Saturday, June 7, 2008

Bag the Plastic Bags (Vacation Rewind)

When I drive (car sharing), I actually use cool flat-bottom bags from our local employee-owned grocery. But for 90% of my shopping trips I’m on the bus or on foot, and never without my Baggus! Vacation rewind from February 21, 2008.

The Third Thursday in Lent

“Snub plastic bags. Get into the habit of taking your rucksack to the supermarket or go retro with a trolley. Ask your supermarket to remove unnecessary packaging.”

Of course, I’m using the British version of the Carbon Fast for Lent just so I can type words like rucksack and trolley . . .

When I learned the local Whole Foods will no longer provide bags when one buys groceries, I had mixed feelings. I actually do re-use all our grocery bags: plastic bags as our trashcan liners, and paper bags for the recycling. But I’m warming to the no-plastic bag concept from an environmental perspective. No idea what I’ll do for free trashbags, but I’m on the lookout for cool reusable bags that will fold down very small so I can keep ’em with me (like the Baggu bags pictured here, which fold up into their own neat little pouch. They’re also available on Amazon — if you buy them through Amazon’s link on Nonprofit Shopping Mall, your favorite charity will get a little rebate to boot, in a happy double mitzvah). Any ideas for cool reusable bags? Drop me a line or a link!

Today’s mitzvah: All things in moderation. Swap out one or two plastic bags with something reusable (or even better, reusable and recycled) at the next grocery trip.

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