Paper or Plastic?

Kit,

You hopeless, incurable romantic, you! Grocery bags for Christmas?

I'll do you one better. One year I got post-hole diggers for Christmas! (Actually, that was what I wanted!)

My mother-in-law, who passed away last year at age 99, up til the day she died, she cut up her cereal boxes and used the front and back for all kinds of things: notepads, fans, you name it! She also saved the bag inside and used it like we would a zip-lock bag. I know I threw out a thousand of those cardboard pieces. And at least 2000 yogurt containers.

I found your site through "This is True." I'm enjoying some of these articles.
Thanks, Randy, for introducing me to this site.

Kathi

Not sure if you have Aldi's food stores near you, but they charge for bags and recommend reusable ones. My wife has taken to keeping several reusable bags in her car, and actually using them (me, I have them... but rarely remember to bring them into the store...).

Kathi,

Romantic fools seem to run rampant around here.

I bought Randy a chain saw for his birthday eight years ago. I don't remember if he's ever used it, but I sure have. What a great gift that was! I'm so "considerate". :~D

-Kit

Of course I have used the chain saw! But not as much as you have, dear.

Kit,
You can make reusable vegetable bags for produce using net tulle. It works great and they can be rinsed and reused, practically forever. I made mine with drawstring tops using shoelaces but you can just make a simple bag and use the twist ties. It is still much better than using the plastic.

GJ,

That sounds really good. I've been saving the mesh bags some fruit and vegetables (like avocados, lemons and tomatoes) come in to use. I hadn't thought of making my own.

That sounds like a Quirky Kit article for later!

Thanks for the suggestion, GJ!

-Kit

I actually found the mesh bags with drawstrings sold in a three pack at dollar tree. (go figure!) they aren't marketed as produce bags, but I quickly figured out that's what they are best for.

Oh, buying 3 for $1 is better than making them yourself! That's energy conservation in action!! :~D

-Kit

I've tried to influence my husband to use our re-usable shopping bags, with mixed results. Often, when we shop together, he makes a joke out of it, laughing when I forget the bags; when he goes shopping alone, he adamantly refuses to use them. I stopped arguing my point a few weeks ago (resorting instead to gentle disappointed sighs), and lo and behold! he's started actually using them now. I was even tactful enough not to mention it, for fear that he'd be stubborn and stop. I'll get him to think green yet!!

I have a couple of bags that fold up into tiny storage pouches (one has the pouch built-in). I try to keep them in my jacket pockets for impulse purchases.

Many Canadian stores now charge 5 cents for a plastic bag, so reusables are making a dent, here. One chain also sells a plastic bin/basket for a few dollars. Four bins fit in a shopping cart.

I have string bags over 20 years old also. I remember my grandmother in Scotland not being able to find a bag in the house one day, so she got out a crochet hook and a ball of string and made one in a few minutes. I don't have that one, alas.

Henry, do you think, from your experience here, that five cents is enough charge for shopping bags from the store? The bin idea sounds interesting. I can't quite picture it, but in my next Canadian visit I'll have to go grocery shopping!

Too bad about not having your grandmother's handmade string bags. That would be really cool.

-Kit

We've been fans of reusable bags for years, but recently we've been taken to a new level. My son's girlfriend makes reusable bags from old plastic grocery bags. She cuts them cross-ways into 1/2 wide inch loops, links the loops into long strings and crochets them into bags with handles.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, in order of importance.

Ed

Ed, that's as very cool concept. If I could crochet anything more than a string I'd consider doing that. But then, I'm busy enough without adding another task. I guess it's good that I can't crochet.

Any chance of getting a picture of at least the finished product, if not also the "raw" materials?

-Kit

At Whole Foods in Dallas, they take the positive reinforcement approach and give you a "rebate" for bringing in your own bag. I think it's 50 cents a bag, but I haven't had the good fortune of being able to go since November, so don't remember exactly.

Been using reusable bags for years - canvas bags. When we forget, we use paper. I don't find the grocery plastic bags that "reusable" while paper bags can hold our paper recycling until we take it to the dump. But we rarely forget the canvas bags these days! Snagged a census canvas bag recently to add to the collection.

Oh, for wine and bottled water (can't convince my husband to give up his fizzy water) we use cardboard packs that hold six bottles. They can be reused a lot before ending up in the cardboard recycling, and they're sturdier than cloth bags made for that purpose.

ChicoBags are the best! They are nylon bags that compress into their own little stuff sacs. They fit easily into my purse. I have lots of reusable grocery bags, but they often get filled up with sports equipment, mail, cats, etc, and then it takes me a few days to get them back to the car so they're ready for the next expedition. My ChicoBags just go directly back into my purse as soon as they're unloaded.

