Living Green in the Great White North - Cloth Shopping Bags

I've decided to write an occasional post about living "greenly" in the north and unique challenges to this that we encounter. Today's topic: shopping bags!

In a time of increased awareness of the detrimental effects of pollutants and waste created by humans and a growing sense of individual responsibility, small changes to our lifestyles may help to make a difference (although see this article for an introduction to one of many related caveats which I won't be discussing today). Growing in popularity by conservation-minded folks are alternatives to plastic bags to carry one’s purchases. Touted as being “ecofriendly”, reusing shopping bags or other containers makes sense at a time when reducing unnecessary consumption can reduce the amount of waste in our landfills among other benefits. In particular, reducing use of petroleum products, such as plastic bags, can be an environmentally friendly thing to do.

I’ll admit straight off that nothing is cost free. We are consumers by nature and by consuming anything there is always going to be a negative cost somewhere to someone or something. By opting to use cloth bags, one is a part of the financial and environmental costs of using land and growing the plants used to make the fabric, actual manufacturing of the fabric and in creating the bag and shipping it to the seller. The idea of course, is that by reusing the bag (or other container) the relevant environmental costs are incurred less frequently and thus overall to a lesser degree, than those incurred by getting a new bag every time one goes shopping and for each product type purchased. By choosing a cloth container (or other readily biodegradable material) over a petroleum product, one is also reducing (not eliminating, mind you) dependency on fossil fuels and the environmental costs incurred through their use. I’m a fan of this strategy and cringe whenever I see products touted by advertisers as being attractive particularly because of their easy disposal.

The “use it once and throw it away” sort of products make me cringe and make me angry. I’m not talking facial tissues and toilet paper here either, which for sanitary reasons and the high environmental costs of laundering, I’m all for using and then throwing out, although I certainly don't require them to be bleached white in order for me to purchase them.) I am talking about such things as using aluminum foil instead of a pot, or a disposable plastic bag for steaming your food in a microwave or a disposable tissue to wipe your floor when a broom will do the trick. Occasional use of these products I understand, but reliance on these sorts of products is wasteful and in my mind, irresponsible. Plastic grocery bags are one of these kinds of products. They are too thin to ever be used more than once and usually only serve to move the food from the store to the consumer’s vehicle and from the vehicle inside their home. One use and then they are trash.

Ah, but they can be recycled, I can hear you saying.

Yes, that’s true. In my experience in both Prairie Town and Home Town, some grocery stores offer to recycle plastic grocery bags and in Prairie Town, one grocery store even charges their customers who opt to use the store’s branded plastic grocery bags. (I’m not sure that this is at all related to attempts to be environmentally friendly so much as it is simply an attempt to recoup the costs of producing the grocery bags. Nevertheless, it can be an incentive to the consumer to bring their own bags or boxes or to buy the newly marketed tiny green cloth “ecobags” for sale in the store.)

They can also be reused to contain household garbage or, a favourite of mine while dog-sitting, for scooping up doggy doo while out exercising the dog. Admittedly, those aren't altogether terrible uses for them, but far far more don't get reused or recycled and far too many end up simply as waste.

In Prairie Town ManNorth and I did our best to carry our groceries in cloth bags and only resorted to plastics bags after forgetting our cloth ones. Usually no one batted an eye at the cloth bags and we never had to worry about plastic handles tearing and spilling our groceries in the parking lot. (The ones with long handles are great as they can be carried over the shoulder, making it much easier to carry a full load. But I digress.)

When I go shopping, I carry the cloth bags rolled up and stuffed into my satchel (those who know me would never call it a purse!) and I happily pull them out at hardware stores, grocery stores, or wherever I buy anything that could remotely be carried in a cloth bag. In Prairie Town, usually no one was surprised if I declined their plastic bags and pulled out my own to bag my own groceries but I have gotten the occasional odd glances at places like Canadian Tire or in bookstores for instance, where presumably the trend to bring your own bags hasn’t quite caught on. I DID get astonished looks in Prairie Town when needing more groceries than I could carry in my cloth bags and thus using my camping backpack and loading it up full to ride home on my bike.

So how well do the cloth bags go over here in Northern Town? I’ll give you one guess!

Yep, I ALWAYS get funny looks when I decline plastic bags in any store in town, no matter if it is a grocery store or not. Strangely enough, the clerks at one of the three grocery stores in town always look put out when I smile and say “No bags please. I have my own.” I even save them the trouble of packing them, which gets me through the till faster as they can ring up my purchases while I bag but they don’t seem to appreciate it much and generally just stare sourly at me. At the second store, I get a smile and cheery conversation while I bag and they scan and at the third store, they barely notice I’m even there, bags or no bags, until I hand them my payment.

At the two hardware stores in town, I’m actually becoming recognized because of the bags even though I'm an infrequent customer there! “Oh yes, you’re the one that doesn’t want bags” a clerk recently declared, smiling at me after I declined the proffered plastic bag for the paint brushes and stain we’d purchased.

Doesn’t anybody else here do this?

This past summer I would occasionally see people walking home with bags and bags of groceries, stopping to repack them as handles broke or looking genuinely pained as the thin plastic handles bit into their palms. I’d confidently march by with my bag (or two or three) comfortably slung over my shoulder and holding about as much as they were carrying, thinking of them sympathetically, but also thinking that they should pay attention to a good idea! (Or use a backpack!)

I want to hear from all of you. Do you use plastic grocery bags? (If so, what do you do with them all? Do you crochet clothing, mats or bags out of them? Do you feel badly about using them or are you fine with it?) Do you use boxes or plastic bins? Do you already use cloth bags? How do clerks or other customers respond if you bring your own container? Would you consider using cloth bags or another alternative to carry your groceries and other purchases? If not, why not? Do tell!

-----------------------

5:30 PM Update:

Okay, now this is odd. The very day that I get around to blogging about cloth shopping bags and how no one in Northern Town seems to use them, what do I find in my postal box this afternoon but two of these:

They were each part of two 81/2 x 11 inch flyers describing a few ecofriendly products for sale at NorthMart. With every $50 purchase and a coupon, customers can get a free reusable shopping bag. I don't know if these are cloth or plastic but am mildly impressed although I think the flyer was unnecessary waste. A few large signs in the store could do the trick along with coupons ready at the till.

Guess which of the three grocery stores described above is giving away the bags:

Heh. The one with the clerks that would get put out when I used my own cloth bags, which, admittedly aren't nearly as spiffy as the one their store is now giving away. I find this funny.

I'll let you know if their reaction changes the next time I shop there and I'll also keep a watch for other customers using them there and at the other two grocery stores. I wonder if those stores will follow suit?