Butterfly Rewards - earn free credits and redeem for good causes - learn more!
about our ads
my care2
make a difference
healthy & green living: more than 5,000 ways to enhance your life

customize your free newsletter

Customize your Healthy & Green Living newsletter now

manage newsletters

ads keep care2 free
ads keep care2 free
Melissa Breyer

Ditch the Plastic, Win a Cute Bag!

posted by Melissa Breyer Mar 23, 2009 5:03 pm
filed under: Conscious Consumer, Fashion, Healthy Home, Reduce, Recycle & Reuse, , , ,
Ditch the Plastic, Win a Cute Bag!
527 comments

A funny thing happened when I stopped using plastic shopping bags: I started saving money on purses. I started collecting cute reusable totes that make me so happy that I kind of just stopped using regular purses, which means I stopped buying them. And although my reusable tote budget increased, the price differential proved beneficial to the bottom line.

Although it would have been a good strategy, I didn’t start using reusable shopping bags to quell my eco-naughty purse-shopping habit–my inspiration came in the form of factoids such as this: between 500 billion and one trillion plastic grocery bags are consumed worldwide each year. Or, that 100,000 birds die annually from encounters with plastic bags, not to mention the estimated 100,000 whales, turtles, and other marine animals who suffer abysmal fates thanks to windblown plastic bags that pollute their environments.

And oh it goes on. In the United States alone, 12 million barrels of oil are required to produce enough plastic bags to appease our needs. And then there’s that little decomposition problem: 500 years in the landfill. And the facts about paper bags are equally depressing. Producing paper bags requires more energy and creates more air and water pollution than producing plastic bags. Recycling paper is much more energy-intensive than recycling plastic, and then there’s the trees. In 1999, 14 million of them were knocked out to create the 10 billion paper grocery bags we used that year.

So, helloooo totes. In my Brooklyn neighborhood reusable shopping bag, totes, and baskets have become the accessory de rigueur. And cashiers no longer look at us funny when we say we don’t need a bag! (Although I still find that if you have your own bag, you always have to pack it yourself–which I don’t mind, but it’s kind of curious.) Here are three of my favorites that have knocked the old purses off the top shelf:

• The Tigmi bags (pictured above) from Simple Peace are hand-woven at a Fair Trade artisan cooperative in Tigmijjou, Morocco–super cool bag, awesome cause.
• Pretty Green Bags are just so pretty.
• If the owls in the Tree Sitting and Talking Owls totes made by The Inconvenient Bag aren’t the cutest things ever, I’m stumped.

WIN A TIGMI BAG (just like one of the cute ones in the photo above!)
Simple Peace has donated several Tigmi Bags to help two lucky Care2 readers break the plastic bag habit. Leave a comment in the comment field, and two of you will be randomly selected to receive one of these lovely, 100-percent natural water reed basket bags hand-woven in Morocco. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on April 3. Good luck!

CONGRATULATIONS TO: CAROL STROUSE!

More on Conscious Consumer (56 articles available)
More from Melissa Breyer (492 articles available)

527 comments

527 comments

add your comment »
527 comments add your comment
Autumn H.

I'm going to be moving to England in July to go to University so I'll actually be buying my own groceries :] and I would really like to have a reusable bag to do that with. Good luck, everybody :]

Kim J.
  • Kim J. says
  • Nov 10, 2009 6:34 AM

I use my reusable bags whenever possible, but I still need some plastic bags. I am NOT going to use a reusable bag for cleaning & changing the cat box or for the garbage. Using a reusable bag for those things would not be a very smart thing to do.

Susan W.

Hear! Hear! Deborah! I work in retail at a liquor store and I am so sick of whining customers asking for a plastic bag because they ride a bike. Why don't you have panniers? Why not use a back pack? Why not bring your own bag? I live in a college town set in a rural area of MA known for its liberalism. Why are these people asking for plastic? What is wrong with them?

Giving into them, as I must, makes me feel like a criminal and a traitor to my ideals.

Deborah B.

Plastic bags should be outlawed everywhere. Whether you buy, share, or make alternatives the stores should not be saying, "Paper or plastic" instead it should be, "Your eco-friendly bags or would you like to purchase our?" Let's all lend a hand to clean up the environment and save our planet.

Adam R.
  • Adam R. says
  • Nov 5, 2009 11:16 PM

Cool bags! Aren't they pretty. Plastic bags are the devil!! we need more laws banning them.


r4 card

Kim O.
  • Kim O. says
  • Jun 22, 2009 11:41 AM

I never leave home without my reusable bags. I use them for everyting from taking books back to the library to holling crafts to my weekly class. I live in Hawaii and a big joke here is we grow plastic bags. Near our land fill, the trees are just covered with plastic bags blowing in the wind. I think it is just gross that such a pretty place can have such discust. I dont want to contrbute to that mess. Reusables all the way!!!!

Suzanne Heneghan

I find that if I put as many reusable bags in my car, then I find I am more prepared for a spontaneous shopping trip - just in case I forget to put the ones I used back in the car. Be prepared! :)

Vegan Stuff

vegan shop here at care2 http://my.care2.com/veganstuff

MJ A.
  • MJ A. says
  • Apr 28, 2009 11:10 AM

These are a great way to stay organized. Standing up like they do, you can Line them up at the door, one for each kid, library, church and grocery store. Can keep the "yucky" bags folded at the bottom, just in case you fine a great sale too! They would make a great gift for even the hardest to please, being so versatile. Even the "men" of the house don't have a problem carrying these being so natural looking too.

Adina Thompson

I too have acquired a rather large collection of totes. I've even started collecting mini totes for my kids to use!

Please enter your comment.
Or, log in with your
Facebook account:
1500 characters remaining

who's talking about this story?

Trackback URL

Disclaimer: Care2.com does not warrant and shall have no liability for information provided in this newsletter or on Care2.com. Each individual person, fabric, or material may react differently to a particular suggested use. It is recommended that before you begin to use any formula, you read the directions carefully and test it first. Should you have any health care-related questions or concerns, please call or see your physician or other health care provider.

1011897

ads keep care2 free
ads keep care2 free
ads keep care2 free
Copyright © 2009 Care2.com, inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved