I finally bought a reusable tote bag from Whole Foods to carry my groceries and it really made me feel good. I always feel guilty about accepting the double bagged plastic grocery bags but I really had no other way to safely carry my groceries home. Finally, I purchased the large canvas tote that Whole Foods carries. It cost $7.50 and it's great. It's really big and probably carried as many groceries as they normally would have put in three bags. It also has handles to carry by hand as well as a shoulder strap which is very helpful when carrying a bag around in the city. It's very strong and durable. I highly recommend getting one. If I move to the suburbs I will buy more to keep in my car, but until then I usually know when I'm going to the grocery store and can bring my bag with me.
I don't know if everyone else has noticed, but ever since San Francisco said they were going to quit using plastic bags our stores have started asking if you want your groceries double bagged or not (they use to always just double bag them automatically). I hope this is a trend and they ban plastic bags across the country. I wish I would have made this purchase a long time ago.  | Hooray!! I couldn't agree more. When we go to the grocery store we have 2 duffle bags that we take with us to save on plastic bags. We jam as much in there as possible-seldom do we need any plastic bags at all. They always double bag everything at our local and each bag contains 2-3 things-a total waste and it really bugs me that they have no concern for trying to conserve plastic bags.
Maybe one day they will jump on the environment bandwagon!! :) |
 | This is a good thing (and I am jealous- I wish we had a Whole Foods near us).
I feel good about re-using every bag I get from the grocery store, either to line trash cans around the house, or to pick up dog poops. At least re-using does some reducing. But I'm with you, maybe I should use canvas bags in the car too! |
 | tracy wrote on Apr 16, '07  I feel good about re-using every bag I get from the grocery store, either to line trash cans around the house, or to pick up dog poops.  Well, that's an interesting point b/c until now I did the same thing (only with cat litter rather than dog poops). But we still always had WAY more bags built up than we could possibly use. So I was thinking, once I get to the point where we don't have a huge stash of plastic bags (and that will be awhile) around the house to use for cat litter what I'll use. I'm not sure if there is a more environmentally friendly alternative. |
 | Good for you, Tracy. We do recycle our plastic bags, but Bob has been trying to remember to take our old paper bags to reuse so he is helping the environment, too. I need to start remembering myself. We do our own bagging at Shop n' Save, but they never double bag at the other stores we go to. However, they do only put 3 or 4 items in the bag depending on the size of things. So you do get more bags than you need. |
| At our ShopRite, if you bring back your old bags, they will credit your bill $0.02 per bag. I used to do that when we end up with more bags than we can use, but right now, we seem to be at a zero sum point. |
 | Out of curiosity, do you know if there are any parallels to the reusable v. disposable cup comparison (where, in order for reusable to be more energy-conserving than disposable, you'd have to get ~1,000 uses out of it). Of course, cups and bags are different things, with bags not having to be washed as often, if ever. But I'm sure there's more to consider than 'canvas good, paper/plastic bad.' :) |
| tracy wrote on Apr 20, '07 Out of curiosity, do you know if there are any parallels to the reusable v. disposable cup comparison (where, in order for reusable to be more energy-conserving than disposable, you'd have to get ~1,000 uses out of it).
Of course, cups and bags are different things, with bags not having to be washed as often, if ever. But I'm sure there's more to consider than 'canvas good, paper/plastic bad.' :) I've yet to find any source that says it's better to use paper or plastic vs. canvas. |
| tracy wrote on Apr 20, '07, edited on Apr 20, '07 Well, I'm not saying that it is better, just that there's more than meets the eye that needs to be considered here. If you're only going to use a bag once and then dispose of it, I've little doubt that paper or plastic is the more environmentally sound way to go over canvas. Two uses of a canvas bag verses two disposable bags, the outcome is likely to be the same.
But there's a certain number of re-uses where a canvas bag becomes the "better" way to go. (Ten? A hundred? I have no idea.) I'm just curious if anyone knows what that figure is. Honestly, I have no idea. If you find any data, please post it as I'd love to see what they have to say on this topic. My intention is to use the bag until it's no longer usable. It's a really sturdy bag so I doubt it will wear out any time soon. Also, rather than buy a new canvas bag, as Megan mentioned in a post, you could use any sturdy bag you already own rather than go out and purchase a special bag. As for washing it, I don't see it being something that gets washed that frequently. Maybe once a week or even once a month depending on if something leaked and I'm very careful to not purchase leaky products. Even when it is washed, it would be thrown in to one of the many loads of wash that I already do so I don't think I would be using any extra energy or water to serve this purpose. |
 | TRACY!
TRACY!
SHE'S OUR WHOOO-MAN!!
IF SHE CAN'T DO IT NO ONE CAN!!!!!
YOU GO!! I recycle all my bags but plan to start buying canvas to weed out plastics all together... and I will have you know that starting my last grocery trip I bought GREENWISE Milk, Chicken and something else too that I hadn't ever before. : ) |
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