Switch to Cloth Bags
This post is a part of A Greener Christmas Guide, a series of posts dedicated to celebrating the holidays with a lighter impact on the earth. For more of this series, please visit A Greener Christmas Guide.
German grocery stores don’t provide free bags at the checkout. You have to bring your own or be prepared to pay around a euro ($1.47) per bag. Ouch! Nothing like wanting to save a buck to motivate a nation to go a little greener.
Meanwhile, Americans throw away almost 100 billion plastic bags each year. (Only 1-3 percent are actually recycled.) Each of those bags takes 1,000 or more years to break down. And in that process, thousands of birds and marine mammals swallow or choke on the bags and die. You probably see the bags blowing on the sides of the streets and stuck in fences, littering your community.
That’s why we begun a personal ban on plastic bags several years ago. It’s also the inspiration of my latest handmade Christmas gift:
Wanna change the world?
- Use them to hold other Christmas gifts under your tree.
- Roll them into your purse and use for quick errands where you normally would have gotten a plastic bag.
- Make some of your own using this easy bag tutorial and adding two straps.
(Images by Katie for Making This Home)
Keep it green and simple with 2 more ideas:
December 18th, 2008 at 11:44 am
Wow, that’s expensive! I wish that would happen here, but the US is faaaaaaaaaaaaar behind when it comes to conservation. I have all my dorky bags from my scientific meetings that I take to the store. But hey, they work!
December 18th, 2008 at 11:51 am
You made those bags? You are so crafty! We shop at Wegmans where they sell re-usable burlap type bags. I must admit that I unfortunately forget to bring them in from the car half the time, as I’m consumed with trying to get my baby out of the car, into either her stroller or a shopping cart and out of the elements as fast as possible. I at least have these re-usable bags in my car…and since I’m going grocery shopping today I better remember them or I’ll have to report back otherwise! And, you’ll probably tell me it’s not the most eco-friendly way to use them, but we use the plastic bags to clean up after our pooch when we take him on walks. But then we don’t recycle then, since they’re ‘dirty’ed up’….hmmm…we should try to think of a better way to clean up after him, I suppose. Thanks for making me think again, Katie!
December 18th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
I always use reusable bags unless I go to Target. I use Target’s bags to line my trash cans around the house and just empty them. Their bags last a long time. For Christmas we gave someone a Whole Foods gift card and with it is a resuable bags. I even saw them at the sporting goods store with our favorite college team.
December 18th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Thank you for sending me a link to your blog, from the I Love Your Blog Swap. I really love seeing your kitchen.
I love the idea of being more sustainable. I don’t use plastic bags any more. I shall stop by often for green tips.
December 19th, 2008 at 3:08 am
I know how expensive the bags can be. I’m an American living in the Czech Republic. I never realized how much I was wasting until i actually had to pay for the bag. I think Americans don’t realize how much we waste. That is one of the things I’m taking back with me to America. I already looked where I can bring recycleable items. I also will make my own compost. I did it here and my trash was very minimal.
Thank you for showing other people greener ways!!
December 19th, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Wow! Really? That much for bags?! We need that kind of kick in the pants over here!
Such an easy way to make a bag! Awesome! I need to hit the fabric store after Christmas for sweet deals for next year.
December 21st, 2008 at 8:02 am
We personally do a lot of recycling. I line my trash cans with the plastic bags. What we don’t use goes back to the store in their recycle bin for plastic bags. We use cloth bags for grocery shopping. Yesterday I had taken 3 in with me. When I put the things on the counter to purchase I thought I was going to need only 2 bags so I held on to one. But then I did need another bag. They were asking me paper or plastic. I said, “Oh I have one more bag to use here.” We get a credit on our grocery bill when we use cloth bags. I think it is only 3 cents per bag, but hey, I am not taking home any plastic bags that way.
December 26th, 2008 at 7:43 am
Yeah for my Christmas present! Thank you!
January 7th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Hi Katie – these bags are gorgeous and have encouraged me for next year’s Christmas. Thank you so much for contributing this post to the Carnival of Trash. Just wanted to let you know that it’s now been published at http://www.therubbishdiet.blogspot.com