<p>I usually use two bigger bags for grocery shopping (I have one of those large LL Bean boat totes and another bag that’s about the same size). I’ve been trying to make more of an effort to bring them with me to Target, etc. as well…it is kind of hard to remember sometimes.</p>
<p>If I’m going someplace where I know I won’t buy a lot of stuff like Whole Foods or Fresh Market, I only bring a small Piggly Wiggly reusable bag. Ironically, after I purchased the Piggly Wiggly bag, I went to Piggly Wiggly to pick up some stuff for dinner, and they were like “you want your groceries in there?” I found this hilarious because they sold me the bag then didn’t understand what it was meant to be used for…</p>
<p>I’m about 50/50 with remembering to bring the reuseable bags into the store. When last at Trader Joe’s the cashier said “I didn’t know there was an Acme store around here.” I had to tell her I live pretty far away and can only go to TJs when I’m in their neighborhood.</p>
<p>This probably sounds ridiculous, but lately I can see a correlation between my purse fetish (there are SO many cute ones!) and reuseable bags (some of them are getting pretty stylish!). I was at my daughter’s little market in her small college town last week and I saw there’s - I’m like, “I’ve GOT to have one of those!!”…</p>
<p>I’ve got one of those huge Bean totes that I keep in the back seat and inside I’ve got smaller reusable bags from Whole Foods and other places. If I remember to keep them in my car, then I’ll use them. If I don’t, then I end up with paper bags. I do use the paper bags to take my recycling to the dump.</p>
<p>The flat-bottom bags from various grocery stores are OK, but these are great: <a href=“http://www.envirosax.com/[/url]”>http://www.envirosax.com/</a> They hold a lot and come in lots of fun designs. They roll up so you can put them in your jacket pocket or purse. I also have several super lightweight drawstring mesh bags for produce.</p>
<p>We use the reusable bags and have gotten good at using them all the time. We just unpack the groceries and put the bags back in the car. We have insulated bags as well as two sizes of regular bags.</p>
<p>It sounds like we CC’ers are in the forefront of green shopping! I have a Trader Joe’s and a Publix bag and I use them everywhere. I used to think I needed another one, but with our new empty nest status, it’s rare that I need more than those 2 bags.</p>
<p>When I got married in the 70s I made some bags out of my hub’s curtains, and have been using bags for shopping ever since. Probably have about 30 or so now all the way from LL Bean supers to floppy cheapo types. I feel naked when going in a grocery store without bags, which are in my trunk and my back seat always. </p>
<p>I even made bags for gifts last Christmas. The trick is to have them stand up so that the checkers don’t have such trouble. On some of my old ones, I sewed little loops the checkers snuggle into the plastic bag holders.</p>
<p>To have a handle on some of the bag clutter, I made a bag holder out of an old pair of jeans: cut off the legs, sew the bottom, and put long loops on the waist. This I hang off the head rests of the front seats so the bags hang on the back of the front seats. When the kids were little, they put toys and more in the bags, but nowadays I just stuff bags in there (along with paper towels and other vehicular needs. I use the jean pockets for pens and such) for the next shopping foray.</p>
<p>Using bags has become a habit, but I still get lots of plastic bags from other shopping. No end of waste paper basket liners, etc.</p>
<p>So…green ones…here’s our problem. We use paper bags for our under the sink trash…figured it was better than plastic. Now…we don’t really have paper bags…but we do still have the trash. Any ideas???</p>
<p>I also try my best to use the recyclable bags, but periodically I forget them in the car, or find that I have left them in the other car! If I go into a store like CVS/Rite Aid and I’m only buying a few items, I just hand carry them out. Now I have to train DH. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I’m usually too lazy and forget to bring my own bags, although I do reuse/recycle the plastic ones and occasionally ask for paper (they are essential for making microwave caramel corn) . I go to 6-8 conferences a year and have quite a collection of the canvas bags that are given out at each one. Just decided they would be perfect for shopping and plan to start leaving them in my trunk for that purpose.</p>
<p>thumper1, we use paper bags for trash, too. I know we could switch to a rigid can, but it seems that the trash is less likely to blow away while the garbage guy is emptying the trash if it’s in bags. I get my supply of paper bags for this purpose by occasionally forgetting to take the reusable bags into the store. Being scatterbrained has its benefits.</p>
<p>We have curbside pickup for our recycling once a week in our county. They give us a big blue box, but stuff has to be sorted within the boxes. So I use at least 3 paper bags a week for this; lots of newspapers fill one bag, magazines and cardboard in another (do you have any idea how much cardboard packing we use? I was AMAZED at the volume when I started recycling all of our little cardboard stuff like toilet paper rolls, butter boxes, etc.), and then one for cans & plastics.</p>
<p>Grocery shopping usually requires 4 bags, so (when I remember), I take in the one reusable bag I keep in my car, and use 3 paper bags for recycling. This does not seem very ecofriendly, but I am not keen on cleaning out bags/containers each week, esp. for the can/plastic recycling.</p>
<p>I use my reusable bags all the time. In fact, I can’t remember when I last had plastic bags. It’s rare here to see anyone NOT have reusable bags when you’re standing in line at the grocery store. The stores here charge for plastic bags now, and you get a discount (albeit a small one) if you use reusable ones. I buy biodegradable bags at the pet supply store for cleaning up after my dogs. They can go in our greencart pickup, but obviously not regular plastic bags.</p>
<p>My W usually uses the reusable bags from the grocery. I think they were pretty cheap to buy. The other day she came back with groceries in them but had gone to the nearby competing grocery store. I doubt any of them would mind using a competitor’s bag at their store - it should actually make them feel good since they’re getting business that might typically go to their competitor.</p>
They recently started single stream recycling here. It’s great!!! I now have a large rolling blue cart that goes out to the curb every other week. Everything goes into the cart, unsorted. And, I can recycle stuff I previously couldn’t. I love it!</p>
<p>I like the bags from Baggu…so many great colors, they’re big, they’re strong, and they take up so little space that I can easily keep six in my glove compartment.</p>