It isnt really serving the purpose I had in mind. As I have become less able to walk any great distance, I have had to put my own trolley away, because its just as difficult for me to manouvre that into the car when full of stuff, as it is with bags and a shop trolley. In fact, the shop trolley is easier…
With the shoppacart, i can load up as I go round the market/shop/whatever… at checkout, I’ll not need a bag to contain things, they will go right back into the cart, wheeled into the car, and they don’t have to be touched again until home and wheeled out of the car and into the house.
I bought myself a set of maybe 5 Ecosilk bags many years ago (20 years? I forget). They’re light, strong, colourful, wash easily and dry quickly. The neat pouched set lives permanently in my shoulder bag and takes up very little space. Two or three of the bags easily deal with a week’s shopping (fruit, meat, veg and groceries) for two people, plus petfood. I should stress that, apart from as a happy, long ago customer, I have no connection with Ecosilk.
We have heard more than once before about your support of eco shopping bags @enbconje.
Glad you’re happy with them but I for one wouldn’t be because they are made of 100% nylon, just like the reusable plastic shopping bags we are trying to avoid.
Also they come in a purse of six costing $11.50 plus $10.50 postage and delivery. Those type of shopping bags in a little purse of the same colour as the bags are a fraction of that price in a $2.00 shop. And they are equally colourful, long lasting and strong.
Often calico bags, which unfortunately are a little more bulky than nylon (inc. other synthetic fabrics) for the handbag/pocket, can often be purchased at retailers for $2 or more (an example). The downside is they are often plastered with the retailer’s logos/branding which gives them ‘free’ advertising when reused.
In the absence of the overlocker an easy way is to put wrong sides together and stitch all around near to the edge as possible. Then turn inside out and stitch again all around.
The first line of stitches will be hidden in the wrong side of the bag and the fabric cannot fray.
The better half of my life’s sewing machine does a blanket stitch as part of its available routines. We use that when we can’t be bothered putting the overlocker on the table.
For the most part I have done away with bags. I take the trolley out to the car and sort the grocery shopping into cardboard boxes and polystyrene boxes. I get the open cardboard boxes and foam boxes from our tiny one man pharmacy (otherwise he has to dispose of them) and use them many times over. In cherry season I get the very sturdy boxes they come in and use them for heavy goods.
Converted an old wheelbarrow to a flat bed, load these boxes and push up the hill to the back door. Cardboard boxes that get worn out are then used in the garden. Clean foam boxes can go to the Council recycling depot (one of few who can deal with it - they melt & on-sell). It means my car is always full of boxes.
In the odd time I have needed a bag, I have re-used ones I have been given. Still re-using “single use” bags years after I got them. I keep some in the car just in case - ie someone offers us lemons.
I sewed up a number of cotton bags based on the single use plastic bag pattern but have not needed to use them. French seams and/or overlocked. I take everything in a shoulder bag I made about 20 years ago, wallet, pens, keys, scripts, notebook, phone etc, with enough room for incidental purchases along the way.
I don’t like the Non-woven Polypropylene bags as they degrade, start falling apart and turn to dust before I get much use out of them, then can’t be recycled.
“More than once” - is that a problem? I hadn’t realised. I haven’t kept track but I imagine it would normally have been in response to queries from different members. I’ve probably had mine for about 20 years, and a query about shopping bags does come up from time to time.
No i don’t think you’re being stingy at all. Previously we got the plastic bags for free which I recycled as rubbish bags. I now return the paper bags but still have to pay for them. I can’t see how this works especially when I returned some to a delivery driver who said “ thanks I’ll take them home and put them in my recycling bin”!!!
If one does not BYO or has home delivery or pick and collect the paid for paper bag is a common solution. Every option has a cost - to the budget and more broadly to the community through environmental impacts.
How good a solution is it a paper or other bags if one is looking to the impact of the alternatives? Excludes the added impacts of the home delivery vehicle and driver vs doing it on the way home etc.
The UK Govt took a deep dive on the different shopping bag options. A scientific and very thorough consideration of the total impact of each. Surprising or not the humble paper shopping bag (nominal weight around 50gms) had a total combined footprint of more than 5kG CO2e. A useful comparison, although the absolute impacts of the same alternatives available in Australia may differ slightly.
Many shoppers are lazy. I am a senior with no car. Don’t need home delivery. If going to supermarket I have my backpack and a folded cloth bag. Occasionally need to buy the paperbag which i reuse a few times.
Watched shoppers going in with no bags! Most arrive by car. Come out with paperbag not full. It is lack of forethought not to have a supply of bags in their car. There are of course the good shoppers who come with laminated bags or the cloth bags. “We” say we are aware of climate change etc, but still produce extra landfill. Recall from my young days, if going shopping, bring something to carry goods back home.
It amazes me why supermarkets need to use this type of paper bag. My dear Dad was a manager at some of these supermarkets many years ago and they recycled all of the cardboard boxes after stocking the shelves. No waste, no problems for the environment. They might not work for those without a car but surely overall it would be a good idea.
Some Supermarkets do offer boxes if requested and some have some available for customers to use without needing a request. Easy to ask a store employee if any are available for use.
Most stores now because of storage space and the cost of that floor space, do not provide boxes and instead compact the waste cardboard for recycling. They do not try to maintain boxes for customers to use. It is easier to provide folded up bags that for the space used can offer multiple bags. Price per bag is fairly low, it is compostable and/or recyclable after use, it does not add to the plastic load in the environment. Most of these brown bags are made from Kraft paper, which offers increased strength and durability over normal paper.
We’re spoilt - our independent supermarket has goods in boxes on the shelves, so it is easy to put a box into the trolley. As there are so many empty shops in the complex there is ample room for piles of larger boxes, some of which are works of art, sturdy and capable of many re-uses.
We shop once a fortnight, to justify the distance, fill the trolley, then at the car, fill the eskies, old boxes and occasionally the odd re-used cotton or plastic bag. We are still re-using the ‘single use’ plastic bags, now years old, mainly to stop condensation ruining the cardboard. Maybe it comes down to the cost of space (for boxes & packing) being greater than the cost/revenue from bags?
