First of all, I would just like to THANK YOU ALL for reading, visiting, liking, commenting and following my blog! It means so much to me that you have stopped by and spent time reading what I have to say and have even taken the time to leave behind such valuable and kind comments! Thank you once again from the bottom of my heart! I am so so grateful.
Overnight, you discover you’ve gained 50,000 blog subscribers. What would you write for your next post?
My country stats tell me that my little blog has reached 86 countries and has garnered over 4300 views from 1951 visitors in 2015 ! WOAH! And for the sake of this Writing 101 prompt which is mainly aimed at taking ideas from the stats pages, I am going to assume that I have gained 50,000 blog subscribers overnight. That is a huge shocker first of all, so let me take a moment to gulp in disbelief and shiver a little (okay, a lot!) in nervousness. Okay? Done.
One of my previous posts, An Open Letter To Plastic, was well-received by fellow bloggers. I am so thankful to each one of you who took the time to read it and leave behind such supportive comments! It made me feel encouraged that I took the right step in putting forward an important ecological issue that has been bothering me since forever and one that I personally feel strongly about but haven’t made a dent in.
So dear 50,000 (gulp) subscribers, with your permission, I would like to conduct a small global chain experiment called, “Save 5000″. The aim of this experiment is to make a conscious decision to try and reduce our carbon footprints and save 5000 plastic bags globally on 8th October 2015 with a broader aim to make green living a conscious and continuous effort in our daily lifestyles.
The rules of the experiment are very simple:
1. I will tag 3 people in this post to join me in this experiment, who in turn will tag 3 more people and so on and so forth, thus creating a chain event.
2. You will add this image to your sidebar which shows other bloggers that you are participating in this experiment. The image should be linked to this post so that visitors to your blog can participate as well if they wish.
3. On Thursday, 8th October 2015, you will carry with you reusable bags or plastic bags that you already possess and use them the entire day.
4. At the end of the day, you will comment on this post how many plastic bags you saved that day. For example, you may have carried 2 reusable bags but might have exceeded expectations and taken a third plastic bag from the grocer, in which case you saved 2 plastic bags. Or you may have carried 2 reusable bags but only used 1 of them, in which case you saved 1 plastic bag.
5. If you choose to write a blog post about this experiment, then you must link back to this post and use the hashtag #Save5KPlasticBags so I can keep track.
6. If possible, please share it on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and any other social media by using the hashtag #Save5KPlasticBags
I tag:
Blisters, Bunions and Blarney
Mind and Life Matters
The Many Facets
Notes:
1. This experiment is completely voluntary. If you have been tagged but do not wish to participate due to any reason, that’s totally fine, no pressure. 🙂
2. This experiment is completely flexible. Although the experiment is meant to be carried out on a single day, 8th October 2015, you can participate in it any number of times or on any day of October which is more suitable to you. The more times, the better. In that case, you could write a post at the end of October on how many plastic bags you ended up saving or share the total number here on this post.
3. Please do remember to link any mention of this experiment on your blogs to this post and use the hashtag #Save5KPlasticBags for me to keep track.
While researching for this post, I found a similar project Plastic Bag Free Day which you can also refer to for much more information and facts and figures.
Once again, thank you all so much for the support and hope to see you at this little global event on 8th October 2015 ! Let’s save the world one plastic bag at a time! 🙂
If you enjoyed this blog post, I’d be very grateful if you’d help spread it by emailing it to a friend, or sharing it around on social media. Thank you!
