Eco-friendly shopping for Earth Day

by Nicole Weston, Posted Apr 22nd 2006 @ 7:01AM

Everyone needs to grocery shop at some point, fueling the continuing desire to live, even if you're not a big fan of doing your own cooking. Grocery stores have their own standards for packing bags based upon how to enable your foods to travel well: cold items with cold items, produce in one bag, don't cram too much in. The last rule is the one that gets tricky because sometimes it seems like you end up with 10 bags for 10 items when you're leaving the store. It could be more, if some of the plastic ones are doubled-bagged. Recycling the paper and plastic bags is an excellent idea, but switching to canvas grocery bags is an even better one. They are reusable, so they help cut down on waste, and many stores will even give you a per-bag discount for bringing them in! The bags can be purchased at many supermarkets, as well as being available online, and will pay for themselves in a few uses. They usually cost from $7-12.

Filed Under: Stores & Shopping
Tags: canvas, earth day, EarthDay, eco, eco friendly, environment, grocery, grocery bags, recycle, reusable, reuse, shopping, shopping bags, stores, stores-and-shopping, waste

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Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

4-22-2006 @11:43AM Marc said... Cloth bags are have the advantage of being far stronger than whatever your grocery store provides. I can fill my cloth bags with all manner of heavy and pointy objects without worry of a bag break.

If you don't care about the logo on your cloth bags, most thrift stores and flea markets have a good supply of cloth bags displaying various corporate logos at very low prices (leftovers or discards from trade shows).
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4-22-2006 @11:44AM Marc said... Cloth bags have the advantage of being far stronger than whatever your grocery store provides. I can fill my cloth bags with all manner of heavy and pointy objects without worry of a bag break.

If you don't care about the logo on your cloth bags, most thrift stores and flea markets have a good supply of cloth bags displaying various corporate logos at very low prices (leftovers or discards from trade shows).
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4-22-2006 @12:01PM rainey said... I got some FABULOUS reusable bags in Canada some years ago. They are shaped like a conventional handled grocery store plastic bag but a couple inches longer.

They are made from that mesh nylon that breathable sportswear is made from (in fact, many clerks have mistaken them for football jerseys). It's a sensational choice and I MUCH prefer them over canvas. They are incredibly lightweight. The roll up into a baguette-shaped coil that's about 1"x9". I can fit 3 of them in my purse and carry them everyplace I go. Three of them will handle a half-cart of groceries. Despite their tiny, seemingly delicate profile, they are incredibly strong and wash beautifully without degradation or distortion.

...and many of the stores I shop at will rebate me a token fee for not using their bags so they've probably paid for themselves over the 5 or so years I've been using them. I am ALL for the reusable bags and avoiding any unnecessary packaging!
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5-14-2006 @3:27PM yelena said... In my local stores, if you have shopped there and used their bags and then bring them in and reuse them they reimburse you 2 cents per bag!
Since I usually use them as trash bags so I don't have to buy trash bags I usually don't have any around when i go shopping, but on the rare occassion that there is one or two left in my trunk for some odd reason it's cool to save those extra few cents....especially when you are a broke college student.
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