Ideal Bite

Great tip! For years, I have been bringing my own bags to grocery stores, farmers markets, and all other stores (garden centers, hardware, pharmacies). But you MUST tell the register up front (not as they're ringing up the items) that you have your own bag. They automatically bag items in the store's plastic bags without realizing it. By the way, the tip said Safeway gives bag refunds.....however many Safeways I have gone to do not. Most chain grocery stores do not have a bag refund, unless it's Whole Foods or Wild Oats. And I do not use a plastic bag for lining trash bins (gasp! the horror!) except for the kitchen (which can get awfully messy). Then when I'm ready to take out the trash, I add the trash from the non-lined bins to the kitchen one. Only one bag to haul to the trash and many fewer bags in the landfill.

I've been using canvas bags routinely for a couple of years now. I have to admit, it took a while to get in the habit and there were a few forehead-slap moments at the register when I realized they were still at home. My husband teases me that I have a canvas bag fetish but he bought his own recently and has been using it regularly. I bought my bags from various places, like souvenirs. Hawai'i, New Mexico, work conferences, grocery stores (I like to support stores when they sell canvas bags). I bought canvas totes from the craft store, sewed on a ribbon for decoration and used them as Christmas gift bags last year (twice the present!). When my mother-in-law complained that the bag boy only single bagged her large olive oil and the bag broke and so did the olive oil jar, I had to chastise her (gently of course) for not using the canvas bag I gave her for Christmas. Last week at Baron's (San Diego) I was short one bag (kitchen re-stocking time) but the cashier gave me one of theirs for free, I assume because I had already used the ones I brought. I'm still a little shocked when the cashier is surprised I don't need a bag for three items I've just been carrying around the store in my hand.

I've been using these bags from Envirosax. I got 5 of them for only $33. You can get them in the U.S. at the following url: http://www.delight.com/Envirosax-Delightfully-Pretty-Reusable-Grocery-Ba... I LOVE these bags! They are beautiful, tough, big and fold up so nice and small that I always carry one with me. Therefore I am always prepared for that "stop" to the drugstore or grocery store when I am supposed to be getting something for dinner (and then I get snacks and ice cream and cereal...you get the picture!) I highly recommend them.

Please don't throw out plastic bags, knotted or not! Most grocery stores collect, bale and sell them to recyclers. Landfills create methane - a greenhouse gas 23x worse than CO2, so the more we keep out of landfills, the better.

I think part of the reason why it is so hard to remember to bring the canvas bag into the store is the fact that they are for the most part dull and ugly. The time has come for someone to make a grocery bag that you want to remember and be seen with. Check out https://shop.oneorganicearth.com I personally avoid plastic bags like the plague...want a visual of how many plastic bags are being used every 5 seconds in the US? Check out my new favorite artist's work: http://www.chrisjordan.com/current_set2.php?id=?view=XXX_09NNN/ I am personally stunned that we have decided to solve a temporary problem (transporting goods) with a permanent solution/problem. They say it takes the average plastic 1,000 years to decompose! I think we will look back on this practice with horror someday... soon.

Quote: It is very awkward to lug a 10-13 gallon garbage bin to the toter everyday. Not to mention all the drips and leftover food residual clinging to your garbage can. A stinky mess to clean up everytime you take out the garbage. The biobags seem like a great alternative, but they are so expensive. --------- I would guess so. The daily trash out of my kitchen would fit into a plastic grocery bag. Probably that much each week from the three of my bathrooms. Everything else boxes, paper, plastic, cans, glass goes into a gray tote. When the tote is full (about once every 2 days), it goes to the recycle center outside and gets sorted. We don't put much food waste into the trash. Fruit, vegetable, coffee grounds and egg shell waste goes into the green waste recycler. If we have any kind of bones, they are put into a bowl which is emptied right after the meal. I could put my trash bin out once a month if I wanted to. The recycle and green waste bins need to go out once a week and I am thinking about getting another recycle bin. We cash in all aluminum and certified plastic and glass bottles at the state recycling center to get our deposits back. My family thinks I am crazy sometimes because I will go through the trash cans before taking them outside and dumping them. If the slightest thing can be recycled, it goes into the recycle bin.

Both Albertsons and Fred Meyer offer their canvas bags for 99 cents and they have alot more room than normal plastic bags. Unfortunately our local CoOp is way out of the way for me - so I end up going to one of those 2 stores most of the time. I keep them in my car on my front seat. Where I have a problem is when I'm with my best friend and we take his car!! I haven't quite persuaded him to let me keep some in his car too.

It's nice to see that other people are using reusable bags (if only we could convince ALL of our friends & theirs). I personally use the reusable bags found at the containerstore.com and love that they fold up so small and into a little pouch but fit so much more than a regular plastic bag. Someone metioned the Envirosax bags. I checked them out online and think I'm going to have to order some. They are too cute!

bringing your own bags becomes such a natural and logical thing to do that i couldn't imagine life any other way. i have long gotten over the weird looks i get. in fact, now many people thank me. and since i now use the union sq. farmer's market as my first-stop shopping here in nyc, and most everyone knows me, it's not a problem. but unfortunately, plastic bags are still very much the norm there too. i bring back egg cartons to be reused, and milk containers, my own containers for strawberries and such so they can reuse their containers. i also save all my bags from packaged breads, etc and bring with me for loose produce-everything else just goes straight into the canvas bags. i've been washing and reusing them for ages and ages, as i'm still working through an accumulation of plastic bags from years gone by. that's the trouble, they are so ubiquitous, that they somehow make their way into your life even if you don't use them. Plus, i compost so it takes me approximately 7 days to usually two weeks to fill up a pretty small garbage can. I keep my compost in a big Folgers plastic lidded container that i scavenged from the garbage and just dump it out. As for recyclables i keep them in a handled bucket and dump them out in the correct bins in my building, so no bag is used. As for the Bio-bags, i absolutely love them as an idea, and that no new plastic is being produced, but consider that they are made in Norway, so there is a question of the fuel that's being used to transport them to the states and other parts of the world. And if you putting your garbage in them, which is then going to a landfill, that garbage is so compressed that it would probably break down with great difficulty, even fruit and veg scraps take years to fully bio-degrade in landfill conditions. that's why composting is such a beautiful and wise thing. So you have to weigh the pros and cons of it for yourself. but the point is to do your best. I also read a wonderful and disturbing article about the legacy of plastic we are leaving to our oceans: It is really worth a read. http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/health-fitness/Our_oceans_are_...

Great tip except for the "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" recommendation. These 'designer' bags are made in China and are neither organic nor fair trade. See related article at http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=419792&in_p...