Re-usable Shopping Bags

Plastic shopping bags serve a purpose. They are cheap, easy to manufacture, convenient, re-usable as trash bags, and recyclable. The main problems I have with them is they don't biodegrade and if they are not on the top of a landfill they can't photo-degrade, they don't often get recycled, and they can be seen strewn all over the world.

It's that last part that really got me thinking. I just hate driving down the street seeing plastic shopping bags stuck in tree, fences, bushes and sage brush. I decided that I was going to try to not be part of that problem - not because I was throwing my plastic bags out of my window to be carried by the wind to the nearest tree but because I was supporting the problem by using plastic shopping bags.

Plus, most the bags I was using were also advertising where I shopped, which isn't a problem because I don't want people knowing where I shop but because I was a walking billboard that wasn't being paid to be a billboard. In fact, I was paying money to purchase items and be an advertisement; I'm not OK with that. (I also try not to wear cloths that adversise the brand name on them.)

This is when I started doing research on how I could not use plastic shopping bags. I had hear the term "re-usable shopping bag" and my first thought was to just take the plastic bags that I already had laying around (and I had a very large collection) and just re-use them at the checkout. Once I started looking through the bags I had I realized that that wasn't going to work because of the condition that the bags were in; with just one use, the plastic re-usable shopping bags probably were no longer strong enough to carry another load.

I next moved to canvas bags but the ones I saw in the stores weren't meant to be shopping bags: they were either really big (like a beach tote), really small (like a children's book tote), really expensive ($14 ish), or really ugly (plain canvas).

I knew that some stores sold re-usable shopping bags for pretty cheap but that goes back to the fact that I don't want to do any free advertisement because the inexpensive bags sold by retailers had their store name and/or logo all over them. Plus they weren't exactly convenient for carrying around.

After doing some internet research I found Baggus. The first thing that drew me in about Baggus is that they were really colorful. I love color. The second is that the brand name was not advertised all over the bag (there is a small tag on each that says "Baggu" but it isn't front and center, so I can live with it). The third is that they got cheaper the more you purchased.

I decided to try them out. I purchased the minimum I could at the lowest price (6 for $6.50 each) and they were delivered in about 4 days. I gave one to each of my two room mates and I took the others shopping.

Now, this was several years ago, back before using re-usable shopping bags was very widely practiced. On my first several grocery shopping trips (probably for the first several months) I got really crazy looks from the cashiers, even though they sold re-usable shopping bags, and most wouldn't bag my groceries for me, which was a little infuriating. However, I've found that now that using re-usable bags in more popular, cashiers don't even think twice when I hand them a re-usable bag or when the first item on the counter is a re-usable bag.

Here are some other things I like about Baggus:

• light weight
• fold up small enough that I can fit several in my purse
• washable
• can hold up to 25 - 35 pounds
• have long handles that can be carried via shoulder instead of just carried by hand
• have a huge color variety (I have about 20 - 25 different colors)
• have varied uses (all kinds of shopping, carrying my lunch to work, carrying items to potlucks and other event, moving, gym bag, etc)
• make great gifts

Back when I started purchasing and sing Baggus there was only one size, a little bigger than a regular plastic shopping bag from a grocery store, but now there are three sizes of the original and all kinds of other types of bags.

I'm certainly not in any position to be judging anyone who uses plastic shopping bags, I still do if I forget to bring a Baggu with me, but if you do use plastic shopping bags, please re-use them for other purposes and/or recycle them - most grocery stores have a place to collect plastic bags and most recycling programs accept them.