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I have 3 reusable bags, two canvas, and one stretchy string.
If/when my groceries go over that, and they often do, I take the store's plastic ones, and save them for re-use.
same thing here i always carrry some of those bags with me in my messenger bag i've got a really big barnes and noble bag and a smalller whole foods bag it's hard to convince my mom to use those bags i've got two from five below and one from trader joe's as well and had one i'd bought from staples that i loved until it broke and one absolulty huge one from kohls which i'm using this christmas to (giggles) hide my bought presents
It is a hard habit to get into taking my cloth bags. I'm always getting in the store and then kicking myself that I left the bags at home. I do have them on a hook that I can see by the back door but I need to just keep a set in the front seat where I can see them. I reuse or recycle the plastic ones. My store gives you five cents for bringing each cloth bag in...
I collect all plastic bags I get from the stores and take them to the recycling bin(s) located outside most grocery stores. This is a very convenient way for me to get rid of them since I go to the grocery several times a week. I have been doing this for quite a few years.
IMO - Paper bags are cumbersome and not very sturdy. I would - if used - recycle them. As for "bring your own", I would forget to bring them, they would have to be cleaned if used consistently, and I really just don't see how after all these years I could change my habits.
Do I have a good, bad, or a marginally acceptable approach to to being environmentally friendly? How many people really recycle their plastic?
I recycle plastic market bags in a low tech way. I use the bags from shopping as trash can liners so I refrain from buying hefty bags. Sure, not the recycling you're talking about, but if you're bringing your own bag to the store, what about the bags you're using on the consumed end of your shopping?
The way I look at it, I've reduced my overall plastic bag consumption by 50%, saved the cost on disposal bags, and keep the house cleaner by taking the trash out more frequently in small bags vs a large kitchen bag. It's better than nothing. Bring my own... I'm with you, I'd likely forget them. Heck, sometimes I get to the register and realize I left my wallet in the car.
Paper bags are handy for odd things like ironing candle wax out of a table cloth, ripening fruit, or being used as book covers for school children but I rarely bother with them. The only exception was when I had a wood burning fire place. Handy for kindling, adds btu's to the house, kept one more thing out of landfills.
I think recycling should include finding longer shelf lives/ re-purposing items that would ordinarily have a short shelf life and go to the landfill faster as mentioned above. There's also a subtle shade of grey as a consumer making better/ best choices. IE. A bic disposable razor, if you stack up what you'd use in a year, has x amount of volume/ material wasted. Fixed razors you keep that have disposable blades by comparison wastes far less but keeps the same hygienic standard. Same for disposable pens vs changing an ink cartridge in a nicer pen. It only makes sense to spend the extra $$ for that high end pen casing if you aren't forever losing your pens, and only the individual knows who they are.
For instance, I tried my best to get my grandmother to give up her 5 million water bottles for a brita pitcher, but even the small pitcher was too much strain on her wrist. Advanced stages osteoporosis being what it is, she can't manage. The PUR filter on the tap did the trick. She uses paper bags to contain her recycled newspapers. Not bad for 89 yrs old.
What's that you're saying about old dogs and new tricks?
I have my mother's old canvas tote bags that she used to use at the market when I was a kid. I still use them, but when I forget them I use plastic bags because most of the markets I go to no longer offer the paper bag option, sadly.
Often times, if I can carry it without a bag, I'll ask for no bag.
I use several cotton canvas totes for groceries. What plastic bags I acquire from different retailers get recycled at the supermarkets recycle bins. Every three weeks or so I get half a dozen paper bags. Mostly to store and transport my paper/cardboard recyclables and other sundry projects. I've found that it's a seldom recognized fact that paper bags keep local paper mills in service employing locals and, of course, trees are renewable resources. We grow more every day here in Maine.
I bring my own bags. I have several Baggu bags and a few bags from Target, Meijer and Rite-Aid. I do all my grocery shopping on Saturdays, so I bring them with me, and I keep two folding bags in my purse for impromptu runs to the store. I don't have enough reusable bags to carry all my groceries yet, so I keep three or four plastic ones stuffed in with the others, just in case. I try not to bring home any more.
I do a lot of shopping at Aldi, where you have to buy bags if you want them. I think their plastic bags are six cents apiece.
I bring my own bags, like a prior poster, it took a while to remember to bring them in a shop (I put them in my back seat), but now I'm religious about it. It saves a LOT of garbage.
And btw, I have yet (I've looked) to find any credible source showing how they can recycle those grocery bags. I have seen quite a few reports that such bags are actually compacted on pallets and shipped to China, where they are burned as fuel due to lax environmental regulations. This is supposedly due to the fact that we buy tons of stuff from China, but China buys almost nothing we make. But - the freight barges that bring Chinese goods here need to return, so why not dump off bags nobody will recycle due to no financial incentive?
I'm still trying to get in the habit of bringing my own bags. I take my own purchased cloth bags or previously used paper bags about 50% of the time and the rest of the time I request paper. The paper bags are already made out of recycled paper and I can recycle them several times by taking them back to the grocery or putting my paper & cardboard to be recycled in them for pick-up, for letting christmas cookies or fried foods cool upon them (soak up the excess oil), or for targets for target practice (paper bag is about the same size as average human torso @ 7 yrds). Best of all, paper bags use less petroleum than the plastic.
Last edited by lifelongMOgal; 11-18-2009 at 05:51 PM..
Reason: spelling
file:///Users/tcrackly/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot.png (broken link)file:///Users/tcrackly/Library/Caches/TemporaryItems/moz-screenshot-1.png (broken link)Stated uses for recycled plastic bags include parking lot stops, pallets, decking, and laundry baskets.
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