Musings on reusable shopping bags and the French

Recently on Earth Day, I began thinking back to my childhood here in suburban NJ, in a family who believed in recycling in the 1970s, glass, newspapers, plastic, but a major user of paper shopping bags, reams of them with a family of at least six. Then, in 1977 when I first traveled to Europe I saw people shopping in Paris with the famous string bags and thought it interesting but didn't really make the connection to recycling. By 1989 or so, the old catalogue company Lillian Vernon was selling sets of the string bags and I ventured into using my first reusable bags. They lasted several years, and while living in LA, I purchased even more bags, cotton, that I still use today 20 years later, but have added more. Unfortunately in that time, the French adopted the American style of plastic bags and they began to be everywhere, in the stores, markets, and even in the local farmer's markets. But, now, the tide has turned and people are again returning to reusable bags, in part by government dictate. So, to go to a supermarket, bring your shopping bags in France, otherwise you are going to pay for the bags you need. That said, I've done a rough calculation of how many plastic bags that have not been put in a landfill in about 25 years of using reusable bags, can you believe it is easily about 4500?? Put down your plastic, and remember to take your bags to the store!