Reduce those plastic bags!!

OK, so the last post explained why reducing plastic was a good idea, but it seems everything is packaged in plastic now a days. So what's the point? You may be thinking that by going over to paper you're still doing just as much damage by cutting down trees and if you are like most you probably forget to take your cotton bags with you when you go to the store. Even worse, you probably never think about using anything other than plastic in any of the stores besides the grocery store. So what do you do?

First, understand the environmental impact of those plastic bags. As stated in the blog "Plastic" below, plastic does not biodegrade, are made of non-renewable products (oil), and are not generally available for curbside recycling pickup. In fact, according to Earth 911, only 5.2% of plastic bags that entered the MWS were recycled in 2005.

On the other hand, many grocery stores use paper bags that have some Post-consumer Recycled content (PCR). I know that local to me that Harris Teeter uses recycled paper bags.

Paper Bags - All Harris Teeter paper grocery bags are produced from 100% recycled paper. By upgrading our paper bag from 35% recycled paper in 2007 to 100% recycled product we estimate we are able to save 22,293 trees a year.

This means a couple of things. One, that paper bags does not necessarily equal cutting down a tree. While there is still energy used to recycle and repurpose the paper into new bags, it isn't quite as bad an environmental impact as when you use paper bags with 0% PCR content. Two, in a pinch, having forgotten your cloth bags, paper is a good substitute and can be thrown into your curbside recycling bin (BTW, many curbside recycling programs don't even need you to sort your recyclables and this is incredibly convenient, if you don't know how your's works call your local municipal waste pick-up provider). Three, the baggers tend to use fewer paper bags than plastic for the same number of groceries, so you are reducing the total number of bags used. And lastly, They stand up better in your trunk than plastic bags.

Now the optimum is to use cloth bags wherever you go. Luckily, many stores are now making fashionable or easy to use cloth bags. Target has a very inexpensive cloth bag that folds up into a zippered little wallet-sized pocket. These are easy to store, get 2-3 and keep in the bottom of your purse or bag. Other places have bags that also fold into a tiny zippered compartment and hang on the side of your bag by a clip. But, if you already have lots of cloth bags and don't want to go buying new ones (because after all, it doesn't make ecological sense to go out and buy something new when you already have that item at home) then consider placing your bags inside of each other when you've unloaded them, then hang them on the handle of your door that you go out most. The next time you go to your car, grab the bags and place them in a visible area for use on your next shopping trip.

Now personally, I've moved to a system to combine these two aforementioned methods. I have a small folding bag that I keep in my purse for emergency uses. All my other bags get unloaded in the house and placed inside the largest of my bags. As soon as I complete this I then hang them in the kitchen to be taken out to the car immediately (although I am going to start altering this pattern by placing them prominently on my front door handle). Once the bags are in the car they are placed between the two rear seats that the kids sit in, on the floor. My daughter even sees them and reminds me when we get to the store (so long as they are there in the car). One friend even suggested that her older daughter was held responsible for remembering the bags when grocery shopping. In the event they got in and forgot the bags, the daughter had to go back out and get them, which only happened a couple of times (let's face it, it's easier to train our kids to do these things than it is to train ourselves sometimes, and that's why I'm the Lazy Environmental Mom).

Now, what about those times you are out shopping on those large money trips, like back-to-school or Christmas? It can be tough to have enough bags for those, right! Well, again, this isn't about being perfect environmentalists (baby-steps), so we want to focus on reduction of plastic bags. So once you hit your first shopping stop, tell the cashiers at subsequent stops to not bother bagging your purchase and place it inside the previous store's bag (let's face it, that's what you're going to do with that bagged item anyways). At first the cashiers may not get it, but as they see more and more of us doing it, it will become second nature to everyone involved. Once you run out of room in the first bag accept a new bag at the next store. Just think of it, you could actually go Christmas shopping and instead of bringing home 15 different bags that only have one or two items in each one, you could probably cut that down to 5-6 bags. You could even ask up front at the first store for the largest bag they have! Then when you get home use that gigantic bag for your trash can and you just saved a little dough in the mix!