Living Plastic-free: Top 10 Tips to Reduce Plastic: #1
Bravo if you’ve made a New Year’s Resolution to reduce the amount of plastic in your life. Now that I'm in YearTwo of Living Plastic Free I thought I'd share EnviroWoman’s Top 10 ways to reduce plastic, based on a year’s worth of experience. So here's Tip#1...
Bring your own bag.
When shopping (not just grocery shopping, but for any shopping) take along your own packing bag.
Just make sure it’s made of cotton, canvas or a natural fiber (like these cheeky ones from BringYourOwnBag). A bag made out of nylon (which is plastic) or recycled plastic is still plastic, so in a way, you’re kinda defeating your good intentions.
And if you’re shopping for a big family – bring a box instead of a bag. Hey if it’s okay at Costco, why isn’t it okay for Safeway and IGA?
When grocery shopping EnviroWoman takes her handy wire basket along and uses it to pack her groceries in and out of the store. I LOVE my wire basket. I'm the only person in the supermarket who has one...so it makes me feel like an UberEnviroTrendSetter. (Dillusionary, aren't I?)
She also uses a big canvas bag from Ellis Designs (no plastic handles, or buttons, but alas, a plastic inside pocket zipper), which does double duty as a purse for regular shopping.
There are lots of options to choose from nowadays. Just google 'cloth shopping bag' or 'reusable shopping bag'. Or, attend a local craft sale.
And now it’s time for an EnviroWomanRANT
You may have noticed it's becoming more ‘fashionable’ to bring your own bag. And that’s a great thing.
Big chain stores like Ikea, and SuperStore are even charging for bags or not even offering them, or at least selling a reusable alternative (alas, many of which are nylon-plastic). All good things.
But at the same time, it bugs EnviroWoman. Here’s why...
People think that if they bring their own bag they are doing their part to save the planet. They pat themselves on the back for being ‘green’.
But then they walk into the supermarket and fill their shopping carts with plastic packaged food, buy plastic wrapped coconuts (SpockIllogical), put fruits and veggies in plastic bags, buy bottled water, opt for stuff in a plastic bottles versus glass because 'it’s so much more convenient and safe' (maybe for them, but not for Mother Earth, which in the long means it’s not for them either). And so on, and so on.
Where is the 'green' action in that?
They do not see the irony.
Now, EnviroWoman ain’t no eco-Saint. She admits she didn’t see the irony in this either before taking the NoNewPlasticPledge.
But now EnviroWoman does.
And if you stand really close to her in the checkout line, looking at all those plastic filled shopping carts….you can hear her screaming inside. There is no hope. We humans are a lost cause. The planet is on a FastTrackToDisaster.
Sorry if I burst your EcoBubble here. But let's face it, Tip #1 is not enough.
Bringing your own shopping bag is only a wee baby step on the path that takes you to 'living green'. Truth is....you still have a long, long, long way to go. Lots more behaviours to change. Scary. Sad. But necessary.
Now, don't go give up. Instead, cheer up. 'Cuz chicky-poos you're in good company. EnviroWoman still has a long, long way to go too.
Tip #1 may be a baby step, but it’s still a baby step worth taking. It's the only way we'll be able to change everything.
Comments
Brandy, you seem like a
Brandy, you seem like a fairly intelligent person. I'm sure you will figure out something. That is our biggest problem in America, we can't think for ourselves and just follow the next guy!!!
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what about no bag? it always
what about no bag? it always boggles my mind that people think they need to put all their veggies in a bag... chances are you are putting all of your shopping into another bag... what stops you from putting your loose veggies in there? convention?
if you must put things like green beans into their own container you could bring your own zip loc bag (they are fairly easy to wash and re-use)
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When shopping for produce, I
When shopping for produce, I always bring my handy Reisenthel tote basket to load up, and place them loose on the conveyor belt. Sometimes, to speed up checkout when I have oodles of fruit & veggies that roll around everywhere, I put them in cotton mesh bags. They don't add more than a couple of cents to the cost. (If I'm feeling cheap, I let 'em roll around and bag them after weighing. At the farmer's market, they are usually pretty generous about rounding down, so it's no problem.) When I get home, I transfer produce to Zip Lock bags or Evert-Fresh green bags. All of my earth-friendly shopping products came from reusablebags.com. But with a little ingenuity you don't need to spend any money on new bags!
