Earth Day is coming up, again offering an opportunity to
reflect on the role each of us can play in protecting and improving our
environment.
The "Three R's"--Reduce, Reuse, Recycle--continue
to be good general guides for positive things individuals can do. With spring
and Earth Day coming on, I've been conducting a small, unscientific survey of
one action that helps with two of the three R's. Bringing one's own shopping bags
to the supermarket reduces reliance on plastic or paper bags, and fabric bags are
reusable.
In my little survey I asked three veteran checkouts to
estimate how many people bring their own
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| Reuse and Reduce |
Fabric shopping bags are easy to find. Both major
supermarkets we visit display them prominently. One charges 99 cents for a bag,
the other only 50 cents. In addition, one of the markets offers a 5 cent per
bag discount every time you provide your own bags at checkout. In other parts
of the country, some supermarkets provide free bags to promote use.
My checkout contacts offered two major reasons customers say
they don't bring their own bags. They are (with my comments):
1. I tried using them, but forgot to bring them to the store
so often I just gave up. Solution: Keep four or five extra bags in your vehicle's
trunk. If you get all the way into the store before your light bulb flashes on,
the brief round-trip back to the parking lot for bags will be just a bit of
healthy exercise.
2. You have to wash them regularly. Not so: We have a few
fabric bags we've used for more than 10 years and they still are clean. Items
such as fresh meats and veggies that could cause sanitation problems will not
if they are separately wrapped or bagged as you pick them up or you request
extra wrapping at checkout.
Two of the three checkouts I contacted said they wished more
customers would bring their own bags. Amen. Check here around next Earth Day to
see if my follow-up survey shows any improvement.
9 comments:
My bags are under the front seat. I usually remember them. My most frequently visited grocery has a bin to recycle plastic bags.
Most of our shopping is done for home delivery and there is rarely ever any need to recycle. On the odd occasion that we have to shop for emergency supplies, we take a cloth bag that can be slung over a shoulder. This is kept just below the bowl in which the keys are kept and so it is rare that we forget to take that.
Incidentally, plastic bags are banned where we live.
I confess I still use the plastic bags. But the store takes them back for recycling, so I don't feel too bad about it. Every single one goes back for recycling. I tried cloth bags briefly, but never remembered to take them to the store. I do bristle whenever I see a plastic bag blowing down the street. No excuse for that. Some Colorado cities already ban plastic bags and/or charge as much as 20 cents per bag for any disposable bag you use.
My bags are on the back seat. I also carry two folded bags that hang from my small back pack whenever we're out. Works out great. I think a lot of people are willing to pay 10 cents for the plastic bag, I'm afraid.
Strange, but when I remember shopping in the USA back in 1970's it was brown paper bags. Often someone was on hand to fill them and even carry them out to your car. So much for progress.
I use a plastic bin from a supermarket that measures 9(H)x18(L)x12(w)inches. It's amazing what that bin can hold. Not only is it environmentally friendly but there are fewer trips from the car to the house. I recently heard of the 5 R's; add refuse and rot to the 3 R's of reduce, reuse, recycle. So refuse the plastic bags and wrapping, allow organics to rot for compost.
John: One of the two supermarkets we visit still has employees assigned to carry bags out to cars. And a large sign advises "No Tipping" for the service. Until very recently, most stores offered a "paper or plastic" bag choice. Probably for the wrong reasons, the paper choice seems to be disappearing. Almost all paper manufactured in the U.S. is made from waste wood, waste paper, and small-diameter trees that were planted for the purpose. Thus, saving trees by reducing paper use is not the simple truism presented to the public.
Several really good ideas here in the comments. Celia's comment that stores bags under the car seat is a handy alternative to keeping them in the trunk. Mona's use of a bin rather than several bags is an approach I've not heard of previously. We'll think about adopting that one.
We've used cloth bags at stores in our California Los Angeles Country area for several years -- have to pay for paper bags at a couple grocery markets, another chain charges for a large plastic bag though all other plastic bags can be used. My car doors have pockets, so I keep my cloth bags folded in there, readily available.
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