Why You Should Use A Reusable Grocery Bag
An article on the importance of switching to reusable grocery bags caught my attention while I was scanning the news during my lunch hour.
I constantly struggle with this one because it doesn’t seem like retailers are trying to help make the transition any easier. I have been carrying around reusable totes off and on for about 7-8 years now. When my parents moved to Switzerland in 2003 we got turned onto the idea of using reusable grocery bags. In Europe most stores charge you a small fee for plastic bags. Although the fee is fairly negligible (5-10 cents) they strongly encourage the use of reusable bags and frown upon people using the plastic bags that they charge for.
This was one of my new years resolutions that I of course didn’t write down but rather just made a mental note to become better about.
- I ask for no bag if I am only purchasing one or two small things (particularly gas stations, retailers, etc.)
- I pull out a few of my handy envirosax that I keep stashed in my purse and have them on the ready for grocery shopping. Most of the time the cashier at Walmart gives me a look like “seriously, you are holding up the line” but I push past that.
- I offer to bag the groceries myself and just start tossing things in, breaking all of the rules as far as what things are technically supposed to be packed together.
- I used to keep a bunch of those $.99 cloth bags in my trunk but I NEVER seemed to remember to actually bring them INTO the store with me. Keeping the little rolled up bags in my purse ensures that I almost always have them on hand.
- I am slowly starting to integrate these bags into mall and other retail shopping.
