Posted on February 5, 2009 at 4:02pm EST. More.

You can’t bear to throw out plastic bags because they are reusable. Unfortunately, you also accumulate them at a far faster rate than you use them, leading to a surplus of plastic bags laying around your home. What do you do?

First, buy a reusable cloth shopping bag from your grocery store. They usually cost 99 cents. If you remember to take it when you go grocery shopping, you will cut down on your bag accumulation.

Bonus:

• Some stores, like Whole Foods, will give you a discount if you bring your own bag.
• At home, store your shopping list (and a pen) in or near the bag, and you won’t forget to take it with you when you go to the store.
• Do the same with coupons.

Now, what to do about the millions of plastic bags that you already have? Find somewhere on the way to your grocery store that you can drop off plastic bags for recycling. If you’re lucky, that place will be at the grocery store itself, near the entrance.

When you’re at home, grab a bunch of the plastic bags and put them inside your cloth shopping bag. Each time you go shopping, you can drop off a bunch of bags to be recycled. Over time, you will slowly dig a tunnel to plastic bag freedom much like Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption.