Reusable Bag Glut Creates New Environmental Issue; Solve One Problem, Create Another (greenhouse gas, greenhouse)
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I've got one natural grocers bag that I've been using for 4 years and that's it. It holds about 75% of my groceries and I love the kroger/smiths gas points.
I suppose the question to go with all of this is how do we shop, grocery wise? For the day, every few days.........once a month for the mains with 2 week intervals for fresh veggies?
Yeah I'm not a fan of using used clothes to make grocery bags from. That cloth is too close to people's skin that they sweat in and some don't wear underwear and some don't half way wash their clothes properly and bacteria builds up over time. Nope, no thank you! LOL
You do realize that a) you are going to wash these clothes before making them into a bag, and b) you’re going to use these bags to carry such things as raw meat, eggs, or other items that may leak. The real problem with reusable bags is that some people use the kind that can’t really be washed regularly. I typically use the small, foldable ones that easily go in the washing machine and can be thrown in with a load of towels and washed on hot.
You do realize that a) you are going to wash these clothes before making them into a bag, and b) you’re going to use these bags to carry such things as raw meat, eggs, or other items that may leak. The real problem with reusable bags is that some people use the kind that can’t really be washed regularly. I typically use the small, foldable ones that easily go in the washing machine and can be thrown in with a load of towels and washed on hot.
On the other hand, though, it could be like the blind eye or the lack of information when people were talking a few years ago of making cargo pallets into furniture.......and someone pointed out that a lot of industrial materials like chemicals and pesticides were moved on those things and who knows what they had been contaminated with.
Or go back a few years before that when it was touted to use 35mm film containers as salt and pepper shakes, just switch the tops.......and someone pointed out that the stuff that goes into making film can leach into those walls of the container.
Do you know what the wearer of the clothes did for a living? How many jeans have I had destroyed because of HCL acid and the chemicals we use to detox equipment from disease and invasive species.
Things that look good on the surface may not be so innocent....underneath it all.
The squeamishness at using old clothes to make grocery bags amuses me. A lot of clothing gets manufactured in literal sweatshops, then gets fondled by a lot of dirty hands on the way to store racks, then gets handled and tried on in-store by people with dodgy hygiene (who often drop it on the floor)—but washing old garments before using the fabric to make shopping bags (which will, more often than not, be used to hold food that is inside containers or bagged/wrapped in plastic, and never touches the inside of that bag) is a potential health hazard? Really?
The main issue I run up against when making grocery bags from old clothes is that most fabrics (especially in women's clothing) are of such poor quality these days, they just aren't worth the effort. There is so much flimsy polyester out there, and it's a real pain to sew, so while I do find other ways to repurpose them when I'm stuck with them, grocery bags isn't it. And when I do find good fabrics, I'm not going to waste them on shopping bags—those go into quilts, or are pieced into new garments or home dec projects.
I have made bags from cotton t-shirts; they're generally good for holding bulky, lightweight items, but if you reinforce the bottom and bind the edges, they can carry surprisingly heavy loads. I've got another, made from an old hoodie, found in a trash pile when the students moved out, that I can load up with cans (plus fit a few chocolate bars in the outer pocket); it's amazing how much weight it can hold. Yesterday, it carried about 25 lbs of old textbooks I scavenged for a craft project, with no trouble.
Oh, and all of my produce bags are made from thrifted polyester sheer curtains, that got one trip through a hot wash and were hung dry before getting turned into bags. I'm still not dead from whatever germy horrors were on them (nor are the family members who have used the bags I gave them).
The squeamishness at using old clothes to make grocery bags amuses me. A lot of clothing gets manufactured in literal sweatshops, then gets fondled by a lot of dirty hands on the way to store racks, then gets handled and tried on in-store by people with dodgy hygiene (who often drop it on the floor)—but washing old garments before using the fabric to make shopping bags (which will, more often than not, be used to hold food that is inside containers or bagged/wrapped in plastic, and never touches the inside of that bag) is a potential health hazard? Really?
The main issue I run up against when making grocery bags from old clothes is that most fabrics (especially in women's clothing) are of such poor quality these days, they just aren't worth the effort. There is so much flimsy polyester out there, and it's a real pain to sew, so while I do find other ways to repurpose them when I'm stuck with them, grocery bags isn't it. And when I do find good fabrics, I'm not going to waste them on shopping bags—those go into quilts, or are pieced into new garments or home dec projects.
I have made bags from cotton t-shirts; they're generally good for holding bulky, lightweight items, but if you reinforce the bottom and bind the edges, they can carry surprisingly heavy loads. I've got another, made from an old hoodie, found in a trash pile when the students moved out, that I can load up with cans (plus fit a few chocolate bars in the outer pocket); it's amazing how much weight it can hold. Yesterday, it carried about 25 lbs of old textbooks I scavenged for a craft project, with no trouble.
Oh, and all of my produce bags are made from thrifted polyester sheer curtains, that got one trip through a hot wash and were hung dry before getting turned into bags. I'm still not dead from whatever germy horrors were on them (nor are the family members who have used the bags I gave them).
I think the bag health hazard typically comes from people who get those laminated (?) or really flimsy bags at the grocery store, never wash them, and then have meat and who knows what else leaking into the bag. I have leaks too, but at least my bags can be washed and dried at hot temps. They also fold up nice and small.
I live in New Jersey and we can purchase heavier plastic bags at checkout. These bags generally cost about .35 cents, and what I would consider a one time use bag, there's a sign that goes with the bag that 300 uses of the bag will save 1 regular plastic bag. By the counts of uses I've accumulated since the bag ban started, I've already probably used 2 lifetimes worth of plastic in the last 6 months than I would have used before.
I live in New Jersey and we can purchase heavier plastic bags at checkout. These bags generally cost about .35 cents, and what I would consider a one time use bag, there's a sign that goes with the bag that 300 uses of the bag will save 1 regular plastic bag. By the counts of uses I've accumulated since the bag ban started, I've already probably used 2 lifetimes worth of plastic in the last 6 months than I would have used before.
THAT is a pretty useful idea that I've never thought of. Make the plastic bag super heavy duty such that it can be re-used 300 (or whatever) times. I like that as a plausible alternative.
I live in New Jersey and we can purchase heavier plastic bags at checkout. These bags generally cost about .35 cents, and what I would consider a one time use bag, there's a sign that goes with the bag that 300 uses of the bag will save 1 regular plastic bag. By the counts of uses I've accumulated since the bag ban started, I've already probably used 2 lifetimes worth of plastic in the last 6 months than I would have used before.
Problem in NJ, in an ultimate signal of its legislators' virtues, banned paper bags as well. I guess they want NJ to be like the Caribbean, with people carrying groceries on their head. I can't post a picture without violating TOS.
Really? Never heard about Bring Your Own Bags??
Perhaps it's time to form a new habit.
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