Plastic Bags: Use Less at the Grocery Store
Excerpted from Market to Mouth
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It was almost a year ago that I wrote a post titled Re-Use Your Plastic Bags. Around that time, as a way to gather data for a book proposal based on my blog Market to Mouth, I was sharing my expertise as a grocery shopping-cum-cooking consultant.
One of glaring things I noticed shopping with people is the consistent and unnecessary over-use of plastic bags at the grocery store.
Above is a pic of one of my client friends looking very sheepish because I had gently admonished her; every time she picked up an item of fresh produce, she grabbed a plastic bag.
Whether it was ears of corn, a pound of apples, oranges or heads of lettuce, Amy, like so many people I’d shopped with, put her fruits and vegetables into plastic bags before depositing them into her shopping cart.
Now, you’re probably thinking, “What’s wrong with that?! I do it; I put all my fruit and veggies in plastic bags.”
In response, I’m going to ask that you ponder why?!
Great post.
One concern I have: Plastic degrades over time, and especially when washed or wet, encourages the growth of harmful bacteria (why you shouldn’t keep re-using bottled water bottles).
Maybe we should buy more permanent bags for our produce, and re-use those bags elsewhere?
Do you have any idea what those “more permanent bags” would be?
I have a friend who was toying with the idea of making small muslin or linen sandwich bags for her kids lunches, perhaps that’s a solution — cloth bags for loose produce.
Thanks for your comment Michael,
Louise
.-= Louise Ross´s last blog ..Sole with Yams, Zucchini and Capers =-.
I have several large organic cotton bags I use for produce. Some are mesh and some are woven. You can get woven ones here.
Thanks for that tip and link Dawn. I think BYO linen/mesh/woven bags will (need to) be the wave of the future for bagging loose fresh produce.
Louise
.-= Louise Ross´s last blog ..Vietamese-Australian Baklava =-.
[...] your own produce and bulk bags. Skip the plastic bags available for bulk items or produce. Use your own reusable bags or skip the bag altogether for [...]