Going Green With Reusable Shopping Bags
Posted on March 17, 2009 by Miss Britt in Green
I am always one of the last people to pick up on the latest “going green” trends. It’s not that I don’t love the earth or want to be more eco-friendly.
It’s that I’m lazy and cheap and like my stuff.
I tend to be suspicious of green products because there’s a lot of overpriced, yuppy crap out there being marketed as “eco-friendly” and therefore “worth this exorbent price tag”. Thanks, but no thanks. The Earth and I had a talk and we’ve agreed neither of us wants me to be poor or a pretentious asshole.
That being said, if I find a green product that makes sense I’m all about doing my part to save the environment. Especially if it helps me in the process. (That’s not selfish – that’s creating a win-win.)
I started looking for reusable shopping bags when I noticed that the plastic grocery bags I brought home every week were taking over my laundry room.
I had told myself for years that it was OK that I didn’t bring my own bags to the store because I save and reuse the plastic ones I take home. Of course, I never used even 1/10th as many as I accumulated. When you start having to come up with new (and bigger) storage solutions for your plastic grocery bags, it’s time to search for a more eco-friendly and less wasteful solution.
Some reusable shopping bags are expensive. They come in artsy prints and chic colors. They come in sets and kits and their own carrying cases.
I finally settled on the BAGGU Reusable Shopping Tote 6-Pack in “SKY”.
First of all, the color is important. I went with the Sky Blue because I thought my husband would be more likely to go along with my new “go green initiative” if it didn’t involve him toting around shopping bags the color of raspberries. Also, the bags were cheaper in Sky. Which is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard – but whatever. At least it was stupid in my favor this time.
Some of the reviews I read before buying this complained that each bag had it’s own mini carrying case. People bitched that it would be too hard to stuff the bags back into the case and that they weren’t compact enough and didn’t come with one case to put all six bags in.
Meh, they were cheap, so I gave them a shot anyway.
I love them. I’m thrilled I went with this brand and style.
I actually like that each bag comes in its own case because it lets me keep one in my purse at all times and the rest in the car. Or I can send one with my husband and take a few with me if we’re not going to be together. That makes it easier for me to actually remember to use the damn things more often.
I’ve used and reused all of the bags and have never had a problem folding them back up and putting them away. Maybe I’m a bag folding genius, but I doubt it.
Of course, the other concern is – how many groceries can you actually hold in 6 totes? Tons. And tons and tons. And the big wide straps allow you to be able to carry tons and tons of groceries more easily because you can put the bags over your shoulder if you need to.
I can store 10-15 plastic grocery bags worth of groceries in my 6 BAGGU totes.
As an added bonus, the cashiers at the grocery store know that I am eco-friendly and hip and up on all the latest trends. And having the respect of a 16 year old grocery checker is always something to be proud of.
BAGGU Reusable Shopping Tote – 6-Pack
$18 in Sky. $38 in other colors. Because Amazon is weird.
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Posted on March 17, 2009 by Miss Britt in Green
I have totes from my favorite stores and I LOVE to go into Fresh Market carrying the Liquor Barn or Kroger bag. And I have no qualms using my huge Fresh Market bag in Kroger or Liquor Barn.
I keep bags in the cars so we always have at least one.
Actually LOL at the last line
@LizHill, for some reason, I never could get into the free canvas bags that stores gave away. They seemed to heavy or something!
Love the idea.. and amazon is being weird with that pretty color being cheaper. However, my reusable tote is actually recycled, made from part of an old sack of coffee beans
Not that I made it, actually I bought it, and had to tell myself it was for the good of the planet, and the artisan who made it, because I ended up paying for it way more than the new sack probably costs. But I still love it.. only I wish more people were into the culture of using bags like these.
@pocket queen, that’s awesome – but what do you do with a week’s worth of groceries?!?!
My favorite bags are RuMe bags, found on delight.com (a fantabulous site!). I (heart) these things so much. I have 8 of them. Fun patterns and colors, and you just roll them up and secure the sewn-in velcro straps to keep them all nice and neat-like.
I am happy to report that I have used fewer than two dozen plastic bags since Jan. 2008. And those have doubled as cat pan liners.
@Lynn @ human, being, ooh! Thanks for the tip on the site! I hadn’t heard of that one!!
Thanks for the review. I will have to check those. I have a ton of reusable bags, but am always giving them to friends or losing them. I love my Chico bags, as well as the big square canvas ones from my local stores. On the upside the store ones are usually around $1.
@Stacy, like I told Liz up a few comments ago – the big square canvas ones always feel too heavy to me – and it doesn’t seem like you can jam as much STUFF into them.
I say SEEMS like because I never tried them. LOL
@Miss Britt, I have some bigger Canvas ones from the store, and they fit a ton of stuff. Sometimes they are so full they are too heavy for me to carry. I also have some tall one’s from Trader Joe’s, but they fit too much and the stupid baggers will use those to put 100lbs of crap in, and then I can’t carry them!
Katie and I actually got these cool reusable bags at a recent Chicago Blackhawks game of all places. They fold down on themselves into these neat little packets and have Hawks logos on them making them cool even for guys to use. I got some pretty admiring looks from guys at the Jewel/Osco a week ago. Yeah, they wanted my bag.
@kapgar, that’s awesome! Anything that makes it so we can actually USE them, ya know?
I’m going to need this. NYC wants to start charging $.05 per plastic bag. Plus the fewer trips I need to make up the staircase from hell, the better I’ll be.
I love reusable bags – plastic bags suck and always have holes in them, anyway. The Fresh Market bags are really good – and $1, like the other poster said. But I do LOVE the blue bag you’ve got on here…
Too bad I now own about 10 reusable store bags!
Are these smaller than the Publix bags? I have about five of those and all my groceries for the week fit neatly in them, which fit neatly in the trunk of my Mini. But I’m searching for a smaller version to take with me to Walgreens, Sephora, etc.
@Finn, I don’t know how big a publix bag is. But these fold up to the size of an iPhone.
I have found some great totes at a huge discount. Have a look at prelovedbags.org as they have factory seconds that all look fantastic hold an amazing amount of groceries and are really cheap. I got 6 of them all in a different design and at such a cheap price I am thinking of getting some more for the kids to have in their school bag and for me to take travelling (if I ever get away). The ones I chose all tuck into a pouch which is attached so i will never loose the pouch and I put my cell phone in it the pouch while shopping and then if tucks away into my handbag.
One day at WalMart, the cashier asked me if I wanted to purchase re-usable bags, they were on sale for .90 cents a piece. I told her no, not today. The bitch said, “Well, one day you may not have a choice.” I mean, she was MEAN about it! I said, “Then ONE day, I guess I’ll buy them!!!!”
But those look cool. I may just try some. In the sky of course.
There dosen’t seem to be any sky now. I guess the cheap ones all sold out!
I like the Baggu bags, but I think the RuMe bags are just as cute and the website talks about fair trade and eco responsibility a lot more than Baggu does. Just because it’s reusable, doesn’t mean it’s the greenest option. I use a lot of old bags I get from events and such for my groceries, personally.
But- if you must buy a new fashion bag (I like the fact that they are so easy to fold up and bring everywhere- unlike my old trade show bags) I say RuMe beat Baggu.