Upgrade Your Enviro-Tote

No.

Want to make some fast cash? Get into the tote business. Seattle's gearing up to charge customers for using plastic grocery bags, and every grocery in town has begun selling reuseable bags.

However, the run on totes is leading to two subsequent problems that are arising like snakes from the mist.

Problem one: the tote accumulation crisis -- what do you do when you keep forgetting your totes, and have to buy more, ending up with 20 million? The Times' Nancy Leson has this dilemma.

Problem two: ugly tote proliferation. As the need for totes rises, so does the need to be toting the right totes.

The solution to both problems, of course, is to toss and upgrade.

Northwest Harvest is tired of spending $16K a year on a half-million plastic grocery bags and wants to switch to cloth reusable ones, aesthetics be damned. They're putting out a public call for tote donations. If you're interested in donating your tired, your excess, or your ugly bags to the food bank, email greenbags@northwestharvest.org or call 923-7463.