These are some great ideas!! THANKS!!

Kit:
Many stores give credit for bringing in your own bags (7 cents per bag in my area).

I went to Target last week and the cashier told me I got a 5 cents rebate for each reusable bag I brought in and used. I wish more stores would do that.

I've been using them for several years and love them. I keep a stash in the trunk of my car for unexpected stops. I have a couple in the front seat beside me so I won't forget them when going into a store. When I get them unloaded, I hang them on the doorknob so I can grab them and throw them in the car next time I go out. Most stores around here keep the bags near the cash register and they're only 99 cents, I can pick up a couple if I run short.

Publix sold Christmas-decorated bags last year and guess who received all their gifts in the decorated bags? :o) They're cheaper than most gift bags!

I am still reusing the thousands of plastic bags I collected over the years for lining trash cans, cleaning out the litter box and toting crushed aluminum cans to the recycling center. I'm not sure what I'll do when they run out in a couple of years!

Lou, I know many stores pay you to bring your own bags. I don't think that's enough, though. People tend to respond to money out of their pockets more than money into their pockets. Since I think the majority of people don't bring their own durable/reusable bags, I think the way to change that is to charge people for the bags they get from the store.

I do appreciate the little gesture of being paid for my bags, but that's not enough for most shoppers, IMHO.

-Kit

Marie, I guess when your stash is gone you'll either have to buy another person's stash, or "change your evil ways". :~>

My Bigger Half and I are just about plastic bag free. We drop waste directly into trash cans which then get dumped into a plastic-lined (the plastic is bio-degradable) garbage can (we dumped trash in their directly for years, but after years of being drug down the road and abused by the trash guys, it's broken to use without a plastic bag). Cat litter is cleaned into a bucket -- though an empty litter bucket would work just as well -- and then dumped into the garbage can. It's easier for My Bigger Half to take the plastic bag to the corner than the trash can too.

It works for us. You'll find your system.

-Kit

IF people aren't washing their bags frequently they are risking food poisoning... FYI
http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/theappetizer/archive/2009/05/20/back-to-plastic-reusable-grocery-bags-may-pose-public-health-risk.aspx
Gee, you two wold be fun to have over for dinner! In case you ever make it to Portland!

JoLee,

It never ceases to amaze me what warnings and terrors lie in wait for unsuspecting people. Common sense should prevail in how people use their bags, but if common sense were common, every one (more, anyway) would have it.

So, let's use this space to remind people to wash their bags when they are dirty.

Thanks for the link!

-Kit

Anyone know how to do the reusable bags with the self-checkout lanes? the machine screams at you: "unexpected item in the bagging area!"

Jackie, Sometimes we don't have that problem if we put the bags on the hooks before starting to check out. Each machine location is different, it seems, as sometimes there's a button to say you have your own bags, sometimes the attendant has to signal the system it's ok, and sometimes you just have to circumvent the system by staking your goods on the bag scale and bag later.

It's become a game with me to figure it out with the least hassle.

-Kit

We have some large canvas bags that we got at costco years ago. My favorite thing about them is I can do a significant shopping run without a cart. I like to be quick and nimble in the store. It irritates me when I get to the counter and the bagger fills each one about 1/4 full and then starts filling plastic bags. "Excuse me, I got through the entire store with those bags just fine!" It amazes me how many people get a look of disbelief that I do not need help, nor do I need a cart to carry those 3 or 4 bags to the car.

Backpacks can hold an AMAZING amount of groceries! I NEVER remember to grab bags before leaving my house and frankly I grocery shop infrequently enough that keeping bags in my truck is just not a useful idea. There is to much other stuff that lives there!

BUT! I often use a smallish backpack to keep my days 'stuff' together. Water bottle (a reusable metal one!), sweatshirt (thrift store find!), lunch, etc. So there have been times all that has been emptied on the the seat of the truck and I take the backpack in. Besides, it's fun to watch the checkers face when you fit that much into a back pack!

I also really like that one of our smaller stores around here has size sorted bins near the checkout that they put they're cardboard boxes in when they stock the store. So I can grab a large box there when I pick up groceries and then take it with me to the big store where I do the rest of my shopping! No more cereal boxes blowing away from the back of the truck on the highway when I'm headed home!

Ruth,

Cool ideas! I use the boxes from the Big Box Stores, but hadn't thought to use them at the little stores. I do think I'll stick to my bags though, they use fewer resources and are quite reusable. And besides, I don't have a truck bed to worry about.

Your story of employee reactions to stuffing all that into your backpack reminds me of my ScottEVest with 21 pockets. I have used it as my purse and shopping back for years. It amazes store clerks at how much I can tuck into my pockets when leaving the register. :~) It's so much fun!

-Kit