08/14/2026
Bigger fish to fry out there, for sure. But stay for the conversation. This is kind of interesting. If you think it’s the small things and the way we handle them, that reflect the way we make decisions for the big things.
Ecosystem — how we use our shared home.
Economy — how we use our shared resources for that home. Same root word. Not an accident.
Here’s something most people around here don’t know: Rapid City isn’t allowed to limit plastic bags at stores.
One reason is because in 2020 the state passed a law taking that decision away from every city and county in South Dakota.
Go to one of the TROUTnotTrash creek cleanups and it lands differently. (Sooo many plastic bags in Rapid Creek) (and the next clean up is the last Saturday of August, join it, it’s fun!)
How a place handles something this small says a lot about how it handles everything else.
Are we the kind of city that avoids responsibility for what we leave behind? Or the kind that’s willing to look at it?
A lot of fog gets in the way. If something is inconvenient, or we don’t want to do the motor actions to move with change, even if it means things would be better in the long term.
And here’s the thing, plastic bags were the fix. Paper meant cutting trees, so someone designed a bag strong enough to carry for years. Folded in your pocket. That was the point. Then we turned it into something we use for twelve minutes and toss.
So it’s not “we tried something and it failed, why bother.”
It’s that every solution eventually needs another look. We learn, we adapt, and we take responsibility at every level for how we leave this place.
If the choice were actually yours today — would you vote for reusable bags in Rapid City, or leave things as they are?
In this conversation, what are we missing? What other things do we just do.. but don’t realize that collectively it continues to make a mess that has no intention of being cleaned up.
