Sunday, March 2, 2008

My First Challenge

As part of my goal, this year to reduce our waste (money and otherwise) I want to start using cloth bags at the grocery store. I started using them a couple of years ago and the sackers looked at me like I was insane. Sometimes you have to swim upstream I guess. Well, I stopped using the bags. I really would like to start that again. I have decided to put together a shopping survival kit. This includes one big canvas bag as the primary. Then inside go my other fabric bags (picked up at resale shops etc), my coupon tin (a tin of money in my opinion), my seat cover for the baby, grocery list, pen, paper, store ads, and a bottle of water. Being ready to go the store like this will help me to reduce waste by being prepared and also to help me to use less plastic bags. I'll check back in after my first trip and let you know how it goes.

1 comment:

MuralMama said...

You haven't updated us on this one, but I just put in my two cents (you know I will anyway;). I have about 15 different bags from IKEA's gargantuan blue plastic-y bags to smaller cloth ones I got at Walmart Neighborhood Market and Half-Price Books. Whole Foods now has a really nice one recycled plastic one for .99 (or $1.99??) that is stronger than the cloth/ mesh bags I just mentioned. Anyway, I started trying to get away from plastics sometime last year. Some days I made it home from shopping w/ zero new plastic bags, others days I completely forgot to bring in my own bags & used paper instead. If I'm going in a store & I know I'm only getting a few small things, I won't use a bag at all...now THAT gets you some funky looks! Like I can't walk out with only my receipt. I'm much, much better now w/ organizing my bag use. Like everything else, it just took practice and the development of a habit. Now, I found on the rare occaision I need a plastic bag, I CAN"T FIND ONE! People still look at me like I'm nutty, and I am, but I feel better doing my little bit to be a better steward and reduce the waste around my place. Maybe we should start giving those with plastic bags weird looks & they'll get the message ;) Still on the fence on this issue? Check out this video! http://www.poconorecord.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080506/MULTIMEDIA02/80505016 ACK!!