In my kitchen I open a cupboard in hopes of Pop-Tarts when a bag full of these bags lightly crashes down upon my head. Seizing the crinkling mass from the floor, I toss it toward one of its brethren clinging to the walls of my trash can. I surely could reuse them, but not the amount that my apartment holds. If only I could be rid of these stark reminders of generational waste, but it seems a world without these bags simply is unfathomable.

They carry our groceries, clothes, booze and — in the end of the movie “American Beauty” — the meaning of life. The U.S. alone uses 100 billion disposable plastic bags a year, enough to circle the globe more than a thousand times. It seems plastic bags have become an integral part of our life and culture. Yet everyone knows they’re an enormous source of pollution and litter and can take up to a thousand years to break down. The question then becomes how do we break this addiction?

For me and countless others, the biggest obstacle to kicking the habit is forgetfulness, not apathy. Many times have I gone through my shopping only to arrive at the checkout and realize my reusable bags are sitting in my trunk or apartment. So here’s a couple tips I’ve found useful in remembering my reusable bags.

As soon as my purchases are unloaded, I put them by the door or better yet on the front seat of my car. The best trick of all though has been to make “use your bags,” the first item on all of my shopping lists.

Better yet, just say no to the cashier’s offer to bag your groceries.

Although individual action is beneficial and generally the most gratifying way to reuse bags, it can only do so much. That’s why some institutionally backed ways of getting rid of these bags, such as an outright ban of them on campus, would be best. This seems to be a simple issue where MSU could serve as role model to surrounding communities, not to mention a much more realistic goal than many of the other environmental causes being advocated for on campus.

As I say this, the capitalist in me lets out that perpetual antagonism to environmentalism everywhere: “but you’ll kill jobs!” To my profiteering conscience, I reply with the principle of creative destruction: Manufacturing reusable bags is not that much different from making the disposable variety, so there is nothing stopping those workers and firms from making a smooth transition. In fact, the reusable bag industry is booming with prices and styles for everyone’s desires. Which is why my conscience is clear whenever I opt for my reusable bags instead.

Despite the relative newness of this issue, most policymakers have come to the conclusion that the benefits of an outright ban cannot compare to those of a tax. Much like policies toward cigarettes, a plastic bag tax decreases use and provides revenue to cash-strapped localities, all the while diminishing the problem. Tax policies such as this have also been widely implemented in places like Washington, D.C., and Ireland with up to 90 percent reductions in consumption. A policy such as this inconveniences no one and would be even easier to implement here on campus.

In the end, it seems the plastic bag problem is one of the most serious but also most fixable environmental concerns today.

After realizing this, I went and fished that bundle of bags out of the trash, put it into my recycling bin and then made sure my reusable bags were placed securely in my car. I’m hoping the world would do the same so someday I can walk through campus on a pretty spring morning free from these amorphous menaces.

Christian Hokans is a State News guest columnist and political theory and constitutional democracy junior. Reach him at hokansch@msu.edu.