BLOG COMMENTS RE: Reusable Shopping Bags? Up to the Challenge?

For those of us who started using reusable shopping bags many years ago, do you remember those looks we got? Or how awkward we felt being the only one in line with our own bags? Those days are coming to an end. Soon, most of us will be giving funny looks to the people who don’t bring their own bags. For now, we understand that we have all been programmed to go to the store without bags since childhood, and it takes effort for people to change their habits. In fact, just today, I told my husband to take the reusable bags with him as he was getting ready to leave for errands, and he completely forgot. He ended up bringing home four plastic bags of groceries.

Most of us are familiar with the problems that plastic bags are causing in our environment: debris in the sea, marine and land animals dying from consuming or getting strangled in them. Apparently, they get caught up in industrial machinery as well, like the equipment in ****s or sewage plants. The entire country of China has banned plastic shopping bags because they cause such problems. Some big cities are doing this too, like San Francisco. The country of Ireland imposed a plastic bag tax that has greatly reduced plastic consumption and pollution. The following are some solutions I have brainstormed from reading about issues with plastic bags.

• Use reusable shopping bags everywhere you shop, not just at the supermarket. The up side of this is that you end up with fewer plastic shopping bags to store in your house.

• Remembering to take shopping bags to the store is the hardest part in the beginning. Some people put them in the front seat of their car when going shopping, others put it in the trunk and make sure they replace them after a trip to the store. Some hang them by their front or back door to remind them to take some on their errands. Some people have told me that when they forget to take their bags, they will choose paper bags or they will just buy more reusable bags. If they have too many already, they just give them as gifts to family or friends who could really use them.

• You can also buy or make cotton produce-sized and bulk-sized bags or re-use the plastic ones you got from the store last time. You just have to make it a habit to remember to take them with you. Once you start to get into the habit, you start to remember more often, but don’t punish yourself too much if you forget once in a while. It takes a long time to recover from a lifetime of going to the store without bags.

• Have fun with bag options. If you don’t mind spending a few more dollars or making your own, you can have fun with the beautiful styles and designs that are available now. If you sew, consider customizing some nice ones for yourself. They make nice gifts for other people too. Whole Foods has some really nice ones located at the customer service desk. They are also carrying reusable bags that include a charitable contribution when you purchase them. Be green and help feed the less fortunate – double karma. Here are some links for buying bags: (the best ones to get are made from recycled materials):

www.groovygreen.com/groove/?p=1197 (good list of bag stores)

bhappybags.com/home.php (chic)

www.reusablebags.com (variety)

go-againbags.com (low price)

www.ecobags.com/ (variety)

www.allfreecrafts.com/knitting/bag.shtml (how to sew a bag)

sewing.about.com/od/freeprojects/ss/totebag.htm (how to sew a bag)

www.thisnext.com/item/7BAB2DED/Eco-Bags-Reusable-Produce-Bags

www.nubiusorganics.com/EcoBag-Organic-Cotton-Produce-Bag-P80.aspx


• Lastly, sign up to go on local beach or community clean-ups if you just can’t bring yourself to make the change to reusable bags now,. If you haven’t done this before, it is a real eye opening experience to see how much plastic and how many plastic bags are already out there. I always joke with my husband that we don’t really need to bring a plastic bag to collect garbage because we will find one littered out there anyway. Community clean-ups are fun too, because it is rewarding to make a difference, and you do it with other like-minded folks. It is also just a great way to get out of the house and get exercise with your family!

Do you have some other ideas about how to remember your bags before you go to the store? Let us know replying to this blog.

-- Melinda

I've been trying to reduce my bag consumption not only with the large shopping bags, but also with all the little produce bags you get. I've been saving them and bringing them back to the store to reuse. Another thing I've started is bringing my own tupperware to the deli. One woman first weighed my meat and cheese in a plastic bag, which she then threw away to use the container I had brought. That was really annoying! But for the most part people have been very receptive to that and some have even started bringing their own containers as well.

It is difficult to remember to bring all the things you need. I have a pretty regular shopping schedule, but still when I'm trying to get out the door with the two kids and everything they need it's hard to even carry all the extra bags even when I do remember. But I guess like Melinda says, the more you do it, the more it will become a habit. I've also seen some tiny bags at reusablebags.com that supposedly fold into a keychain, then unfold into a large grocery-sized bag. That would be nice to have.

I was at the Boulder Creek Art & Music Festival yesterday and outside of the Green Leaf there was an A-frame as you come in from the parking lot that read "Did you remember your bags?" I thought that was awesome! Perhaps a grassroots campaign with signs near the entrances of markets would help...

I don't forget my bags now that I have a baby and have to get her out of the back seat (where I keep my bags). Before her birth I forgot them about half of the time.

I noticed Whole Foods hasthat sign inside each shopping cart. Let's see what our very own new (woo hoo!) New Lead does on their own and if they don't do something we can suggest it. If their store in Boulder Creek has it it's likely they'll do it here too.
JJ

Reusable Shopping Bags! I actually work at a grocery store, and I really dislike giving people plastic bags. I have my own reusable bags, and I think it is much better, plus the quality of our plastic bags are so bad, that it takes 2 bags to hold 2 2-liter soda bottles, 2 bags for milk jugs and just way too much. I really think reusable bags or nothing would work great at a grocery store, and really get people into thinking about the world, when they have nothing to hold their items in.

Re: BLOG COMMENTS RE: Reusable Shopping Bags? Up to the Challenge?

I think it would be ideal if New Leaf and all stores did not offer shopping bags too, but sadly they would lose some customers for that. Maybe they could do this though, if they had a bin at the front of the store where people or baggers could grab used grocery bags. I guess this would require a constant program to obtain old bags from people, but that would be great too!

When I lived in Italy, not only were you expected to bring your own bags, you bagged your own groceries and returned your shopping carts to a particular spot to get back your deposit (about the equivalent of 10 cents, but it was the point - that sized lire coin was useful!). I still get funny reactions when I start bagging my own groceries here. The grocery stores had bags "just in case you forgot", but you always paid for them.