How’s it going with the reusable grocery bags, folks? Some time ago, I started blithering about the switch from plastic to something safe and reusable. It was oh so hard to remember to carry the danged things into the grocery store. Sometimes I even forced myself to walk twenty yards back out to the parking lot – in the snow! – to fetch them. Oh my.
So how’s it going for you? Did you ever buy a few of those grocery bags they’re selling at the Real Food Co-op, Wegmans and Price Chopper? Can you ever remember to actually remove them from the car and bring them into the store? What about the moment when you look into the trunk and say to yourself, “I’m only here for a few things,” and you grab just one. You know what happens next: you buy five times as much as you expected you would, and then you leave with one earth-friendly bag and about eight plastic ones. Oh well. You tried… and that’s good!
Well, I’m getting used to this. I don’t feel quite as silly any more when I insist that they don’t give me a bag. I’m getting quicker at fishing my Chico Bag out of my purse and opening it with a flourish to prove that, yes, I really can carry ten things away with me without the plastic. I’m getting to the point that I feel downright sinful if I bring a plastic bag home, which I still do plenty of because – oops! – all those nice fruits and veggies come home in plastic! It takes time, but let’s see now… is it worth the effort?
The title of this post is ripped directly from this article by Heather Mallick at CBC News. Believe me, you really do want to know how the GPGP is going to bite us. How it already has bitten us. Your food and your body already have plastic in them. (And we’re still trying to figure out what causes cancer?) Give Ms. Mallick’s article a read – it’s refreshingly no-nonsense. Then decide if that next plastic bag or plastic bottle of water is really worth what’s happening to you… and your kids… and your grand-kids…
I’m not going to pretend like I’m perfect or anything, but you CAN also bring reusable produce bags when you shop. (You could just not use a bag, but I know many people don’t like their apples rolling around their cart or hanging out naked on the checkout conveyer belt thingie.) There are many places to get them…I like these: http://www.reusablebags.com/store/ecobagsreg-reusable-cotton-mesh-produce-bags-p-689.html
I also keep a handy bag in my purse that tucks itself into its own little pocket…I STILL don’t always remember to whip it out in time, but I usually do: http://www.greendimes.com/store/sku/B-002
Keep fighting the good fight!
Thanks for these great links, Kate! Also, thanks for letting me know about the bad link to a great article. It’s all fixed now. I just bought some of the reusable produce bags. Can’t wait to try them out!
Well, I now have 9 reusable bags and have remembered on about four occasions to use them. However, I do use them everyday for carrying things to the post office, the library or other places. And, I am getting better about remembering them.
It has also started me thinking about all the other plastic bags that I would go through in a normal day. Such as – sandwich bags for kids lunch items, the plastic bottled drinks we were going through, even my plastic trash bags.
I did replace my use of plastic bags for the kids lunches with hard plastic rubbermaid containers that should last for years and have only had two days in the past month where I used a plastic bag for their sandwiches.
I like the idea of the reusable produce bags.
Well, long and short is that I’m actively looking at all of my daily routines to determine if they are really the only good way to do something or is there a good alternative that is friendly to our environment.
Gwen