This year's Blog Action Day topic is the environment. Bloggers can participate by writing about the topic in whatever way suits their blog. Helping the environment is not something we can do over night. Start by choosing one thing that can make a difference.

My choice:

My friend Tess of Made by Tess fame, developed these amazing grocery totes. You take them to the grocery store so you don't have to leave with 1000 petroleum based plastic bags. They're large enough to fit all your veggies, milk and chips. I've loaded mine up to 35 pounds and not a single stitch gave loose! I love these bags, I own two myself and have given more as gifts.

The whole idea of taking your own bag to the store is common in Europe, but never really became part of American culture. Hopefully things will take off soon with people like Julia Roberts getting in on the action.

Photo courtesy of Jezebel.

For quick trips to the store for eggs or chocolate I use a Chico Bag. They're small and they fold up into a self contained pouch for easy purse storage.

So go, find a way to change something in your everyday life. These bags are a great start. In case you're not convinced, here are some frightening statistics about plastic bags from Chicobags.com:

- The average American uses between 300 and 700 plastic bags per year.

- If everyone in the United States tied their annual consumption of plastic bags together in a giant chain, the chain would reach around the Earth not once, but 760 times!

- According to the American Forest and Paper Association, in 1999 the U.S. alone used 10 billion paper grocery bags, requiring 14 million trees to be cut down.

- Plastic bags don’t biodegrade, they photo-degrade—breaking down into small toxic bits contaminating soil and waterways and entering the food-chain when mistaken for zooplankton or jellyfish.