Paper or Plastic?

Neither.

Yup, I'm one of those freaky freaks who brings my own bags where ever I shop.  I have a dozen bags from Wal-Mart, 6 from a local grocery, one that I was given at the Johnson and Johnson event, three from Trader Joe's and two Chico Bags that I bought at the vitamin shop.  Those two are my particular favorites - they roll up teeny tiny and tuck into their own little bags, which then have clips to attach to the inside of your pocketbook or your belt.  I keep the vast majority of the bags in my van, with a few strategically tucked in the Jeep and in the house for emergencies.  I use them exclusively for shopping - in fact, I almost always forget to take them in with me and have to either send a big kid out to get them - a job they DESPISE - or abandon my cart mid shopping trip to jump back out and bring them in.  I hate using plastic - a family our size will use easily 60 or more bags a week.  Even if I try to reuse them, we would still have piles and piles of them all around the house.

I can be a tad obsessive about fabric bags.  If, by some chance, like, say, I'm driving the Hubster's work car and I have no bags, if it's a small order, I'll go bagless and carry the purchased items in my arms.  This makes for more than a few weird looks if I've got five oranges, a loaf of bread, a tube of toothpaste and a jar of peanut butter.

Phasing out our family's use of plastic bags is my personal vendetta.  You only use those bags for a few minutes, and they take years and years to break down, if they ever do. I've read reports that say the bags leach chemicals - endocrine disruptors and carcinogens - into the soil, affecting our drinking water and foods.  Scary stuff. If an animal eats a bag, they could die.  I've seen bags blowing in the wind, hanging in trees, floating in the ocean. Entire states, towns and cities have banned the use of plastic bags all together.  From USA Today:  Internationally, legislation to discourage plastic bag use has been passed in parts of South Africa, Ireland and Taiwan, where authorities either tax shoppers who use them or impose fees on companies that distribute them. Bangladesh already bans them, as do at least 30 remote Alaskan villages.

I try to keep a lower environmental profile, but it's tough.  I did do cloth diapers with my kids, use cloth female stuff, I recycle as much as I can.  We use SIGG bottles in our house and I'm militant about turning off lights and closing the blinds in order to keep it cooler in the summer.  I rarely use ziplocs, preferring to use containers and the like. 

I have a large family.  I drive a huge vehicle.  I'm a slave to the air conditioning.  I can't afford to eat all organic, or even drink just organic milk.  Using a cloth bag is one small thing I can do to try to reduce my carbon footprint.

Comments

[Beach Mama]

Yea YOU!! :)

I also have a bunch of nice cloth bags. I started using them last year and got most of my family Chico bags for Christmas and got many of them using them.
We have a plastic bag that has now torn in half hanging on my tree out back. I hate it.
And now the ShopRite is now giving $.05 a bag back. awesome.

[Emily C]

I agree wholeheartedly on the bags issue. There is NO REASON for us to use and waste so much plastic.

And in Europe, you have to buy the bags. And they're not cheap enough for anyone to buy them every single time. But they're not like our lame plastic bags--they're a much sturdier plastic, sometimes have drawstrings, and are easily reusable.

[kalisah]

ummm...cloth female stuff?

[Backpacking Dad]

But here's some good news for you:

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2008/05/teen-decomposes.html

If it's legit, it's pretty awesome.

[transplanting me]

i'm a recent entry to the smaller footprint club. we have started using cloth bags and are working on a system so they are with us when we need them. and i even knitted myself a handy-dandy market tote from plastic bags. i've also just started with the cloth feminine products, they're so new to me i haven't even had a chance to use them... it's nice to see others and hear how they are doing it.

[Katie O]

I have lived in a few different countries in Europe and they are much better about that over here. I'm now in France and everybody walks into the store with their own bags. They do sell them (sturdy plastic ones with heavy duty handles, but you often get a stern look if you buy more than 1 or 2). Even more common is the wheely cart - so grandma looking from an American perspective, but everybody walks up to the market with their cart.

[tracey]

I adore my cloth bags. I am only the owner of 5, but my family only has 3 kids, so a shopping trip usually amounts to only one cartload... I do want to buy about 5 more so that there will ALWAYS be enough in both cars for a full shopping trip.

And I LOVE how much easier they are to carry!! I hated the plastic cutting into my arms as I tried to carry 10 or more at a time...

[keira]

i'm trying too. we do drink only organic milk (but admittedly we don't drink as much as your family), eat organic, but meat from local farmers in bulk, eat locally as much as we can, cloth diaper, mama cloth, breastfeed, use glass containers or stainless for leftovers, and i am in LOVe with my chico bags!! i have about 30 that i got in several coops... most of them for less than $2!!
i do sometimes forget them at home and i hate that! somehow putting all that loot in such colorful, reusable bags makes grocery shopping and putting it all away more fun!
good for you! keep it up!!

[noelle]

I'm with you on the bag thing. I have 5 cloth bags and a collection of paper bags in the back of my suburban, too. My mega grocery store and small farmer's market store give a credit of 5¢ back for every bag used too. If I have forgetten all my bags, I will opt for paper instead of plastic. We use those to collect our daily recycling to put out once a week for pick up.

