Screw Earth Day

Bag the paper or plastic debate 3

Tip #3: Bag the “paper or plastic” debate at the checkout line by toting a reusable bag (or seven) of your own.

Anya Hindmarch bagWe Are What We Do.Grist advice guru Umbra Fisk is lucky to go a week without being asked about the “paper or plastic” conundrum faced by anyone who has strolled a grocery-store aisle. Though she assures us that when it comes to the which-is-the-lesser-of-two-evils question, there is no clear lesser, and neither is exactly evil, the best answer by far to this either/or question is “neither.”

But that doesn’t mean juggling armfuls of produce and toiletries out to the car bus. Repeat after us: BYOB. (And that stands for bring your own bag, smartass.)

Whether you choose to tote a designer sack by the likes of Stella McCartney or the Anya Hindmarch celeb-must-have that proudly announces it’s not a plastic bag thankyouverymuch, there are plenty of options out there—even for the most cash-strapped among us. We happen to love the little Chico Bag totes that fold up into purse-friendly bundles you can take anywhere.

Find out why we’re bagging Earth Day.

Missed Tip #1? Or Tip #2?

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  1. PermieWriter's avatar

    PermieWriter Posted 8:59 am
    14 Apr 2009

    Canvas bags rock. I don't know how many times I've gotten envious looks at the checkout. A lot of the bags grocery stores sell are those plastic things, which are okay but the handles tend to wear out and they're harder to fix. I have a pile of canvas sacks - never bought any, they just materialize at some rate. Start your own collection today. They're great to have around. And if you need to return something, just stick it in the sack.Also, I just bought these awesome panniers for my bike that come off easily. Integrated grocery bags. w00t!

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  2. lynda9254 Posted 9:28 am
    14 Apr 2009

    Love the article which aims to people to think about going green and bringing us another option.  Not paper and not plastic to fill our waste fields.  Great idea....I am going to start with using my tote bag.  I ask for paper thinking it was better than the plastic that doesn't breakdown.  I guess I will take that another step forward and go with a reuseable tote......great tip. Lynda

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  3. Mithra Posted 5:27 pm
    15 Apr 2009

    Here in Newtown (Sydney, Australia), we're organising a BagShare - that is, people donate their guilty stash of those ever-multiplying 'green' bags, and we give them to local shops to loan to shoppers who have forgotten to bring their own bag.  This is how it works:People donate their extra reusable bags (cloth, polypropylene, nylon, hemp, whatever…)The BagShare team attaches a tag identifying them as BagShare bagsCheckout clerks offer BagShare bags to costumers without their own reusable bagsBased on an honour system, customers return BagShare bags to the retailerAny bags that go missing are made up for by new donationshttp://www.marrickville.nsw.gov.au/environment/thewatershed/bagshare.htm

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