Eco-Friendly Grocery Bags

[westtexman]

After deciding that I'm going to stop eating out so much and actually start to cook more often, I've found myself going to the grocery store much more than usual. I've started noticing that my local grocery store and Wal-Mart are now selling these reusable grocery bags.

Even though I am Republican, a Texan, and I drive a gas-guzzling pick-up (lol), I do believe that it's important to reduce my carbon foot print. As a result, I've just about decided that I will buy some of these and start carting them back and forth to the grocery store.

Does anyone else use these?

 

[maytagbear]

I've been using reusable

grocery bags on and off for years now. I take at least one to the store everytime I go.

My favourites are big grey and blue canvas bags from a Minnesota grocery store called "Byerly's", but I have them in all sizes, from a local PBS station, to ones sold by the supermarket itself........

I do get plastic bags when I have run out of cloth ones, but I reuse them by cleaning up after Boris T. Catt with them.

Lawrence/Maytagbear

 

[bigbubbacain]

I use these bags too. I guess I feel a little gulty because I'm "oilfield trash". I'm also a Texan and Republican. I guess my carbon footprint is a wee bit large for driving a big truck and working in oil/gas industry. If I were to try and beg for leniency, I'd tell you that we're drilling for natural gas and not oil. (GOD BLESS THE BARNETT SHALE! YEEHAW!) Gas isn't so bad. Maybe this does something for my "carbon footprint Karma"?

 

[dalangdon]

I'm a big old tree-hugging, leftist union member who would very much like to be the sort of person who uses reusable bags. I've even invested in several, and put them in the back of the Prius (and some in the Volvo as well!)

But I always, always, ALWAYS forget about them until I am in the check-out line. It never fails.

We are supposed to be outlawing them here, but Safeway, Kroeger, etc have suddenly taken a tender concern for "the poor", and have decided that banning bags would be a burden on low-income people, and are bankrolling an opposition campaign. (Just like the grocery corporations in Iowa tried to convince us that the nickel deposit on cans would mean the collapse of society back in the 70's. The only result was that Iowa got a whole lot cleaner overnight, and old people and students suddenly had a new income stream ;-)

 

[toggleswitch2]

It's odd to me but I also try to do this. I like the big blue IKEA bags.

One can see the use of one's own bags in France in the movie "La Cage Aux Folles" that was filmed decades ago. IIRC a huge loaf of French bread gets purhased with no wrapper too!

Back in Greece as far back as 1973, you'd refill ANY bottle with Coca-Cola right in the store. No plastic to be seen.

As ususal this country is WAY behind in green thought.

Also, a drug store in my area has a plastic bag recycling bin. Must remember to use it!

 

[jaytag]

Eco Friendly Bag Collection

I have started a collection of these. I pick one up at any market I am in. So far....right here in Marietta, I have Publix, Kroger (which ripped within a week), Harry's (Whole Foods), Trader Joe's (Wins The Award for most creative). Then on my travels to Chicago...Jewel. My hometown Spfld IL, Shop N Save which is by far the best, and IGA which is the same as the Publix bags. Its fun to carry them into Kroger as many of the people working there know about Jewel. A good time.

 

[tolivac]

Part of the problem with any of the bags is the stores--Why do they want to bag just the one item you may have purchased?I tell them if I only buy one or two items NOT to bag them in any type of bag.I get enough bags to put in the trash already-I remember one grocer in the Manassas,Va area-offhand i forget their name.They used to have a pile of boxes in the front of the store you could use to carry your items.I would use the boxes take the groceries home then put the boxes back in the car.I would use them again for the next shopping trip until they fell apart.Then I would replace them.This was really nice-the stores otherwise would throw the boxes out and have you use bags that the store bought!If I bought the reusable bags would always have to remember to put them in the car in take them to the store for shopping trips.And that store would charge you for bags if you wanted to use them(paper or plastic)instead of the boxes.The boxes were MUCH easier than the bags esp plastic.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Some stores here offer boxes instead of bags. Problem is they are a haven for cockroaches, etc.

I love when the baggers put one or two items in each bag because the bags would be too heavy for THEM otherwise.

Don't even get me started on double-bagging. This has it's place and function in life, but not in the grocery store.
I simply say, "Sorry I'm not old enough yet were collecting hoarding and gathering bags is of interest or some kind of sport to me." They laugh and get the point.

Then again the chemicals/poisons would get bagged (by the packer) with the raw meats, so common sense appears to be lacking, overall.

 

[toggleswitch2]

Some stores CHARGE for plastic bags. Fine by me.

 

[jamiel]

I've got a couple from Bloom...a Food Lion concept store...which are different---they're more structured than the regular bags, and square, rather than rectangular. They've got a "scan at the cart" thing where you get a hand-held scanner as you walk into the store then scan and place into these bags (four of which fill one of their carts), then turn in the scanner as you exit.

 

[blackstone]

Personally, I like to get as many paper grocery bags as I can get. I use them to hold the newspapers and other paper, so I can leave them on the sidewalk on recycling day. How else could I leave all this paper on the sidewalk? Paper grocery bags also work great for wrapping around packages before mailing, so I can reuse all sorts of boxes easily.

The plastic grocery bags are good for holding trash, particularly small scraps. Springfield, Mass., collects trash using the large trash bins, but you can't really throw all your little bits of trash into these bins without first bagging. Otherwise, if trash collection day is also a windy day, the street would get really messy.

