I’m seeing more and more people get into the spirit of environmentalism by bringing their own durable grocery bags into the store with them. My local Trader Joe’s has a contest where they’ll give away a $25 gift card for to one lucky customer who brings their own tote. And Whole foods is officially phasing out the use of disposable plastic grocery bags by the end of the month. The city of San Francisco has completely banned their use over a year ago, and other cities are thinking about following their lead.
I’ve amassed a collection of cloth bags from several of the grocery stores where I shop, and I keep them in the back seat of the car. Now that I’m no longer bringing in the plastic bags to the house, it does present a bit of a problem … we’ve always recycled them as trash bags, because the trash chute in our apartment building is too small for anything bigger than one of those plastic grocery bags, overstuffed. It looks as though we may end up resorting to buying bags just to throw away again. One step forward, one step back.
Anyway, if you’re a crafty person and want to try your hand at making your own reusable grocery bag, the people at City Bag Trade offer up a pattern, so you can make your own from whatever fabric strikes your fancy.
