It's easy being Green

Pat Bakke is one of the shoppers pushing her cart in and out of grocery stores on a sunny winter morning. Bakke, of Wilmington, has her day completely planned out. “I make one really long day of shopping,” Bakke said. “Then I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the month.” As different grocery and cosmetic items make there way into Bakke's cart, there is one thing she won't leave home without - her useable recycling bags. It's the key characteristic that makes her stand out from the typical shopper. On this particular morning, Bakke is using her Chicago Bears and green Jewel bag. She has been carrying the bags for about a year. “I keep them in my car so that I don't forget them,” Bakke said. “You know, back when I was growing up, we didn't have the information that we have today. We didn't know that paper and plastic were so hard on the environment. We didn't recycle. We know now.” Bakke picks up the useable recycling bags at many store locations. She said that most of the time the cost of the bags is only a dollar, so they are affordable and convenient. “They are so easy to take my groceries inside,” Bakke said. “I like it a lot better than having many plastic bags full of groceries all over my car.” Bakke's daughter, Debbie, a grocery checker, jokes with her mom about packing the environmentally friendly bags. “She laughs at me and tells me how hard they are to pack because they don't stand up as straight,” Bakke said. “I joke with her when they are full, and tell her they stand up just fine!” Bakke has always been environmentally conscious, even as a girl. “My mom would leave me notes with two lines on it using an entire sheet of notebook paper,” Bakke said laughing. “I would tell her to save paper by cutting the notebook paper in two.” Bakke said she was also teased in the office about making scrap paper off old fax sheets that came into the office. “I don't like wasting, so I was the one passing out scrap paper to everyone,” she said. “The people I worked with got a kick out of that.” As the years progress, Bakke now encourages her granddaughter, Tracie, to use the recycling bags for her groceries. “I tell her to do it for her kids, Ivonne and Glenda,” Bakke said. “We need to leave this Earth better for them than what we found it.” Bakke reuses a lot of household items, including the oversized plastic zip case in which comforters are packaged in, to store other items, if she is not recycling them. Even though Bakke said she still uses plastic garbage bags, she does feel that the recycle bags help. “I can't stand waste,” Bakke said. “I think that is why this first started for me. That's just my nature I guess.”