Enviropost!

[jan_andrea]

Pledge to use cloth bags for a month instead of plastic :) Sign up and get 20% off at www.reusablebags.com -- they have a lot of terrific stuff, including my awesome market basket that I always get compliments on! Most grocery stores sell reusable bags for $1-2 each if you don't already have a stash, or you can check out directions to make your own if you sew. (I have directions on my own site too.) In the interests of full disclosure, I use my cloth bags 95% of the time... the other 5% is for when we're totally out of plastic bags at home, and DH likes to use them to line the kitchen trash basket... or when I forget to grab one from the trunk when I'm shopping. I hate using them at all, but at least the ones we reuse end up "merely" in the landfill and not blowing all over the landscape like so many.

Comments

[sandramort.livejournal.com]

This isn't meant to be argumentative, just thinking out loud and asking for feedback...

I use plastic bags for trash and I use them for picking up after the dog when we walk him. We almost always use all of our plastic bags! I'd love to waste less plastic but it seems dumb to go out and buy pooper scooper bags and small trash bags when I get free ones with groceries... is there are better way? Trash cans get spilled, whereas grocery bags loop over door handles and get changed once or twice a day, keeping flies under control and toddlers out of mischief. And the dog? I'm NOT giving up on using plastic to pick up after him. Sorry.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Bread bags are good for dog poop, but unless you go through a lot of bread, you probably won't have enough. But then, there's also plastic produce bags (from celery, carrots, peppers, etc) -- I feel like we're swimming in those most of the time. Practically everything from our grocery stores come in bags that seem like they'd work for poop, without using a full-sized grocery bag. But of course, YMMV :)

I definitely know what you mean about small trash bags -- way better to reuse grocery bags than to buy them first-hand. We have a garbage disposal in our sink, so produce refuse isn't an issue (I'd rather compost, but we're apartment dwellers and I am so not going to deal with worms right now :lol:), and store our other potentially-stinky trash in the freezer (i.e. fish waste goes right back in the bag it came in, closed up in the freezer). Then we chuck the stuff from the freezer on our regular trash run. That depends on how much freezer space you have available, of course, but it works well for us. Most of our kitchen trash is thus packaging and the occasional paper towel, and doesn't tend to attract flies.

We have also gone from putting plastic bags in every room's trash receptacle to just the icky ones (kitchen and bathroom), which means we use 2-4 bags/week on trash instead of the 6-8 we were using before, which helps a lot. Usually the ones that DH brings home from his shopping trips (he won't use cloth, for whatever reason...) are sufficient for that.

[andreaq.livejournal.com]

Great suggestions!

I make my own totes and sell them at Etsy. I love that basket though! It would be perfect for trips to Target.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

I <3 my basket -- I'm ordering a second one, they're so handy. You can get it for $10 less at "Sur la table" but I feel better shopping at reusablebags.com because I'm dumb that way :Lol:

What's your Etsy shop name?

[andreaq.livejournal.com]

My shop is Quirky Bags...quirkybags.etsy.com :)

[justsurvive.livejournal.com]

so where does your actual trash go? in no bag when its put out in the dumpster?

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

No, we still use big trash bags; we just dump the trash from each room directly into the big bag (and I try to get recycled/recyclable trash bags whenever possible) instead of putting them into smaller bags first. 'Cause when you think about it, bags inside of bags inside of bags = pretty wasteful. Plus our town has a per-bag fee ($3/bag) so the less trash we generate, the better!

[clovecigarettes.livejournal.com]

You'll be happy to learn I use cloth bags, a couple re-useable plastic "bag-for-life" sturdy plastic bags I got for free (with a coupon -- as an incentive to cut down on wasting regular 'carrier' bags), an Ikea blue bag (I read Ikea are phasing out their plastic bags altogether!), and rucksacks regularly.
Usually when we go to the store, we bring our big camping rucksacks (we don't have a car here, so it's easier with the backpacks anyway), but I always carry at least one 'french market bag' (those cotton stringy ones) with me at all times because I sometimes have random store encounters.
I sometimes end up with carrier bags (that's what they're called here), but we use them to line the bin in the bathroom.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Awesome! We do the same thing with carrier bags ;)

[joy-disaster.livejournal.com]

I am going to get two sets of those ACME shopping bags - and then make myself remember to use them. Honestly I think this household is responsible for a whole landfill. our garbage load is immense : /

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Yah, I was really shocked when I started seriously looking at how much trash we were generating. Esp. since most of it was packaging-related.

Getting in the habit of using bags is probably the hardest part -- I recommend getting one of the $0.25 "bring your own bag (http://www.reusablebags.com/store/plastic-bags-blow%E2%84%A2-small-stickers-p-39.html)" stickers at reusablebags.com and putting it on your dashboard (it'll peel off easily enough when you want to remove it) so that you have a visual reminder to grab a bag from the trunk (or wherever) when you get out of the car. I nearly always remember to grab a bag, or my basket, when I go shopping now, and if I forget, I just try to get the cashier to put as much in one bag as s/he can :lol:

[iuil.livejournal.com]

We use cloth or canvas bags for groceries 95% of the time too - like you the few times we don't is when we forget to grab them from the car. We have a financial incentive though - the government charges a 22c levy on all plastic bags and the retailer isn't allowed to absorb it :-). Other stores, for clothes etc, offer paper carriers as standard.

The levy resulted in a 95% reduction in plastic bag usage when it was first introduced.

[jan-andrea.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's an amazing reduction! I wish they'd do it here, but I'm sure Joe Average Consumer would be completely up in arms over the unfairness of it all :P

[iuil.livejournal.com]

There were complaints here too - I still remember one old biddy being interviewed on the News saying it was a disgrace, she was just going to re-use her old bags and that would show the Government. Kind of missing the point really :-).

The levy goes towards promoting environmental awareness, it doesn't just straight into government coffers. Usage has increased slightly again but it's very rare to see loose plastic bags floating around in rivers or in trees whereas before they were very commonplace.