When I was at the Grocery Store last night, a green canvas bag got my attention. It cost me 88 cents and I hauled my groceries out with it. These canvas bags will replace the plastic and paper bags I have been using. I’m starting with one bag to see if I can make it work for me. I learned one of the problems with the canvas bags, is that you have to remember to take it with you on the return trip to the Store. I am totally sick of plastic grocery bags!
Doug
I have two of them, have had for quite a while… 
Now I’ve got a picture in mind of Superman carrying two green bags out of a grocery store:p
it takes alot of little green bags to bring home $150 worth of groceries. the ones i’ve seen are not very big.
i did buy one from the whole foods market and it is quite large. just wish i could remember to take it along on grocery trips.
Have to agree with Normand, not practical for a cart FULL of groceries, but nice if you just need a few things. We don’t live withing walking distance of the grocery store, so we try to make just one big buy a week in order to limit the trips. Our stores have boxes at the entrances to put your old bags in for recycling. We use our grocery bags to line trash cans in the bathrooms, basement and garage, plus we use them daily when we walk our dog (70# lab). Very few bags from our home go to the landfill without something in them.
Joe
but they still go in a landfill to decompose in a 100 plus or minus years (or whatever it takes). we all do it
I do have a concern about these bags they want us to buy and try to remember to bring back to the store with us.
Drippings.
As from chicken, beef, pork, milk products, and water from veggies. These things are going to drip and get into these bags.
People are not going to disinfect their bags and may not realize that the chicken or beef dripped some of its dangerous fluids inside the bag. Then they will use them again and again. Somewhere along the way some of those fluids are going to contaminate other foods.
I know there is a huge push to do away with the plastic grocery bags, but at least they are usually only a one time use container, so contaminates do not have a chance to cross over to other foods.
Personally, I would rather the grocery stores come up with a biodegradable bag that was a one use bag then toss it either in the trash or the recycler.
Just my opinion.
Larry —sagefisher—
Doug: Some of the stores here give you an option of paper bags. You might find such a store around your neck of the woods.
Tim
The grocery store I frequent charges extra for plastic bags. Used cardboard boxes are free
I carry a couple of the canvas bags for my produce and such, every thing else goes in boxes
I was never a fan of plastic grocery bags, but after months of picking them up on my litter patrols, I got disgusted with them, because plastic bags get caught in the wind and they blow all over the country. They get stuck in the dirt, stuck in blackberry bushes, stuck in trees…etc. In my opinion, if the manufacturer would make a biodegradable plastic bag, like sagefisher suggested, that would help a lot. It would help ME, if the bags weren’t so flimsy, so they wouldn’t fill with the wind and get stuck in the bushes.
Doug
Doug -
Have you been to southern Nevada, around Vegas, recently ? You would not believe the “white bag landscape” they used to call the desert, what’s left of it anyway, after the best part ( worst part ? ) of a million people have moved into that area in the past 10-12 years. Some of the truly beautiful country in the West is in southern Nevada, but I don’t think I will ever be able to bring myself to go back and do the things I did when I lived there, because the trash is just too much.
Getting back to the subject of the thread - our local supermarket got those bags a couple months ago. The ones we got hold a lot more than the typical plastic bag, both for volume and weight. I do forget to take them along once in a while, but they certainly do serve a good purpose.
John
P. S. Larry - you made an excellent point about “drippings.” I wouldn’t have thought of it probably, until it was too late. Thanks.
Larry,
The canvas bag I got, has a removable plastic liner inside the bottom of the bag. I’m sure that I could put the bag in the washing machine and hand scrub the liner.
Doug
I would give the burlap bag a chance. Not a big fan of the plastic and not too many stores have the paper anymore.
Plus any time I stop at the store it is usually on an emergency basis and because I hate plastic I carried everything by hand. But a grocery sack is a good idea and I will mention it to my wife as long as I am not promoting a store saving that store money at a coast to me.
Respectfully,
Sean
John,
In Oregon, we have Adopted Road areas. People or Organizations select a section of Highway and clean it up. I have unofficially adopted my neighborhood, which is many acres. When I worked, I learned about preventive maintenance. That is the reason I pick up litter every day. I couldn’t manage my area otherwise. My determination is vital to dealing with picking up litter. I am not getting mad at anyone, just doing my thing. I love to walk, love to talk to people and I get to obsess about 2 hrs a day. Compliments and coins keep me motivated. I found a 5 dollar bill Friday. I received a compliment recently, that turned my face red. It’s all good! I’m happy, other’s are happy and this neighborhood is clean. Adopting an area is necessary because it’s easier to manage that way.
Doug
Doug -
The Las Vegas Mountaineer Club adopted a section of highway north of Vegas for an annual cleanup. Unbelievable what we gathered and hauled away from a mile of roadway in a day.
That was in a relatively “pristine” area. In one of those “white bag landscapes,” it would take the last million newcomers months to put a dent in the problem. Not that many of them would likely be interested in that kind of thing.
Sounds like you have a pretty neat routine, and profitable, too !!!
Fortunately, around here, at least up to now, we don’t really have that kind of problem. Finding five dollar bills laying around, that is.
John
John,
This is the area I live in;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portland,_Oregon
I’m south in Clackamas County. I’m lucky that I live “South” of Portland and not any other direction.
Doug
The stores here take 5 cents of my grocery bill for each bag I bring in and fill.
I could be wrong, but I think paper bags take longer to break down in the landfill than plastic bags do.
So save a tree and some oil, bring home a few new bags !
Cheers,
MontanaMoose
I like the idea of the reusable bags because those darn plastic bags keep breaking because they always seem to overload them.
At the same time I think it would be a hassle for us to use those bags because of how many we would need. Our typical every other week shopping trip is $250 or more and is nearly two carts full. That seems like it would take quite a mess of bags.
In Iowa they make some people use the plastic bags that break down.
The problem is that it takes sunlight to do break them down and the trash must be covered by something like 4:30 or 5:00 pm of every day trash comes in. Thus the sun cannnot get to the bags.
Rick
Plastic shopping bags are made moastly out of HDPE. This material can be recycled. If your local recycling “authority” does not accept them. Wally world has a bins for collecting them (at least round here they do) right byt the entrance. We use them for groceries and other things around the house. What’s left is taken back to the store.
P.S. Paper is a carbon based material (like tree leaves) and therefore it does break down fairly quickly. If you shred it and put it in the compost it will “dissapear”.