If you’d like to contact me for enquiries or just to say hello, you can email me at thistlesandwhistles@hotmail.com or even connect with me on Facebook , Instagram, Twitter, Goodreads and BlogLovin’
Thistles and Whistles 
Very commendable cause! Yesterday my human took 5 plastic bags stuffed fulled with more plastic bags…meowee, that’s too much. From now on she’s going to make the big effort to take cloth bags with her shopping and say NO to plastic. A couple of weeks ago she participated in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, which she blogged a bit about last week. Much of the litter they recovered was plastic bags. Look forward to your post on the results! =^,,^=
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Thank you so much! I totally empathize with your human. I am in the same situation where plastic bags are stuffed in big plastic bags in every corner of the closets or in the kitchen. It is getting to be a huge problem! Wow, I admire your human for taking part in a clean up drive! I’m super proud of her because she took a big step in doing something positive towards a situation that is very serious. I look forward to reading her post on the same and sharing my results as well. Hope to see her at the event! 🙂
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This is an amazing and yet simply elegant idea,
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Thank you so much! You’re most welcome to participate as well if you can! The more, the merrier. 😀
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I love your passion and your initiative! Thank you so much for the tag! I will most definitely participate. Your post mentioned that we can opt to do it on 8th oct or any other day or the whole month if we feel like it?
When I checked, 8th Oct is a Thursday, I thought I would do it every Thursday of October starting from 8th October….you know what makes it special? The fact the Thursday, 22nd Oct is my birthday and I will taking part in a special initiative like this!
I will publish my post by the end of October and pingback to your post! 🙂
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Thank you so much Rashmi ! I am so happy to hear that you’re participating ! 😀
Yes, you can do it any day of the month or even the whole of the month (if possible) or even just one day. The aim is to spread awareness that even one day can make a huge difference to the amount of bags we can save.
I think it’s great that you’re doing it every Thursday from the 8th onwards and what a coincidence that your birthday falls on a Thursday too! 😀
Look forward to reading your post ! Thank you so much for supporting this experiment! 😀
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Great idea, in Wales UK, we save plastic bags by charging for them at the store. If you want to use a plastic bag, you have to pay 5-10p per bag. So, we’re all pretty much used to using cloth bags, and the money from the plastic bags has gone to charity and helped them a lot.
Haven’t used a plastic bag in years now. 🙂
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That’s an amazing initiative! I wish they had similar rules everywhere here too. Although reusable bags are available at big stores like Carrefour, not many people buy them but prefer to use the free plastic bags instead. I think charging them is a great idea.
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Reblogged this on The Opinionated Woman's Musings and commented:
Reuse and recycle!
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Thank you so much for the reblog! 😀
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This is an awesome initiative! Nice one! 😀 Our world needs more of this kind of causes. 🙂
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Thank you so much! You’re most welcome to participate as well if you can ! 😀
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Oh I will try! 😀
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Noble cause! I’ve carried my big, reusable bag when grocery shopping but never thought of blogging about it. Great one! 🙂
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Thank you! I’m so glad you use a reusable bag because you’re already way ahead of most of us in this part of the world who still struggle with the whole concept of reducing and reusing. I’ve started carrying old plastic bags in my purse too so that I can just pull them out at the supermarkets but it’s a habit that takes getting some used to because you hardly ever see anyone doing it here. Plus, I’ve had a hard time convincing my own family to join the bandwagon so I thought might as well just do it on my own. 🙂
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Agreed! It all starts with me 😀 One baby step at a time!
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Great initiative! I fully support it! 😄 I bring my own recycled bag wherever I go, just in case I need to buy anything. It’s really handy. Now my children are also doing that. Good habits are good to start young, isn’t it? 😄
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Thank you so much for the support, I really do appreciate it! I love that you carry recycled bags and that your kids do too! I agree, it’s so important to teach this to kids first because not only is habit formation easier at an early age but they are going to carry this habit with them for the rest of their lives! Would love it if you participated in it as well or reblogged this and spread the word! Thank you so much! 😀
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Reblogged! 🙂 It’s a great initiative, I’ll surely support! 🙂
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Thank you so much FS! I very much appreciate your support and encouragement! 😀
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You are most welcome! 😀 I also want to do my tiny part to reduce my carbon footprint. “Reduce, reuse, recycle!” 😀
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Hi T,
Great idea, I’ll definitely tag on!
