3 Simple Things You Can Do To Save Earth For Our Children

I now live in Amsterdam which enjoys one of the most *advanced* social systems in the world. 

The people here tend to be more down-to-earth and they keep it real so to speak, as you might have guessed from the expression like, "Going Dutch."

One of the things that they often do to "keep it real" is to use heavy-duty plastic shopping bags many times over as opposed to using one-time-tosser like those frail white plastic shopping bags you sometimes see catching air and flying across a four-lane freeway aimlessly before landing somewhere to be buried for eternity because plastic takes like an eon to decompose in the ecosystem.

It's mainly a foreign object to any ecological system on earth, like cancer in the human body.

Well, I know. We all depend heavily on them.

Shampoo bottles, cleaning solutions, salami packages, soda bottles and those white shopping bags!

But we can still try to *keep it real* as much as possible while receiving the convenience that plastic offers to the modern society by following the three simple things:

1) Buy less plastic products
- No ZipLock, use tapperware or better yet, glass jars from pasta sauce or other empty jars to store food. It's a good idea to re-use empty containers from pasta sauce, olive spread, or anything that can be cleaned and re-used.

2) No more plastic shopping bags
- I know this can be a habit hard to kick. So do it like the Dutch: Carry your own heavy-duty cotton bag or plastic bags from other shopping, like those big, heavy and fancy plastic bags from clothing stores. They are usually strong enough to be used for your groceries, many times over. The Dutch people do it here and so do I. You just always keep an used plastic bag nicely folded in your purse and use it when you are shopping.
- Refuse plastic bags when you are shopping for a few things, like a soap and a toothpaste. You can slip those in your bag easily.

3) Buy less packaged products
-Avoid those food products if they are over-packaged, anything that are individually packaged snacks or whatever to that extent. You know what I am talking about. Instead, why not buy bulk products? You save money and the environment at the same time!

Okay, that's it for keeping it real like Dutch.

Do it As Much As Possible, AMAP, that is.