Welcome to YouChoose, a blog where we explore ways of living sustainably. This month I would like to share one step we can all take to reduce our environmental footprint: Reduce the use of plastic bags. This seems like a fairly straightforward step, however, as it always happens when trying to change long ingrained habits, it takes some discipline, planning, and a little time. There is more to plastic than just bags and some plastic is difficult to eliminate depending on where one lives because of the lack of alternatives. For this reason we’ll focus on different items in different posts.
If you look around you will see that there is still much to do in this area. In some places plastic bags are banned altogether, however, while we wait for businesses to help out, individual actions are fundamental in making a difference and this is really one area where they can. The fact is that no matter how large or small the item we purchase is, we seldom get out of a store without holding a plastic bag, big or small, plain or decorated, distinctive or unremarkable. Even if the purchased object is something that could easily fit in a pocket or a purse, it is invariably placed and handed to us in a plastic bag and we, like automata, extend our hand and grab the bag before heading out of the store.
Free produce bags and cotton bags upcycled from old fabric are available. Check them out here.
QUICK TIPS TO REDUCE PLASTIC BAGS
- Recognize the importance of the problem and the need to take action
- Be disciplined and train yourself to refuse plastic bags
- Set realistic goals and achieve them one by one
- Keep a set of reusable canvas bags in the car
- Keep a set of reusable produce bags in the car
- When checking out of any store ask yourself: “Do I really need a bag?”
- Buy produce that is not packaged in plastic bags
- Consider alternatives to plastic bags in the house
First of all, why is it important that we reduce plastic bags? Because they are contributors to a large percent of the plastic pollution of our planet on both sea and land and because they are for the most part unnecessary. That is also the reason why I find it really puzzling that we still rely so much on them. No day goes by without a news article or a talk about the scourge of plastic pollution in the oceans, and yet we fail to make a connection between that problem and our everyday habits. In fact I still see 99% of buyers coming out of stores carrying plastic bags. There is definitely room for improvement.
I myself used to not worry so much about it, thinking that I recycled the bags after using them. However I realized later that recycling should be the last resort for the plastic we really can’t dispense with, not a feel-good excuse. In fact, recycling is not a sustainable option because it requires energy and because much of what we put in the recycle bin ends up somewhere in some other country still polluting land and rivers, just out of our sight.
WHERE TO START?
Step 1: Find the source
Action #1: Find out the provenance of the plastic bags in your home. At the beginning I tried to find the source of the plastic bags in my home. Certainly, the grocery store was one major source of plastic bags. I used to be flooded with plastic, from packaged vegetables (for example a bag of potato, onions, and apples, etc.), frozen items, not to even mention plastic containers. Some high-end grocery stores have a paper bag only policy. Very few grocery stores in my area do offer a paper option, however it seems that most people opt for plastic. Additional, but less frequent, sources of plastic bags included other stores such as clothing, household, home improvement, or anything else. Therefore my first target was the trip to the grocery store.
Step 2: Eliminate grocery store bags
Action #2: Check if you have reusable bags in your home to put to a good use! If not available, you can purchase a set of washable canvas bags and train yourself to carry them with you in the store. After thinking about it I realized that several canvas bags collected throughout the years from meetings, conferences, and organizations I support were unused in the closet. I decided to take those with me every time I went shopping. The biggest challenge at the beginning was to remember to put the bags in the car and take them with me in the shop. It took me a while, but I can assure you that after a few months of persevering it becomes second nature to remember to carry the reusable bags with you. Now I keep the bags in the car (trunk or the back seat) and it has become a part of my habits so that I also carry them when shopping in other stores.
Step 3: Eliminate produce bags
Action #3: Get organized with reusable bags for fruits and vegetables. Once I settled with the reusable canvas bags I focused on the plastic produce bags. Reusing these didn’t work out very well because they tear easily and sometime become dirty so I ended up with shreds of dirty plastic bags that couldn’t even be recycled. I then decided to just place the vegetables directly in the shopping cart and then in the canvas bag with everything else at the checkout, this is an option, however it didn’t work out well for me.
For this reason, I decided to invest a little amount of money (perhaps $30) to purchase reusable produce bags. I purchased two types: One is a natural fiber that has the consistency of a net, the second one is a synthetic pouch. They both come in a set of many sizes which are large enough to contain any amount of vegetables. Especially the canvas ones seem small, however they stretch and expand with the weight of the vegetables. I use the natural fiber bags at the grocery store and the other type to store the vegetables in the refrigerator, this way I never run out of them.
At the beginning I was a little bit worried about rotting, but I can definitely say that it is not the case and this system has worked very well for me for several years. Both models are washable in the washer so I just add them to the load and dry them quickly by hanging.
Step 4: Eliminate packaged fruit and vegetables
Action #4: Make a point to purchase plastic-free produce. The simple steps described above have definitely helped eliminate the vast majority of plastic bags entering the house. After settling in this routine (it took me several months) I focused my attention on selecting bag-free fruits and vegetables. Instead of purchasing potatoes and onions in five-pound bags, I now buy everything that is non packaged. It is true that sometimes it’s impossible to find what we like without plastic. For example we used to buy some small apples that were available only in plastic bags. I stopped buying them and now look for similar products without the plastic. Similarly, if organic vegetables come in plastic I opt for regular. Buying in bulk may be slightly cheaper, however if possible bag-free produce is a better choice.
Step 5: Reduce plastic bags in the house
Action #5: Think of ways to reduce plastic bags use in your home. Before I decided to reduce plastic bags, I used to keep one large trash bag in the bin and smaller bags around the house which were replaced weekly. In addition there were small bags to clean the cats’ litter box and Ziploc storage bags to pack my daughter’s lunch. We’ll talk about zero waste lunches and eliminating Ziploc storage in a different post. After thinking this through I realized that replacing all those plastic bags every week was really unnecessary. The kitchen bag was replaced with a compostable bag for all waste. There was an initial worry that a compostable bag in the kitchen will leak, however I found an excellent 13-gallon compostable bag that lasts the entire week without any leak. Similarly, all other bags in the house are not replaced weekly anymore but on a need basis. As for the waste from the cats’ litter box it now goes in small paper bags. In total we are down to one plastic bag per week.
In spite of all my efforts, I still produce enough plastic bags that occasionally a trip to the recycle collection is necessary, the amount of plastic that goes to recycle however is now considerably reduced. Where it used to be the equivalent of one grocery bag full of plastic every about 2 weeks it is now the same every 2-3 months. Additional sources that I am trying to reduce are bread and frozen vegetable bags.
To conclude this blog, I would like to extend two challenges here:
The first challenge is to ask ourselves whenever we are checking out of any store: Do I need a bag for this? Is this something that I can just carry to my car?
The second challenge is to take ownership of the plastic problem and make a conscious effort to take reusable bags with us every time we go in any store and tell the cashier: I brought my own bag, no need for plastic.
Do you want to share your experience about reducing plastic bags? Send me an email at info@choosesustainable.org
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