I use a list as part of a Python program, and wanted to convert that to an environment variable. 

So, it's like this:

```
list1 = ['a.1','b.2','c.3']
for items in list1:
    alpha,number = items.split('.')
    print(alpha,number)

```

which gives me, as expected:

```
a 1
b 2
c 3

```

But when I try to set it as an environment variable, as:

```
export LIST_ITEMS = 'a.1', 'b.2', 'c.3'

```

and do:

```
list1 = [os.environ.get("LIST_ITEMS")]
for items in list1:
    alpha,number = items.split('.')
    print(alpha,number)

```

I get an error: `ValueError: too many values to unpack`

How do I modify the way I pass the list, or get it so that I have the same output as without using env variables?