Now the rage du jour is carrying earth friendly tote bags when you go to the grocer. Great! I'm all for altruistic trends or at the least the potential to produce a positive end result, like when Harry Potter brought back reading from the brink of extinction, that was awesome, so yeah we saved reading so lets save the planet too!
But I wonder how thought out this new trend is, is it REALLY making a difference? The reason I wonder is because I was in the supermarket the other day and there was a lady there with her eco friendly totes bagging her groceries and what was among her purchases? A 1oo-count box of Glad kitchen tall trash bags. So basically you replace your FREE supermarket bags, that by the way can be brought back to the store to be recycled, with canvas tote bags (or whatever they are made of) that were most probably purchased new, creating a demand for production, which I think goes against the whole idea of reducing waste, because to reduce is to reuse NOT make more. Anyway you replace the free market bags with reusable bags to just ultimately purchase plastic bags you are going to throw out!??! Just because we buy and use the reusable bags, does it really mean we're thinking about the planet when we shop? Do we think about what we buy to put in those bags?
I say take the free store bags home, audit the amount of items you bring home that have to go in the trash, like think about the items you are purchasing and try to buy items that have little or no packaging or how about indoor composting bin (I hear they don't smell). Then use the store bags as your trashbags... I already use them in the waste baskets in various spots throughout the home and becaue we do not have trash pick-up here in the business district ,I am paying more attention to the amount of trash we bring into the house in the first place so that I can hopefully minimize it to the point where I am only filling a small grocery bag full of trash a day if even that.
Using reusable bags is a noble idea, but it's what you carry in those bags(or choose not to) in the long run that make the most impact.
But I wonder how thought out this new trend is, is it REALLY making a difference? The reason I wonder is because I was in the supermarket the other day and there was a lady there with her eco friendly totes bagging her groceries and what was among her purchases? A 1oo-count box of Glad kitchen tall trash bags. So basically you replace your FREE supermarket bags, that by the way can be brought back to the store to be recycled, with canvas tote bags (or whatever they are made of) that were most probably purchased new, creating a demand for production, which I think goes against the whole idea of reducing waste, because to reduce is to reuse NOT make more. Anyway you replace the free market bags with reusable bags to just ultimately purchase plastic bags you are going to throw out!??! Just because we buy and use the reusable bags, does it really mean we're thinking about the planet when we shop? Do we think about what we buy to put in those bags?
I say take the free store bags home, audit the amount of items you bring home that have to go in the trash, like think about the items you are purchasing and try to buy items that have little or no packaging or how about indoor composting bin (I hear they don't smell). Then use the store bags as your trashbags... I already use them in the waste baskets in various spots throughout the home and becaue we do not have trash pick-up here in the business district ,I am paying more attention to the amount of trash we bring into the house in the first place so that I can hopefully minimize it to the point where I am only filling a small grocery bag full of trash a day if even that.
Using reusable bags is a noble idea, but it's what you carry in those bags(or choose not to) in the long run that make the most impact.
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