You Can Recycle That: Reusable Shopping Bags

It seems a little weird - why would you need to recycle a reusable shopping bag? Their whole purpose is to eliminate waste. But a lot of us have a surplus of reusable shopping bags that we just don't use. It seems that every business is distributing the bags as promotional items to market themselves. They've become so popular that just about every store is giving them away, and a lot of us end up with so many that we can't use all of them. Personally, I have at least 15-20 of the bags, but only about 4 or 5 that I actually use

Luckily, there's the ChicoBag Repurposing Program. 

Package up all of your unwanted reusable shopping bags and ship them to ChicoBag. The bags will be distributed to low-income families, encouraging them to "start a reusable bag habit." Any bags that are determined to be unusable will be disassembled and woven into new products suchs as aprons or rugs by The Grateful Thread, providing job training opportunities for victims of domestic violence.

Not only will you be ridding your home of clutter and keeping your reusable bags out of landfills, you'll also be encouraging others to reduce their plastic bag consumption, and providing employment opportunities to those in need. It's a win-win-win-win!

Send your unwanted reusable shopping bags to:

ChicoBag Company
C/O Zero Waste Program
13434 Browns Valley Drive
Chico, CA 95973

One Plastic Bag

Every once in a while I forget to bring my reusable bags with me when I run my errands. I recently found myself picking up a few small things at the little grocery store near my parents' house. When I asked the cashier to fit everything into one bag, she insisted on double-bagging it so the bag wouldn't break. Uhm, you're kind of missing the point there, sweetheart. And when I got home I discovered that she'd wrapped an item it its own bag before packing it, so I actually wound up with three bags instead of just one. D'oh.

So I'm making another small change. I always keep a stash of reusable bags in my car to avoid these situations. But now I'm going to start keeping a reusable grocery bag in my purse too.

If you're not convinced that your occasional plastic bag makes that big of a difference, take a look at some of my favorite infographics about plastic bags.

 

This is a great visual, but take this inforgraphic with a grain of salt.
It was produced by a manufacturer of promotional reusable bags.

Before you go out and buy a reusable bag, check your junk drawer and ask your friends. They seem to be everywhere these days and, unfortunately, are being over-manufactured by companies who want to cash in on the growing trend. My mom is always asking me if I want the bag she was given for free and some store or other. You should have no problem getting your hands on at least one without spending a cent!


Further Reading
Here's an interesting range of information including arguments both for and against the banning of plastic bags, and the rising popularity of reusable bags.

• http://www.reuseit.com/learn-more/myth-busting/cheap-reusables-are-a-good-thing
• http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2012/10/05/Chinese-smear-mongers-push-US-plastic-bag-bans
• http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444165804578006832478712400.htm
• http://savetheplasticbag.com/ (wait, WHAT?)
• http://www.petside.com/article/dog-poop-cleanup-rethinking-plastic-bags

This Video is Just Fun