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You can sew very lightweight
You can sew very lightweight reuseable mesh bags for things like green beans that would fall through the cart. Stuff like apples, though, can be put in loose. It annoys the grocery clerks... oh well.
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For your bagging your
For your bagging your produce, I'd recommend the organic cotton/fair labor drawstring bags from reusablebags.com
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/organic-cotton-mesh-produc...
I've been using these babies for about 8 months now and find them super fabulous. Stuff them into a larger grocery tote so you won't forget them.
The large sack will hold two large cabbages/a dozen apples, and the small one is great for cherries, apricots, and such. To make life a little easier on the cashier, one variety per bag. And leave the bags open so it's a cinch to see what's inside. Wash cold, line dry. :)
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The main reason that I can
The main reason that I can see for self-containment is either to a) keep beans, cherries, blueberries from running all over and b)prevent cross-contamination at the check-out. Even WITH plastic bags, there is gods-knows-what on that conveyer, but the most worrisome being raw meat juices and cleaners, etc. I don't really want to put my lovely strawberries on that. I do use (unfortunately) plastic, reuseable mesh produce bags that I got at Grassroots http://www.grassrootsstore.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD...
VERY COOL!
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kate, that logic might work
kate, that logic might work if i'm buying a couple apples, but it gets difficult when i want a lot of something small (like green beans). i can't just put them in my shopping bag, because the cashier has to weigh them in order to charge me!
anyway, i *did* solve this problem for myself... i just kept the veggie bags from one shopping trip and use the same ones over and over. (ziploc would be fine too, but no need to buy more baggies when i already have some--and a twist tie does just as well as a zipper for this purpose!)
of course, it doesn't help when the veggies i want are already in plastic bags, which my local grocery store does pretty often. i'm hoping this will improve when more veggies are in season and they are able to buy locally. (i'm assuming that most of them are bagged because they are imported? maybe i'm wrong.)
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Vanessa, over at Green As A
Vanessa, over at Green As A Thistle, recently posted about reusable lightweight cotton bags. They are fairly inexpensive too, under $3/bag. Go to:
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/organic-cotton-mesh-produc...
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I bring in my big grocery
I bring in my big grocery shopping bags, open up one of them, and then just start stuffing that one with all the produce items (so it doesn't touch the yucky cart handles, etc). The checkout guys don't seem to mind. They just pick out and scan the brocoli or whatever, then plop it right back in the bag from whence it came. Easy-peasy!
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I even asked the recycle guy
I even asked the recycle guy at a community festival this question and he couldn't answer me, a wonderful lady did and heres her answer?
What do I replace my plastic shopping bags with as I use them for a garbage and bag for temporarily holding bottles and other messy recyclable stuff. Can you even get big paper bags anymore?
May be simple and people should know but she also suggested this site and now I know. She said:
Use biodegradable bags, a paper bags take more energy to produce than plastic.
I didn't know that! 1 baby step :)
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What kinda energy does it
What kinda energy does it take to make those designer bags. Shouldn't she use metal zippers?
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Try this if you really want
Try this if you really want to go all the way.
The City of Ottawa has recently introduced a pilot project to 220,000 homes...that is quite exciting...we can even go as far as collecting mesh bags that are used to hold onions and drop them off at a special depot, and etc. for so many other items.
So now I'm thinking why not use them for fruit and veggies at the super market.
hagd everyone and let's keep on thinking.
p.s. to save on gas and time for other people working, etc. I'm thinking my garage could be a mini depot for my neighbourhood.
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Hmmm.... any suggestions on
Hmmm.... any suggestions on how to carry around fruits & veggies, if not in those thin plastic bags they offer in the produce section?
It seems I need to put them in something, at least when I'm buying more than one... And surely I don't want the weight of whatever they are carried in to affect the cost!