My daughter is an aquarist, which means we are treated to regular diatribes about the evils of plastics damaging the oceans. Most humans understand that the oceans are full of our non-biodegradable plastic. It's a worrisome situation that will result in the extinction of some of the ocean creatures which my daughter dearly loves (seriously loves, more than she loves most humans!) |
| plastic and marine creatures |
Bottled water is a no-brainer. I try to never use this product and carry my reusable water bottle everywhere I go. Two exceptions to this rule are when I am in a dangerous dehydration situation and can't find a fountain or water tap to refill my bottle, or we are camping in an area where the water may be questionable. As much as possible we carry drinking water with us in re-useable containers.
The use of plastic bags has taken me longer to sort out. I carry a bag of old bags in my car and take them with me whenever I go into a store. They go in the recycle trash bin when they break or when I put meat in them from the grocery store. My goal is to never accept a new plastic bag when I am shopping.
However we all need containers of some kind to transport things like groceries. Quilters are notorious for being bag ladies and we have lots of them. I prefer to use cloth bags and recycled plastic bags. Here are two bags that have recently been given to me. The International Quilt Festival bag was a gift from my friend Sandy, and the "Life is better in Canada" bag was a Christmas gift this year - thank you Barbara and Debby for the wonderful bag full of treats!
What kinds of bags do you use in your part of the world? Drop by tomorrow for part #2 of the Bags series.
19 comments:
I have been using reusable grocery bags on most shopping trips for many years. They live in my car so I always have them. Over 30 years ago, I made several Christmas gift bags out of fabric and they mostly prevent the use of wrapping paper. You must have some very interesting discussions at your house!
I use reusable bags when grocery shopping and take a rucksack when shopping for other items. A lot of the fabric shops, especially for curtain fabric use paper bags. The borough where we live is home to a massive recycling centre and for about 15 years we have been recycling as much household waste as possible. It is now just automatic. Where I work is a 'green' university but many staff and students are not on board which is a great shame. My family would love a discussion with your daughter and I often hear them 'ranting' at their friends about the problem.
I grew up recycling - my Dad worked for the state of VT and he was part of the initial start of the 5 cent bottle return there in the 70's. It was a wake up call when I got to Florida and people down here do not recycle much. My kids have been taught to recycle as have my girl scouts =). I love my 31 bags for shopping at Aldi's - where you do your own bagging. I have various cloth bags and insulated I have collected over the years and they live in the back of the car. I am bad at the water - we do use reusable containers and reuse the plastic water bottles.... but I drink better out of the plastic water bottles so if I really need liquid quick - I have to grab one of them. That reminds me... recycle day today. Must bring out that big bin to get recycled.
The two red bags are gorgeous.
I never go shopping without taking my shopping basket with me. And in case there is some unforeseen shopping I always have several bags in my car. And in DH's car as well.
Go to the sink and get a glass of water is a foreign language to my great grandson. It makes me so angry to see that little kid walking around with a bottle of water. I use cloth grocery bags that can be washed when necessary. I pass our local landfill pretty often. When there is a VERY windy day, you can see plastic bags hanging in the trees and along the road that have blown in the wind from the landfill. It's very upsetting.
Happy New Year.
I am working on a no plastic/paper bag policy here too. I have a pattern for a bag that I love and it's easy to make. It holds a lot and folds up nicely, so I always have them in my car. I wrote on post on them, here's the link. http://www.piecefulthoughts.com/handy-bags/
We have been recycling for years but I usually have a case of bottled water for back up when the cows drain our well on hot days in summer.
I won the red and white bag from Sentimental Stitches and for the life of me I cannot find it and do not remember what I did with it.
I have bags from most of the local Grocery stores. Use them all the time. I was gifted a collection of them by a friend one Christmas. She said now you can shop anywhere. I decline plastic bags even at the Fabric store.
So right about recycling!! We recycle all our plastic, glass, paper and metal, and I use cloth bags for grocery shopping. I'll use a cloth bag for department stores too, as I want to reduce the need for plastic bags everywhere. If I forget my bags at the grocery store, I ask for paper bags that I can use with the paper recycling. I buy trash bags made from recycled plastic too. Thanks for the post on helping our environment, we only have one planet, and it is important to save it.
We use reusable bags for shopping and plastic bags for the trash.
we like to use bags as well, many of them come from goodwill outlet. They can be purchased for pennies. That way when we beat them to death, we don't feel so guilty. I have not seen the magic in bottles of water when it is a great blessing to have free clean water available.
We actually use the plastic grocery bags as garbage bags. Seems silly to purchase brand new plastic bags just to fill them with trash when the grocery ones work just fine. It works well for us because the smaller bag is easier to dispose of every few days and rarely gets smelly.
A local grocery chain offered canvas shopping bags for sale well over 20 years ago and I bought about 16 of them, just picking up a couple each month. I still use them for grocery shopping. About 6 years ago my daughter gave me a set of shopping bags that are like parachute material, and they fold very flat. I keep a couple in each purse for errands when I am in town.
One of my favorite quilt shops gives a large canvas bag if you purchase $100. or more from her store on that visit. I love them. The handles are sturdy, and fit over the shoulder. We have over 6 of them that I take grocery shopping or fabric shopping. The name of her shop and logo are on the side, so they are also an advertisement. Other shops have given tote bags with purchase too. One has a zippered top that can fold down inside the bag to be a smaller looking bag. Love it too! These get folded after emptied, and set by the door to go into the car for my next visit out shopping. Also useful for packing shoes and other items that do not fit in suitcases!
All my grocery bags are cloth. They're great because you can just throw them in the washing machine. The plastic bags I use for garbage are compostable. We recycle and compost, and only put out one garbage bag of actual trash per month. Check out Theresa at http://greenbaglady.blogspot.ca. She has a project going on, making and giving away cloth bags...she's nearly up to 50,000 and has chapters all over the world. :)
i agree about plastic bags....horrible to think of our beautiful oceans polluted with them...always disgusting to see them blowing around...and don't forget balloons....deflated they are dangerous to raptors and other large birds who mistake them for food,ingest them and die...
I love your new bags. So cute. I've been using a canvas bag before it was "in" to do so. People at grocery stores looked at my sideways but who's laughing now? My tote bags live in my cars so whenever, where ever I go shopping they are at the ready. I have made a dozen or so of prettier tote bags to carry my lunch, shoes, sewing, whatever to work and back. They get used around the house too, especially to bring things from the garden indoor. My mother-in-law uses plastic grocery bags to crochet tote bags. They are so much more resistant and they last longer than my tote. In Ottawa and surroundings, if you want a plastic bag at the grocery store you have to pay for it. ;^)
Love the Canada Bag. I try to always use the reusable bags but sometimes forget. I try to keep a small nylon bag in my purse too.
Not an area we are very good at. My Guy does the grocery shopping, he's not about to use bags from home. I'll have my work cut out for me there to make any changes. We don't use a lot of bottled water, mainly if we are hiking somewhere.
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