Groovy Green Tip

Reusable Shopping Bags – Duh!

Okay, this is an obvious one. Reusable shopping bags are easy to come across and save tons and tons of paper and plastic. (Check out a counter showing how many plastic bags have been consumed this year here – it’s in the BILLIONS!) It seems like every store I go into these days – from the supermarkets and big box stores to my local pharmacy and the ritzy wine ‘n cheese shop I was exploring the other day – is now selling customized reusable bags.

As part of my efforts to green myself, I hopped on to the reusable bag bandwagon a few years ago (thanks in part to the groovy green reusable shopping bags that my sister Anne-Marie made for me!). It was hard at first to remember to bring the bags with me when shopping. I’d go to the grocery store, load up, trek my loaded reusable bags into the house, and then forget to bring them back to my car for the next time. It took a while, but eventually I started remembering to immediately bring the bags back out to my car after a shopping trip. It helps that I’ve accumulated 10 or so reusable bags over the years; on any given day there are usually a few empties laying on the backseat of my car. This makes it a lot easier to remember to bring them with me to the supermarket.

You know what’s weird though? I almost always bring reusable bags in with me to the grocery store, but I often forget to bring them when I go to a pharmacy, convenience store, takeout restaurant, etc. I’ve noticed that other people don’t bring their reusable bags with them to non-supermarket stores as well.

Sooo… I’m going to try to buck that trend, break my old habits, and use ONLY my reusable shopping bags going forward. I have a couple of cute folding ones that will fit nicely in my purse. I’ll report back on how many plastic/paper bags I save in my first week. Stay tuned…