I've decided to become a little more green and am converting to using these mesh reusable bags. I picked one up at my local grocery store (the green one) and two others at Target (obviously the red ones which also fold up and zip into the pocket section of the bag and are so handy to just keep in my diaper bag or stroller). My goal is to see how long I can go without getting any plastic grocery bags. I am allowing myself a few exceptions: clothing store bags, Target bags (which I love for their heavy duty nature and larger than usual size), bags from trips into New Jersey, and the mini bag until I get three or four for Sarah to use when she "grocery shops" at home. I will also allow myself to get a few bags as needed when I run out of bags for lining the bathroom garbage cans. Maybe some for meat as well as that would be disastrous if meat juices leaked all over my mesh bags. In the past I have always collected those darn grocery bags as many of you out there do and ended up with cabinets overflowing with plastic grocery bags as I simply couldn't reuse them quickly enough and would then up throwing a bunch of them away. This tendency of mine has a tendency to drive David crazy. I used to recycle them but haven't seen any places out here to recycle them and found before leaving Utah that places to recycle them there were few and far between. Generally here in the city, groceries are double bagged to be certain that they don't break and release groceries all over the sidewalk on the way home. I saw somewhere that between 4 and 5 trillion plastic grocery bags are used every year. Ridiculous! They were banned in San Francisco about a year ago, and I can't imagine that other large cities will be too far behind. Maybe I'll start thinking about other ways that I can go green as well.
Friday, March 7, 2008
going green and a little bit red
I've decided to become a little more green and am converting to using these mesh reusable bags. I picked one up at my local grocery store (the green one) and two others at Target (obviously the red ones which also fold up and zip into the pocket section of the bag and are so handy to just keep in my diaper bag or stroller). My goal is to see how long I can go without getting any plastic grocery bags. I am allowing myself a few exceptions: clothing store bags, Target bags (which I love for their heavy duty nature and larger than usual size), bags from trips into New Jersey, and the mini bag until I get three or four for Sarah to use when she "grocery shops" at home. I will also allow myself to get a few bags as needed when I run out of bags for lining the bathroom garbage cans. Maybe some for meat as well as that would be disastrous if meat juices leaked all over my mesh bags. In the past I have always collected those darn grocery bags as many of you out there do and ended up with cabinets overflowing with plastic grocery bags as I simply couldn't reuse them quickly enough and would then up throwing a bunch of them away. This tendency of mine has a tendency to drive David crazy. I used to recycle them but haven't seen any places out here to recycle them and found before leaving Utah that places to recycle them there were few and far between. Generally here in the city, groceries are double bagged to be certain that they don't break and release groceries all over the sidewalk on the way home. I saw somewhere that between 4 and 5 trillion plastic grocery bags are used every year. Ridiculous! They were banned in San Francisco about a year ago, and I can't imagine that other large cities will be too far behind. Maybe I'll start thinking about other ways that I can go green as well.
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Check out these very cool and very green multi-purpose reusable bags - BaggyShirts! They are made from recycled shirts! Made in the US, the folks who make them work from home and are paid a decent wage...www.baggy-shirts.com!
I've been collecting tote bags for a few years for this purpose and I actually take them everywhere- including Costco. I find that they are much more durable and reliable than plastic- and easier to heft stuff up to my apartment since I can put a couple on my shoulder and drape others over my arms.
In Spain, they would charge us at the grocery store for every plastic bag we used. I think they should do that here- 5 cents per plastic bag and the store could make out like a bandit. Places like Whole Foods & Shop Rite actually give you money off your bill if you bring your own bags (10 cents per bag you bring at WF and a pathetic 2 cents per bag at SR).
Also, the Shop Rite near Costco in NJ has a recycling bin for plastic bags.
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