Master Gardener Jean O’Neil has been interested in the environment all her life. After all, she has a doctorate and is a former wildlife ecologist who is retired from the Environmental Lab at what was Waterways Experiment Station, now the Engineer Research and Development Center.

Where to recycle

• MIDD-West Industries Drop-offs, 601-638-2761 — Paper and No. 1 and No. 2 plastic (check bottom of container); locations: Beechwood Elementary, 999 Mississippi 27; Bowmar Avenue Elementary, 912 Bowmar Ave.; Dana Road Elementary, 1247 Dana Road; Sherman Avenue Elementary, 2145 Sherman Ave.; South Park Elementary, 6530 Nailor Road; Warrenton Elementary, 809 Belva Drive; St. Aloysius High School, 1900 Grove St.; Stonewood Apartments, 1309 Mission 66; behind Reebok store at Outlets at Vicksburg, 4000 S. Frontage Road, and Warren County Courthouse, 1009 Cherry St.

• Vicksburg Recycling, 4766 N. Washington St., 601-631-6978 — Clean aluminum; auto motors and radiators; batteries; cars without gas tanks; converters; tin; mixed brass; transmissions; No. 1 and No. 2 copper; and No. 1 and No. 2 insulated wire.

• Keyes Recycling, 4385 U.S. 61 North, 601-636-8545 — Scrap metal.

• Office Max, 2170 Iowa Blvd., 601-629-9773 — HP, Lexmark and Dell empty ink cartridges.

• Kroger, 3408 Pemberton Square Blvd., 601-630-4000 — Plastic bags in bins located at the front of the store.

• Wal-Mart SuperCenter, 2150 Iowa Blvd., 601-638-9164 — Plastic bags in bins located at the front of the store.

Reared on a farm, she learned to appreciate the earth and its bounty at an early age. Now, O’Neil wants to encourage those who care about the environment to make just a few changes.

“Most of us seldom consider how our actions affect the environment,” she said.

Irresponsible disposal of plastic bags and containers can be changed.  People need to understand how much harm these items are doing to our waterways and landfills, says O’Neil, and to wild animals that get caught up in the bags or mistake plastic items for food.

Last year, The Wall Street Journal reported that American consumers go through some 100 billion plastic shopping bags a year. These petroleum-based products take an estimated 12 million barrels of oil to produce and less than one percent are recycled. They end up in landfills and waterways.

Plastic bags are among the 12 items of debris most often found in coastal cleanups, the Ocean Conservancy reports. More than 8 million pounds of them go into the seas each year. Just one cleanup of Mobile Bay on the Alabama coast in 2008 produced an amazing 4,500 plastic bags, according to Keep Mobile Beautiful. Plastics biodegrade slowly, breaking down into polymers that contaminate soil and water.

America is behind much of the world in addressing the plastic bag issue. Ireland taxes the use of plastic bags and has cut consumption dramatically. Australia, Denmark, South Africa, Taiwan, Italy, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, Holland, China and Bangladesh have laws or are considering laws to ban or tax the use of plastic bags. San Francisco and Oakland are the first U.S. cities to pass laws addressing this issue, but 40 other states or cities are considering taxes or mandatory recycling legislation, says the Food Marketing Institute.

O’Neil uses cloth bags for groceries, clothing or just about any other purchase she makes and encourages others to do so. Cloth bags are readily available from local stores and Internet sites, such as reuseablebags.com and cheaptotes.com. She is particularly fond of one she made from a fabric similar to parachute cloth. It is light and easy to store, but can carry a number of heavy items. Promotional totes and bags obtained at conventions and meetings can be used as shopping bags as well.

“ The first step is awareness,” O’Neil said. “Count how many plastic bags you bring into your house in a week.”

Most families will be amazed.

“Make a specific goal for all family members to reduce the use of bags by 25 percent, then increase that amount,” she says.

Shopping bags aren’t the only plastic bags that end up in the landfill. Most of us rely on plastic bags for many household uses. Both Oprah Winfrey and Martha Stewart advocate reuseable cloth bags and recommend a company called biobags for trash can liners and kitchen and lawn needs. Their biobags are 100-percent biodegradable and compostable and are available at www.biobagusa.com.

O’Neil says plastic bottles are almost as big an issue as plastic bags. More than 75 billion disposable beverage containers are discarded each year, or about 300 per American. Eight out of 10 of these bottles end up as trash rather than being recycled, says the Container Recycling Institute.

O’Neil is a strong advocate of recycling, whether it be plastics, paper, glass, aluminum or tin cans. And, as do many other gardeners, O’Neil has a great compost pile made of kitchen scraps.

The recycling bins at the Outlets at Vicksburg and at Beechwood, South Park, Sherman Avenue and Dana Road elementary schools accept No. 1 and No. 2 plastics and paper. Kroger and Wal-Mart provide recycle bins for used plastic bags. The Rainbow Co-op in Jackson takes all kinds of plastic and glass. And, Keyes Recycling on U.S. 61 North and Vicksburg Recycling on Washington Street pay for aluminum and tin cans.

O’Neil says each of us can make a difference to the environment. We need to teach our kids and grandkids also to appreciate and care for the world that we so often take for granted.

Miriam Jabour, a Master Gardener and master flower show judge, has been active with the Vicksburg Council of Garden Clubs for more than 20 years. Write to her at 1114 Windy Lake Drive, Vicksburg, MS 39183.