 

[thomasortega]

Here in Brazil the supermarkets had paper bags until mid 80's. Walmart started to offer plastic bags instead of paper. all the other chains copied the idea. but they forgot to continue selling a nylon reusable bag, which was very cheap (less than USD1) beautiful (every month a different famous stylist or artistic painter designed a different bag) and resistent (each bag could hold safely a huge watermellon).

One year ago they came with the stupid idea of an oxybiodegradable bag.
They are supposed to biodegradate in up to 6 months. but after 1 year using them, they discovered they produce huge amounts of CO during the decomposition process.

Now they are selling some ugly brown fabric bags and until today I use my fashion stilish bags from the 80's and people continue stopping me to ask me where did I buy those bags. By the way, those were one of my best investments. I payed less than $10 for 12 bags and they still looking like new after 20 years.
Best of all? I have the whole collection! They were really well designed and made. There´s a round and green one with hundres of tiny holes with "Vegetables" printed in stilish font.
Other, black with two zippers (so you can put a locker) with the universal "poison" sign, for the cleaning products, poisons, etc...

My favorite: clear Blue plastic, square, velcro stripes to close and pockets on the sides to put crushed ice, for the frozen or refrigerated items.

I´m so used to use them that I place the items in the cart organized to check out each category at same time.

When I arrive home, tired of two hours standing up pushing a cart, I just open the blue bags to store all the refrigerator and freezer items, put the black bag (chemicals) far from the others and I open the other bags only next day.

 

[whirlcool]

Karen made a few plain canvas bags that we use when we go shopping at Sam's.
From what I heard Wal-Mart had a problem when they opened their stores in Germany. People there are use to providing their own bags. When Wal-Mart offered them their plastic bags it seems the Germans looked at that as being slightly suspicious. It took a while for the Germans to adjust to this concept.

 

[kenb]

Wal-Mart in Germany

Wal-Mart gave up on the German market and sold its remaining German stores in 2006.

 

[oldhouseman]

For anyone so inclined

I prefer the idea of making my own bags to suit my shopping needs. The ones sold in most of the stores I have seen look cheap and are to small. I found a particular size paper bag that worked for me and carefully took it apart to use for a pattern then added handles. I threw in a few laundry bags to carry produce. After one of my dogs got into a plastic grocery bag and ate a pound of coffee beans I stopped using the plastic a few years back (she was up all night running about like crazy). That did it for me. I got the sewing machine out (1934 singer featherweight) and made a few.

 

[conate]

plastic bags, carbon, etc.

As in so mnay things, it seems that green hysteria has made a simple solution more complicated.

It is certainly a good idea to limit your impact on the environment. I do use reusable bags (though I forget them more often than I would like to admit). Actually, though, there's an even better choice:

Use less stuff.

For me, the single biggest thing that causes me to get plastic bags is grocery shopping. While I'm not saying eat less (though here in the United States of America, most of us, myself included, probably should), it also depends on what you buy and how you prepare it.

Because of my wife's gluten intolerance, we buy nothing, nothing, nothing premade except for certain brands of canned fruit. I buy rice flour in 50 pound (20kg) bags, wheat flour (for myself) in 25 pound (12kg) bags. Since I don't have a non supermarket butcher I can shop at, I do use the market for meat -- but I tend to buy 'family packs,' split them up, freeze them.

Yes, it does mean having to cook. BUT I find quantity cooking is a huge timesaver. And not eating in restaurants is a huge time saver. (Unless you eat fast food, actually driving to a restaurant, going inside, waiting for a table, getting seated, getting the server's attention, listening to a cutesie description of what is on the menu, etc. etc. etc. is a HUGE time sink to do regularly).

I also find it cost adventagious to buy paper goods in large (12 roll) packs, and similar.

Obviously, folks who live in small apartments are going to issues with this.

I am not a tree hugger -- but I am an avid outdoorsman, hunter, and environmentalist. However, I don't drive a prius (do they really get better gas mileage dalangdon ? I have read they only get 45 mpg, and cost >25000. Even though I have a gas guzzling pickup I ALSO have a Toyota Yaris which gets 40-42 mpg, and cost 13000 US dollars), am a raving libertarian, and believe that knee jerk reactions to most issues (like so much of the reactions to climate change) end up causing more problems because we don't understand the science yet.

Please, folks, I'm not trying to start a flame war here. If you read what I say - I support using fewer of the world's resources for silly things like grocery bags. But I also believe that the way to SAVE the world is to develop FAST -- because wealthy people use less energy per capita, and create less pollution per capita.

Nate

 

[zipdang]

Have been using the reusable bags for years now, and prefer them over plastic and paper bags for both strength and capacity. Most of mine are the poly-mesh type from Whole Foods (including a very handy wine bag with six compartments), but my favorite are the sturdy canvas bags. I have a few from various stores, and a nearly indesructable "Boat and Tote" from L.L. Bean. The L.L. Bean bag is the hands-down winner for durability. It will hold the equivalent volume of two paper grocery bags and is rugged enough to withstand the weight of heavy items without a problem.

 

[conate]

Those LL Bean bags are great.

But, I've found a very cheap alternative.

We have some instances of a chain store here, Hobby Lobby. They have canvas bags for about $5.

They're reasonable enough.

The tyvek ones can be bought for $1 at the supermarket tho, but I like the canvas better.

 

[charbee]

Canvas Tote Bags...been using them for a long time. They're strong, durable, and you can toss 'em in the washer (and if you live with an artist, there's never a shortage of 'em). Some of these synthetic bags they're selling in the stores are just too weak to hold up to repeated use.