Paper? Plastic? Canvas?

A few years ago, you were hard pressed to find someone carrying a reusable bag to the store.  But today, it's commonplace - even trendy!  Lots of popular retail stores sell canvas bags, often with a slogan on it like "Save the Earth," "Love Your Planet," or "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle".  And there's always designer Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bag that became a sold-out, wait-on-line-before-the-store-opens craze a few years ago. 

Why not a plastic bag? For one, they're made of petroleum - a limited resource that we're surely using recklessly enough without carrying home Cheetos in it. Plastic bags are also not biodegradable.  That means that once they're made, they'll always be plastic bags; they won't decompose into simpler, organic parts.  Even when we choose to reuse them to reduce waste, they wind up polluting our air instead.  Burning plastic bags in incinerators, where garbage often winds up, releases those petrochemicals into the air.  Plastic bags are a serious issue for animals, too.  In the water, animals can get entangled in them, and some like the endangered Green Sea Turtle can confuse them for the jellyfish they eat.  Land animals face similar problems with plastic bags in their habitat.

One way to reduce plastic bag waste is to recycle them.  Many stores now, like King Kullen, Stop and Shop, and Staples, offer receptacles at their entrances to collect plastic bags for recycling.  Paper bags are an okay alternative, but oftentimes they too are used once and thrown away.  The best way to reduce or even eliminate your plastic bag consumption is a reusable option.

When I first tried to get myself into the reusable bag habit, I found myself buying the attractive elizabeth haub foundation bags or last-minute canvas bags at the counter, and then forgetting all about them after the trip home!  So, here's a few ways I've found to get good use out of reusable bags:

• Leave them in the car:  If your car is parked nearby, put the bags back in your trunk or glove compartment as soon as you're done unpacking them.  Then they'll at least make it to the store with you next time, but it's up to you to remember to bring them in!  To help me remember, I'd make myself buy a new bag if I left mine in the trunk.  You can imagine I quickly began to pick up the habit...
•  Use them for more than just groceries:  Reusable bags can be brought to any store - bookstore, drug store, gift store, florist.  To be more discrete, you can fold them up and put them in your handbag until you get to the checkout line.  The more stylish reusable bags can be brought to go clothes shopping, too.
  
• Create your own bag, or find one you LOVE:  If you're proud of your bag(s) and want to show them off, you'll be much more likely to remember to bring them out with you.  You can find plain canvas bags at Michael's, along with iron-ons, transfers, fabric paint and pens to decorate it.  And if you're not a crafty person, keep an eye out for a reusable bag you can't resist (or for a "discount", put it on your birthday/holiday wish list).

*Don't forget - a lot of these bags are made of fabric or a wipeable surface, so be sure to clean them after a few uses.