking legislation to ban all plastic bags at supermarkets and drug stores .

What? They won’t give you free plastic bags any more when you check out?

No. You have to bring your own bag. San Francisco is the first city that decided to ban the use of plastic bags.

That is so revolutionary. It is amazing that the entire city is involved in this.

Now there are many other cities all over the United States that are working on similar initiatives. Many cities are thinking about charging for the plastic bags.

What? We need to pay for plastic bags?

Yes, California is considering law to charge 25 cents per bag. Some stores such as IKEA are already charging for plastic bags.

If you have to pay for a bag, everyone will bring their own bag to the store!

That’s right! And if everyone decided not to use plastic bags it helps to dramatically reduce waste.

In U.S., people use 100 billion plastic shopping bags in just one year. That’s about 330 plastic bags per person. If everyone collaborates and reduced use of plastic bags by 100 million, that will help reduce 10,000 tons of CO2!

Wow! So if one person reduces their usage by just a little, it can really help the earth a lot? That’s really surprising.

What happens to the money collected from the plastic bags charges?

It will varies by the community and stores, but in case of Ikea, the money is used to fund other environmental activities.

That’s awesome.

Maybe our neighborhood stores start to charge for plastic bags.

I’m very for it! It’s good for the environment, and I have a bag that Mom made for me.

Yes. We now have our own bags. Why don’t we go out for shopping?

That sounds great! Let’s go!

Let’s say “no” to plastic bags at the grocery store.

Does everyone have their own bags?

Yeah!

Now they have their bags, I think they will go run more errands for me…

I also got my own bag from Mom. I love it! Next story is about XXX. Don’t miss it!

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