I have a new crush.  He’s 2 feet tall, rusty and cleans like nobody’s business.  Problem is, his heart belongs to someone else…his name is Wall-E.  After weeks of whining, negotiating, and all out begging, my husband and I finally broke down and took our boys to the movies.   I cozied up in the seat with my Junior Mints and soda, thinking this was going to be yet another hour and a half of animated silliness.  What I didn’t expect was leaving that theatre completely enlightened.  Caution!!  If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want to spoil your Wall-E experience, skip this next paragraph!

The story is set in 2700.  Wall-E is a robot that works for the Buy ‘n Large retail conglomerate. He has been left behind on Earth to clean up excess garbage left behind after humans destroyed and abandoned their beautiful planet and jumped ship to a luxury space liner.  On the space liner, humans live with their every whim attended to by simply pushing a button on their automated moving chairs.  Change of clothes? Push button 1.  Lunch? No problem… button 2.  With this automated lifestyle you can only imagine what these dynamic people are reduced to.

Wall-E is left behind to clean up the planet and he methodically does so, just as he always has. Earth has become one large garbage dump and Wall-E assumes the monumental task of cleaning up all the waste left behind by humans.   Then comes Eve…a beautiful, sleek robot who is sent to Earth from the space liner to look for any signs of life.  Wall-E eyes her from across the wasteland and immediately falls in love.  In an effort to win her over, Wall-E gives Eve a small struggling plant, which she takes back to the space liner.  This is the one morsel that can help grow and sustain life on Earth once again.   Eve and Wall-E are successful in fighting off a string of bad guys and manage to free the humans from their trance and return them to Earth with the precious plant. They have received a second chance.  We may not be so lucky.

WallE gives us a glimpse of what our future could be like if we don’t take better care of our planet.  A planet with more material waste than trees. 

Our wish is that we all take a little time to assess the way we are currently living.  It doesn’t have to be so difficult!   My sons even came away with a better understanding of what impact their habits can make on this planet.  They don’t hesitate to point out “glitter” (3 year old speak for litter) on the side of the road.  They noticed a couple of plastic bags adorning the beautiful beaches on our last vacation and scaled the sand dunes to grab them…saving their beloved birds and turtles.  They are all about saving their Earth.  If only we could all have that passion.

What small change can we make on a daily basis to reduce our consumption? 

~Recycle more 

~Change our lightbulbs to more energy efficient ones

~Purchase groceries with less packaging (and carry them home in a Neela bag instead of a plastic one!)

~Plan meals for the week to reduce the amount of food tossed out.  

These little changes can add up to big change over time.  I think Wall-E and our future generations would greatly appreciate our efforts.  Let’s lead by example in teaching our children that less is more … and to take care of our beautiful planet.

Since our launch, we’ve been lucky to have met lots of great people and have started working with some wonderful boutiques and retail shops to sell our bags.  One of those boutiques is Firefly, in Thomasville, Georgia.  Owner Nan Myers came up with the idea for an awesome window display showcasing a colorful collection of Neela bags with signs encouraging customers and passers-by to reduce their plastic bag consumption. We think it’s great and wanted to share these photos.  We hope you’ll check out www.fireflyhome.com – and if you’re ever in the area, stop in to say hello to our friends at Firefly and buy some Neela bags, y’all.

LA joins the growing list of cities banning plastic bags…check out this article.

If you’re anything like Carla and me, you may feel a bit overwhelmed hearing the constant chatter about what to do / what not to do in order to live a green lifestyle. Sometimes it’s hard to differentiate the facts from the fluff. One of the reasons we started Neela was because we felt that there were some easy, common sense changes we could make to help the environment – driving less, bringing a thermos on the morning coffee run, buying produce from the local farmer’s market, and of course, using reusable bags instead of endless amounts of paper and plastic. We like to think it’ s just going back to the basics.  Check out this interesting article from last Sunday’s New York Times.

Since we launched our website on May 1^st, the response for Neela bags has far exceeded our expectations.  As a result, we have several bag styles that are temporarily sold out and we are hard at work to re-stock the inventory.  We expect that all bags will be available by June 11. Thank you to everyone who has purchased our bags and visited our website. We’re thrilled that so many of you are enjoying our bags and making this small but important change in your daily shopping routines! 

 Thanks for your patience and please check back soon!

Wow! Can’t believe we finally have our beautiful bags ready for sale! It has been such fun getting here, and we are thrilled with our products and think you will be too.

So, are you a first time reusable bag user? Maybe wondering how does one kick the bag habit? We all tend to mindlessly accept bags for our purchases all day every day. But – we’re here to help with some handy tips for using reusable bags. As you’ll see it’s a fairly straightforward three-step process: Buy, Use, Reuse.

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