Okay, I have to confess . . . I have turned into a GREEN bag lady! If you dare to open the trunk of my car, you will find a billowing pile of about 18 different types of reusable bags. To date I have: 1 Walgreen’s bag, 1 JC Penney’s large canvas bag, 1 Pink – Race for the Cure insulated zipper bag, 1 Eating Right – Safeway bag (decorated with Bug Bunny & Tweety Bird), and 1 Life – Safeway bag, 1 brand new maroon and 1 very old well used canvas – Longmont Farmers Market bag, 1 City of Longmont bag (got free at a downtown festival last spring), and around 10 navy blue Vitamin Cottage bags. Actually I have 2 more of the Vitamin Cottage bags that are currently being used for some of my crafts and my husband’s car washing products. Not to mention the many others that I have given away over the last few years. I have filled them with food and clothing for care packages to charities, friends and family. It seems to have become somewhat of an addiction for me. I will see a cute $2 bag at a store, and I will have to talk myself out of buying it, and force myself to walk away. Sad, but true!*laughs*
I do have my favorites and those are the Vitamin Cottage or Natural Grocers bags. I like these because they have a plastic insert for the bottom of the bag, which helps the bag to keep its shape and makes it sturdier. They gave these away for free when they first got them in, each time you bought so much in groceries, so that is mainly why I have so many of these.
For carrying fresh vegetables I always like to take with me my very old, but sturdy, washable Longmont Farmers Market canvas bag. I just recently purchased (oh yes I did), some 3B Bags at the Vitamin Cottage that I just love. It is a reusable produce bag pack, which includes 3 individual bags, 1 over-sized bag (14.5″ x 18.5″) to hold bigger produce, and 2 standard (11″ x 14″) sized bags. All bags are made of a fine nylon mesh, with a drawstring top, machine washable, virtually weightless, and easy for the clerk to see through. Although the product is not green (decomposable), it is a sustainable (reusable) product. According to their packaging and the website, by reusing these 3 bags just once a week you can save as many as 150 plastic bags per year! You may want to purchase a couple sets or more, if you buy a lot of produce like I do. I use mine when shopping for produce at the grocery store or the local farmers market.
The full name of the company is “Belief Beyond Bags” (3B for short), with a cute little colorful bug logo and the phrase ”Catch the Bug and Reuse”. I also like to support any business that is owned by women and/or locally run. 3B Bags is based in Denver, Colorado. You can purchase them for about $7.50 for a set of 3, at many stores nationwide, and locally here at King Sooper’s, The Vitamin Cottage, and Whole Foods. You may want to also check out their special this month online and the other bags that they sell at: www.3bbags.com
Okay my next main challenge is trying to remember to take my reusable bags when I actually go into a store. This may just have something to do with my age, but for the longest time I would walk into the store and realize while standing in the checkout line, I did not have a bag. I used to keep them all in the trunk of the car, so now I leave a few of them in the seat next to me or in the back seat of the car, where I can easily see them. I am finding that it is now becoming more of a habit to automatically grab a bag from the car.
Another problem I have, and have noticed while standing in the check out line that I am not alone in this, is over-shopping for the amount of bags that you have taken into the store. To help solve this problem, I bought a Chico Bag Original (yes, add one more bag to my total), that I can easily stuff into my purse. It weighs only 1.5 ounces and stuffs down into a 3″x4″ pouch. It has a carabine that will clasp onto almost anything. The ChicoBag will hold up to twenty-five pounds and is available in eleven fun colors. It is made of machine washable, durable polyester material. They also make many other types of bags. You can purchase these at the Vitamin Cottage or on-line.
If you have no choice but to use a plastic bag at the store, at least now I have found that some stores like Safeway and Target have recycle bins in the store for recycling them. Safeway even gives you a nickel off your groceries per reusable bag that you use. The Vitamin Cottage does not use plastic bags anymore, but they have reusable bags to purchase (as I know all to well), they also have paper bags, and keep a supply of cardboard boxes in the front of the store for use free of charge. These boxes are recycles that their products are shipped in.
Like I have discovered the “Green” movement (that may have been a poor choice of words- *laughs*), it is very profitable if you can just come up with a good idea. I am working on that as I explore the Eco friendly world.
“Although I may not be the greenest crayon in the box, at least I am trying!”
Coloring Me Green – Vickie Jo Higgins
