Paper, Plastic or Cloth?
I'm washing my shopping bags today in preparation for a return to sanity. Yes, I will be putting my groceries in cloth bags as much as possible from now on.
I did it in Germany and always scorned the consumer in other countries who used plastic bags. Cloth was easy and cheap (a plastic bag cost you 30 Pfennige) and they didn't weigh much empty.
But back in the US it felt dumb. People look at you with "Hippie?" in mind. And the baggers don't know what to do with them. In Germany, you bag your own groceries, another way to keep costs down.
Recently though, Green yuppies have been spreading the word on the internet and even Vitamin Cottage (my happy place) did away with free bags last month. Then, all of a sudden, even my rural, conservative, family-owned grocery started discussing cloth bags. So it is time to come out of the closet (the bags) and present them for what they are, a little sanity in an insane world.
- Read more about cloth versus plastic.
- Read more about what you can change in your home to be greener.
I so agree Jennifer. Here in the UK I struggled for a long time for all the same reasons. Now, eventually, if you dare ask for a plastic carrier bag you are looked at with disdain. I just have to remember to take my bags with me, I am always forgetting.
Even out here in the sticks, and even at mom and pop grocers, cloth bags are becoming available, and I love them. Tim and I now have a stash, but we forget them often too, Elaine. I’ve started keeping them in my car so I can at least run out to the parking lot before checking out if I forget to bring them in.
They cost a buck here, so they’re cheap, but they’re not cool like the European kind.