As soon as the plastic bag ban was announced last year, certain folks were up in arms. Why is it so hard to give up plastic bags?

Plastic bags were first introduced to grocery stores in 1979. Before that, you relied on paper bags. In some corners of the internet, you'd think plastic bags are somehow a Constitutionally-guaranteed right. "How will I pick up dog poop?" "What if I can't remember to bring a re-usable bag?"

Let me offer the same advice my dad used to give me: Figure. It. Out.

Generations survived without plastic bags (and the internet and curbside grocery pickup, for that matter). While we might not be made of the same hardy stock as the early settlers of Central New York, we should be able to manage without those crappy bags from Walmart that can only carry one bag of chips and a can of soup before they tear.

Very few of us walk to the grocery store. Here's an idea, keep the bag in the car. They even have bags made of nylon that fold up to dimensions smaller than your cell phone - and don't tell me you forget that too often.

No one knew plastic bags would turn out to be such a bad idea, not unlike Coke One. For God's sake, they found a plastic bag in the Mariana Trench - they deepest known part of the ocean. I'm sorry you have to find a new way to clean the kitty litter, but I think we all can learn to cope with out contributing half of the 23 billion plastic bags New Yorkers use each year to landfills.

Suck it up, buttercup.

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