[Just an FYI... I'm in another list-making mood. :)]
On Earth Day last month, I was feeling "environmentally-friendly" and decided to purchase some reusable grocery bags. I did a little research and found a website called 1 Bag at a Time that sold the bags at reasonable prices. The bags they sold had all the things I was looking for in a reusable bag:
1. They are large - a little bit larger than a traditional paper grocery bag. (Specifically: 14" tall, 12" wide, and an 8" gusset!)
2. They are sturdy (they stay open when standing on their own) and reinforced in the bottom with a plastic sheet.
3. The straps are long enough to allow me to carry them on my shoulder.
4. They are machine-washable.
5. They don't have a grocery store brand name on them.
So a couple nights ago I did my first BIG grocery trip with my new eco-friendly bags. When i first purchased the bags, I was concerned about the fact that I only had 10 bags. But even with the large amount of groceries I got (spending $125 at Winco is equivalent to spending $150-200 at other grocery stores), I only used SEVEN bags! Look:
I couldn't believe the amount of stuff I could fit into one bag! In one bag I fit 3 boxes of cereal, 1 box of pancake mix, a box of cake mix, and a box of fruit roll-ups! I could never do that in a plastic bag.
On top of all those benefits, I'm helping the environment. Here are some of the [shocking] facts I found out about plastic bags:
- Plastic bags are made of petroleum and 14 bags contain enough petroleum to drive a car 1 mile.
- American's throw away 380 billion plastic bags each year. These bags are made from millions of barrels of petroleum, depleting oil supplies, and driving up costs of petroleum-based products like gasoline and energy for our homes.
- Disposable bags cost our cities up to 17 cents per bag for disposal. In fact, many grocery stores give you a discount if you bring your own grocery bags. Winco gave me 6 cents per bag.
- One study estimated that 100,000 marine animals are killed annually by plastic bags.
5 comments:
I stumbled on your blog through the who chain of us mom bloggers and I have to say, you have a super cool blog! And that was a great post about those reusable bags. We have some but it seems like we always forget to bring them to the store. Reading your post inspired me to dig them out and keep them in the trunk.
Thanks Nicole! I was at Fred Meyer the other day and was going to pick some up but never did. We mostly shop at Winco so I like that these don't have the Whole Foods, or Fred Meyer logo on them. I think I'll be oredering some myself =)
Sounds like a good idea except it sounds like this was one big ad for the company mentioned.
We bought bags from the military commissary. They were $.70 but they are not quite as nice as yours! What is Winco?
way to go green! Now maybe if you used public transportation like I did you could make a real diffrence... hmmm
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