How ironic that a Swede invented (well, "made production-ready") the disposable plastic shopping bag, and then Ikea, also a Swedish company, starts selling its own reusable shopping bags. Kinda like Alfred Nobel wanting to make up for his invention of dynamite (heh... also Swedish...).

DC charges an extra 5 cents per plastic shopping bag, and they say the money goes towards cleaning up the Anacostia river. Not surprisingly, most of the bits of trash I see out that way are orphaned plastic bags. I've been trying to use my own reusable bags since I brought one of my sister's home from Germany. Cotton or nylon, lightweight, easily packable, strong enough for a lot of stuff.