My wife pushed the grocery bag switch last year, and I bring the bags without thinking now. It is funny how often the person ringing up my groceries takes the first of my bags and then asks "Paper or plastic?" automatically.

I would love to see a drive to reuse much more than coffee cups and shopping bags, though these are undoubtedly some of the heaviest offenders.

There is no reason why one should not be able to pick up take-out food in ones own container. How about a reusable pizza box?

One could really have a nice, well-insulated container for ones food, instead of those atrocious styrofoam monstrocities that not only get thrown away, but can't be crushed to any reasonably degree.

I'm so proud of my sis for all her work on BYO! Our family is faithful to the campaign and spreading the word, the most effective way to initiate change. No commuter cup in tow = No coffee. BYO or bust.

The funny, even dirty looks I get from clerks when I politely refuse a bag are amazing. Who needs a bag to carry their bottle of cold medicine or a jug of milk with a handle?

Reusing bags and mugs is something i get real pleasure from, even tho i am not 100% good at staying prepared.

A big help to me this year is the discovery of Chico Bags, http://www.chicobags.com ! Small and compact, and VERY sturdy, i keep them all over the place -- purse, glove box, coat pocket. They're more compact and -- dare I care -- attractive than ye old moldy canvas book bags. I bought a bunch for holiday gifts.

Despite your zeal and mine, the revolution will not happen until people have to pay an immediate price for their waste. What will it take to require a 10c per bag addition at the supermarket? All those coupon clippers will be carting their own bags in no time....

Didn't somebody say that using thousands of paper cups was still less energy intensive than buying an actual coffee mug? I'm curious as to how this works out.

Also, I use any plastic bag I get at the grocery store as trash bags (which I fill to the brim). I always thought this was the normal thing to do (since it saves you money on trash bags)... I mean, if you're bringing reusable bags to the grocery store, but then you buy a bunch of trash bags to use at home, doesn't that kind of defeat the purpose?

Or are there eco-trash bag options out there too?

I try to carry a folded up plastic bag in my pocket to use instead of the one I am offered at the checkout but the system is so ingrained in both the cashier and me that I only rarely remeber to do the right thing and refill my own bag. I have jumped on the bandwagon of refusing a bag for one or two items, though, and that works much better. I like places where you bag (or better yet checkout)your own grocieries because there is no confrontation when you refuse the bag the cashier just put your items in.

In Ireland, the Government decided to take plastic bag usage into their own hands and introduced a €0.15 levy on every plastic bag requested at shops and supermarkets.

About 95% of the people I know now bring their own, heavy-duty re-usable bags to the supermarket with them now. A lot of smaller shops (namely SPAR convenience stores) have also started providing paper bags instead of plastic ones to their customers.

I think they need to go one step further though, and get rid of "disposable" plastic bags entirely, and replace them with either paper ones, or re-usable ones.

. I like places where you bag (or better yet checkout)your own grocieries because there is no confrontation when you refuse the bag the cashier just put your items in.
January 30, 2007 2:38 PM | flag a problem
Jared says:

i totally agree, ive gotten everything from confusion, to dirty looks, to a target cashier arguing with me over a bottle of wine, which she had bagged in paper as she was i guess required by law to do, then started to put in plastic after i had already told her i had my own bags and had bagged the rest of my purchases. after she begrudgingly handed over the paper bagged bottle of wine, she reminded me rudely that it must stay in the paper bag. or there was the time at walgreens i had to hand over my bags to the casheir before proceeding to shop because they had shoplifter problems. it can get really frustrating especially when the people in line behind you are glaring at you for holding things up.

my favorite supermarket has you bag your own groceries at the end of the conveyor, its a money saving move on their part which they in turn use to make their prices lower, which is fantastic, plus it means no awkward interaction with the cashier or bagger about "no! dont put that in a bag! i have my own".

the only problem with the automated checkouts, at least in my area, is their sensors are setup so that i cannot bag my groceries in my own bags until i have finished paying, as if i remove anything from the bagging area, or introduce one of my own bags to the bagging area, the machine starts yelling at me in its pleasant computer voice.

using canvas means i dont have to worry about flimsy plastic handles breaking. if i do forget my bags, i always ask for paper, which i reuse to secure all the paper in my recycling bin, as you have to put paper on top of everything else and the paper bags keep things from flying all over the neighborhood.

MOM's ("My Organic Market") and Whole Foods both give me discounts (5 to 10 cents) for each bag, and a local co-op gives poker chips for each bag and you can put them in a charity's jar to donate a little to the one of your choice. These sorts of programs should be mainstreamed.

EcoBags.Com sells some nice string-type bags, even in colors (my favorite one is black). They go in a pocket very easily, though the thin straps are not very shoulder-friendly if you catch a sale on tomatoes and always go shopping on foot:)

But what about the nice take-out foods in the one-use plastic trays at grocery stores AND food co-ops? They are gigantic and only supposed to be used once...at least the bags are flat. In some states they do have paper bag and bread and ziplock (minus the zipper part) and clean cling wrap and clean plastic produce bag recyclling. There should be one in every state. But still the pesky plastic containers for the take-out foods are problematic. Especiallly the ones that you fill up yourself.

I second the observation that stores do not want people bringing in bags because of shoplifting.At Costco there was a plastic bag in my cart and the greeter jumped at me and snatched the bag like it was a live grenade and said nothing.Warehouse clubs do not offer bags they reuse cardboard boxes.Has any maniac tried to bring their own boxes to the warehouse club?

I often bring my own mug to coffee stores when I'm on the road... and on the airplane! But one of the funny/sad things that happens often at coffee shops (e.g. the Starbucks by my house) is they first fill a paper cup to make sure they "get the right amount," pour the coffee/latte into the mug, then throw the cup away. I'm not kidding.

My family and I use reusable shopping bags and containers whenever possible. Once you start it becomes second nature and it really feels good.

We're big fans of reusablebags.com - they have tons of info and lots of products to help with making the switch to a more eco friendly lifestyle. It all comes down to consuming less and they offer great tools to make the change. Ecobags.com also has some good bags but many can be found on reusablebags.com as well.

Wow I was really surprised to find out about the problems associated with using your own bags in America. I live in Sydney Australia and we don't have any problems. In fact it became a fashion thing to carry one of those bags around if you were a girl. And some people actually try and make you feel bad for taking a plastic bag, some stores charge you for it. I think all it took was a few commercials and promotions.

Anyway what about what Elaine said? Why hasn't anyone answered? It's a good point. I've been using plastic bags from the store to throw out my trash, never thrown out a bag without trash in it. What can I do if I use reusable bags?

Also I've heard of biodegradable plastic bags, maybe that's the way to go.

I find that even when I reuse shopping bags for trash I still end up with an excess of them so some kind of reduction is necessary. I like self-checkout because I can regulate the number of bags my shopping rips generates. A happy medium would be ideal. These bags are useful enough that we'll probably never see them completely disappear. Better degradability would seem to be the best solution.

I had to laugh a few weeks back-- I was chatting with the cashier and not paying attention during bagging, and the young man bagging my groceries put them AND my cloth bags in assorted plastic bags. Poor kid was clueless, I guess. The funny part is that two of the reusable bags bore that supermarket's logo!