Paper or plastic?
By alicia on March 30th, 2007 at 9:30 pmTags: environment, plastic, sustainability
Paper or Plastic? No thank you!
Here are even more inexpensive options to kick the plastic habit.
Easy and free, just grab a bag laying around your house.
For those craftily inclined, simply make your own bag!
Find some fabric from old cloths or linens and sew a couple squares together. Add an old belt for the handle and viola! you’ve got the one of a kind shopping bag that will turn everyone green.
Put on your knitting/crocheting cap and recycle your old bags. Simply collect the old plastic bags, cut into strips, and go crazy. Your new plastic bag will be sturdy, reusable, compact and easily rinsed out. Here’s just one easy pattern, there a many others out there, or make your own and share.
Shopping list for the shopping bag:
1. Reusable Bags have a huge array in all price ranges. They’ve got a recycled cotton tote at $7.95 which holds a full load and is fair trade!
2. Don’t forget to grab some small guys for produce.
3. Grab a workhorse for $9.95, that folds into it’s own attached bag and fits in your palm, perfect to carry in your purse or throw in the dashboard.
4. Or make your statement with this BYOB (bring your own bag).
5. If you’d rather reuse your current bags, check out this guy at $9.95, which allows you to wash easily in the dishwasher.
6. As Peggy pointed out the key to success is keeping “reusable containers handy” and Ecoezi has a great solutions. For $21.95 “compact, convenient, stylish wallet, with 10 sturdy, easy to use machine washable bags.”
7. Envirosax has beautiful prints with a set of in a carry pouch for $31.
8. For some fun prints check out b. happybags. The bags are organic and made in the US and are each $24.
If you want the nano of the bag, check out Onya, which is stuffed into a bag on your key chain.
San Fransisco isn’t the only place to grasp the severity of our waste, IKEA “Ikea has begun charging U.S. customers for plastic shopping bags in an effort to improve environmental responsibility, the home-furnishings chain says,” we’ll all be carrying our own bags soon enough, why not lead the pack with some cheap style!
What’s all the hullaballo?
~500 billion to 1 trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year.
The average American family of four throws away about 1,500 single-use plastic bags per year
Less than 1% are recycled. Most are used for trash bags which take ~1,000 years to degrade in the landfill. Wow, isn’t that scary
An interesting new approach has been to biodegradable plastics which can be tossed into the sea. While biodegradable is certainly better, where in the world are they planning on dumping all of these?!?
mark says:April 1st, 2007 at 3:17 pm
Envirosax eco-chic totes are about as far removed from the average shopping bag as is artistically possible. Super strong with re-inforced seams and a waterproof backing, these bags are able to carry up to 40 pounds. You can buy these cool bags in a pouch of 5 or individually. Choose from 15 groovy designs.
Molly says:April 2nd, 2007 at 2:39 pm
Alicia! You’re making me want to buy things that I don’t need! As usual, though, I love the ideas. One of the grocery stores I shop at gives me 10 cents off per bag and I’m always amazed at how that little incentive always reminds me to bring my bags.
Gerry Keane says:April 2nd, 2007 at 3:56 pm
I have just stopped using plastic grocery bags. My problem is that they are very handy for kitchen garbage. I live in an apartment and am unsure what to use in their place. I don’t want to start buying more plastic “Kitchen Catchers.”
Any suggestions?
Thanks…
Gerry
Brady says:April 2nd, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Gerry -
Thats a good question. If we’re going to stop using plastic bags for shopping it follows that we should consider how we can stop using them at home. Alicia may have some more clever ideas, but the first that ocurs to me is to not use garbage bags at all. If you have one of those large wheeled bins the garbage trucks use why not just carry the trash out and dump it in the bin?
If your kitchen trash can gets funky, simply spray it down with the hose outside, let it dry and you’re good to go.
Also, if you garden you can cut down on some kitchen trash by composting organic waste.
Anybody else have other, perhaps better, ideas?
alicia says:April 2nd, 2007 at 8:33 pm
Thanks for the info Mark, you’ve got some stylin bags!
Hey Molly! Grab your needles gal, me know you knit nuff nuff bags!
Thanks for the question Gerry! I’ve tried to tackle it here , hope it helps!
Peggy Brennan says:April 4th, 2007 at 5:35 am
Gerry,
I still use plastic garbage bags for my garbage, but because we recycle all of our paper and all of our plastics and compost all of our household food scraps, we are down to about 1 - 2 bags per week. We used to take out at least 6 - 8 bags per week. So I figure this has got to be better! Small is big.
Gerry says:April 4th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Thanks for the replies. After reading Alicia’s VERY informative post I think I will start using the cloth grocery bags but taking a plastic bag occaisionally. We recycle almost all of our recyclable material and our trips to the dumpster is only about twice per week. So I figure we aren’t doing too badly. I think this is the time to concentrate on the reduce part of the Three R’s. Thanks for all of the tips everyone!
Brady says:April 4th, 2007 at 10:23 am
Gerry, I agree, it is definitely important to remember the other two R’s that are often forgotten. Recycle gets all the press, reuse is starting to get some now too with the plastic bag ban in SF, but poor ol’ reduce is too often forgotten in our society that grossly overconsumes. It’s the one I need to work on most, that’s for sure.