Interestingly, as part of my transition, I’m trying to shop locally as much as possible. I’m planning meals, walking to the shops and bringing along a rucksack to put the food in. At the moment, I feel like I’m having to train the staff not to give me bags!
Yesterday, I unfortunately had to go to Tesco for a few things I can’t get elsewhere, and they were giving away free bags plastic bags (those they call a bag for life). She was most upset when I refused it!
Anyway, I think I saved 6 bags yesterday. It was a larger than normal rucksack, and I’m sure I used up a day’s calories walking it up the hill to get home.
Good luck with the experiment!
Saf
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Thank you so much Safar for participating, I’m so grateful and happy that you’re part of this experiment! 😀
Yay! I’m so happy you refused the bag for life and I completely understand, people find it really odd when I refuse a disposable plastic bag too and carry one of my own.
6 bags! That’s awesome! I’m sure by the time October is over, you would have saved so many more!
Thank you so much, I appreciate the support very much! 😀
Cheers,
Tx
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Reblogged this on I care, U care and commented:
This is a great initiative. Let’s support her and do our part to save the earth. 🙂
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Great experiment! I’ll bet I can save a lot since I never go shopping. 😀
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Hehehe! Thank you for your support ! 😀
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Did you get a bag count? I travelled over to a permaculture project with one rucksack full of rain gear, camera and snacks – not a single plastic bag used. We later did a tesco hop as we’d run out of soya milk. We bought about three bagfuls of cupboard stock – all went into my durable rucksack.
I’m getting stronger!!
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Oh yay! You saved quite a bit and are getting the added benefit of increasing strength! I don’t think the experiment has received much response yet (probably needed more aggressive social media marketing, maybe?) but personally, I saved 2 bags on Friday while shopping for groceries. I could have saved a 3rd one but the restaurant I had ordered takeaway from gave me the food in a plastic bag. I have started to carry a cloth bag and some old plastic bags with me but in some places, I do find it a bit odd to take them out (especially while shopping for clothes etc). I guess, it’s a mental block that I have to break down.
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I wonder how quickly all those 5ps would add up? It’d be a good charity fundraiser – save a bag, contribute your 5p …..
When I moved home last year, I finally added up all those coppers in jars that had been collected over the years. It was £160+ in total. Think how fat your piggy bank will get!!
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You’re right! Do local markets charge 5p for each plastic bag you use? That would be great if they did that here. Little expenses saved add up to a lot!
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The UK brought in a new law which started 5th October, shops now have to charge 5p for all single use plastic carrier bags. (This was already in place in all UK members except England). Although it’s been dubbed the bag tax, its aim is to help alleviate landfill site problems. Apparently 76 billion bags were given out last year by the main supermarkets alone, and this was a rise on previous years. Supermarkets are expected to donate the 5ps they charge to good causes. I’m watching!!
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Oh, that’s really commendable! I’m glad UK has realized the issue and taken action. In fact, Europe countries and their Western counterparts are relatively quite environmentally conscious and that’s a leaf the rest of the world needs to pick from their books. 76 billion bags is quite a huge number of plastic to be clogging the earth!
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There’s a lot of NGO and citizenship lobbying re environmental issues especially when policy threatens what has been achieved so far, or promises to improve in the future. However, it still is a case of is it too little, too late? We gain token gestures that fail to get at the real causes of the problems we face. I think there is still a problem of politicians being ostriches with their heads in the sand. The latest conference by our leading party didn’t make me feel so enthusiastic. I still believe that grassroots action, like permaculture, like the transition town movement, and localised economies could achieve more.
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Yes, the problem is we all know the issues but are waiting for someone else to come and solve it for us. Mahatma Gandhi was a huge advocate of self-reliance and the meanings of his words with respect to the actions that we take personally are beginning to dawn upon me.
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Really loved the idea of this post 🙂
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