I agree, that with a big family, we have to do all the little things we can to reduce that footprint. We are the few families that drive a mega SUV simply because we have to have all that room for bodies. But we can recycle and use less water and compost and not waste food and cook from scratch to reduce our trash production at least!

[Megan]

Right on. I wish the grocery stores were as adamant about it as you are. I tried to use my canvas bags at the u-scan in Harris Teeter and completely screwed it up - the sensors can't tell when you've put something in the bag. So in return for my environmental consciousness I had a bunch of people glaring at me, a PO'd cashier, and the 8-year-old beside me smugly using the system perfectly. Now I save my canvas bag for when I'm going to the local market, and I recycle the plastic.

[Anna]

My Kroger cloth bags are HUGE. I got a free one, and I was so impressed with how much more it held than the plastic bags, I was hooked.
Otherwise, I prefer paper to plastic. That drives the clerks nuts, but really! We can replant trees, we can't make more oil.

[Judy]

We have a local grocery store (Hannafords) that sells a huge cloth bag with great handles, for a buck and a half. I have a dozen and use them for everything. They hold a ton of groceries, line up neatly in the back of my minivan, have easy carry handles, and work great for library books and errands stuff too. I am trying to make my kids grow up thinking that's just what you do...you bring your own bag. One generation at a time.

[Laura V.]

I have several Walmart bags, a Walgreens one, one from Whole Foods and 2 from our Australia trip to visit family last year. I use them religiously and my hubby loves it. Just about every time I come back from shopping he says "I love these bags" because he only has to make 2 trips to the van to unload rather than 47 trips because of the plastic bags. I even keep one in the van specifially for all the library books we checkout. I load the books to be returned into it and then refill it when I check out new ones. I also try to remember to carry one around with me if I'm shopping at the mall. I LOVE my cloth bags! Whole Foods gives you a $.10 discount for each bag you bring in and use!!

[Beth]

Where can I get Chico bags? I recently saw a young mom in Wal-hell with some really stylin' red striped canvas bags. She said she MADE THEM with fabric she bought, on clearance no less. 6 bags cost her $3.00!! I'm not much of a sew-er, but I'm determined to give it a try this weekend. Even I can sew a straight line - unless I try out my new margarita recipe;)

[Sarah L.]

Do any of you have dogs? We use our plastic grocery bags for picking up after our dog on walks or even in the yard. I also use them to line the trashcans in our bathrooms, since my kids throw out some pretty gross stuff in there and I am not interested in scrubbing the trash cans each week.

Were it not for those two uses I'd switch to cloth bags at the store, so if anyone can suggest alternatives (esp. for the dog issue) I'd love to hear them.

[Brandy]

We recycle everything we can and are looking into composting. I would like to use the cloth bags, but right now we use the plastic bags for scooping the cat litter boxes. What we don't use we recycle. I'm wondering if there is a alternative for scooping the cat litter boxes and using the platic bags as kitty litter holders?

[Katie]

I recently switched to cloth bags and I love them! I found these really great big ones from Costco that hold several boxes of cereal very well. I have to watch the clerks bagging though because sometimes they start loading cans and jars into them and then they weigh way too much. Oh and ditto Laura V on the trips back and forth to the house from the car, I used to make what seemed like a dozen and now it's 2 or 3.

Do you think they'll make a 12 passenger hybrid van any time soon? lol

[amy]

I applaud this. I really do. But if I gave my plastic bags what would be scoop my cat liter into? What would I carry around the yard when picking up dog doo. What will I line my small trash cans with? What do I pack my dirty laundry into to bring home in my suitcase so it doesn't mingle with my still clean things?
I've found many uses for the dreaded plastic bags. And by reusing them is saves me a ton of $ buying other bags to do these little duties.

[Asianmommy]

Good for you! I forget my reuseable bags all the time, too. Can't tell you how many times I've had to go back for them.

[Ruby]

Glad I'm not alone. I take them everywhere too. Earlier this year I opened our closet for the broom and mop, and it was crammed with them! I took them all out and started buying reusable bags.

I also don't use the clear bags in the produce section. I don't feel one onion needs to go in a bag. I don't think a cantelope needs to go in bag.

The only thing I need to buy are some re-usable Target bags. Then I'll be set.

Question? Is is a fau-pax to use a Vons bag in Stater Brothers? A Trader Joes bag in Vons? I always wrestle with this.

[chris]

I too have a lot of kids, drive a big car and can NOT live without air conditioning. I also can not afford to buy organic, wish I could.

I shop at a store where I bag my own groceries, to save a few pennies. I love using my reusable bags, they are so much easier to pack and hold a lot more than those plastic bags. 5 reusable bags can easily take the place of 20 plastic bags!

[CathyC]

I LOVE our cloth bags. Like everyone else said, they hold so much more than a plastic bag. However, whenever I "need" a plastic bag, I do leave the cloth bags behind. For example, I "need" plastic bags to line my bathroom trash cans. It saves me money so I won't have to buy small bags for them.