Survey: How Do You Bag It?

In our local supermarket (Venice Italy) we have a material called Mater-Bi. It is a plastic which is made from corn, and can be thrown in the compost to degrade.

It's nice to see a large percentage of respondents indicate they take their own bags!

We shop at a grocery store that offers cloth bags made from recycled pastic bottles for only $0.99, and plastic bins for $4.99. The bins are VERY convenient, and we keep the bins/bags in the trunk to use on every shopping trip (no matter the items we are shopping for).

They are convenient and cheap, unfortunately there still seems to be only a small percentage of shoppers using them. What gives!?

i have the recycled bags, several actually. I use them when i remember them - which is my answer to gdub. perhaps many people use them when they remember them.
for the majority of the time when i forget the bags, i either don't get a bag at all, if i'm buying a small amount that we can carry ourselves, or select paper if it's available. if i get plastic bags, there are used as trash bags, lunch bags (this use is redone w/ same bags for a week or more), or storage bags, etc. - i actually used two bags, twisted together and used as binding to temporarily fix my daughter's bed when a pole came loose.

I second Liz's comments - I try to use my canvas and cloth bags everywhere but sometimes forget them in the house...when that happens I try to either take no bag (small purchases) or at least get paper which I use to store my recylables during the week. Plastic is relegated for trash, lunch or doggie duty.

On another note - does anyone still get grief when using their own bag or asking for no bag? I don't with my own bag so much but several times have had to firmly tell cashiers several times that I DON"T want a bag - they all want to insist I take one or more!!! It's so frustrating!

I bring green bags. Which I got at shoprite and are only $1, per bag! Walmart has black ones, and just recently I saw them have some on the turning things by the register. But there was only like 5 on one of those things, Walmart doesn't care about the environment. So when they say "We want to help the environment". They are just lying! In the US at shoprite you can get 5 cents off each one. That includes the canvas bags. I also use Polar bear bags from another site,but they where $16, which was donated to the animal on the bag, and you can also get ones with humming birds on them. How cool is that!

There is a 3rd option which takes care of most concerns about disposable bags, including a few new ones. Our Perrons Shopping Box holds up to 55 lbs, rolls on two wheels, and has an extendible handle. It also has carrying handles. No bags. It lasts for years. Allows you to walk to the grocery store since you don't have to carry anything home, just push or pull the box. Convenient for those of us that take public transit. For more information, please visit www.perronsecosolutions.com.
We believe that anything disposable should be biodegradable. The best thing for all of us is to obtain high quality products that can be used for years. Maybe even be passed down to our children and grandchildren again. For those of you who use the plastic bags to pick up after your dog, we will be offering biodegradable, compostable bags for that purpose.