I’m not a rabid environmentalist, but I’ve always been interested in recycling, in cutting out clutter (I’m a HUGE believer in the whole ‘clutter causes stress’ theory), in re-purposing items if possible, and basically trying to treat our planet with respect. I feel that God intends us to be good stewards of all He has given us, whether that’s our health, our family, our possessions or our planet. I’ve felt for a long time that we’re depleting our planet and harming our atmosphere. I don’t think this is something that I will necessarily have to deal with on a large-scale basis in my lifetime, but I think it’s something that might affect our young nieces and nephews in their lifetime, or in their kids lifetime. I don’t want to leave them with a huge problem with pollution, no resources, and an earth full of landfills and not beautiful forests and oceans.
Having said that, I know there’s only so much I can do as one person, but I do try. I’ve always tried to recycle. I’ve lived in my house almost 15 years (12 here with Tim) and we’ve had curbside recycling from the beginning. I recycled even before that, when I lived in an apartment. I would load up my recyclables and drive them to a drop-off spot. Curbside, even though we pay a lot for it, is much more convenient. We recycle newspaper, plastic, aluminum, and glass. Our recycle bin is overflowing every week and we have less garbage than most of our neighbors. I’ve been taking my plastic bags to drop-off boxes at our Super Walmart or Kroger for years.
I was so glad this past Earth Day to see a big push towards reusable shopping bags. Even in the backwoods area I live in (believe me, we are about the last ones to get or do anything here), they starting having reusable bags in the store for purchase. I saw them at Target, but gasped audibly when I saw they wanted 8 or 10 bucks for them. Same at Fresh Market, where theirs are a whopping 9.99 a bag. I looked online and found several cute options. They have the cutest “market totes” at Sur La Table. If I lived in a totally urban area, or France or something, I might see myself with these, but face it – these are not practical where I live. Plus, they don’t hold that much. I also found some cute canvas bags with a lot of great designs on them at Cafe Press (link here), but again, I just couldn’t see myself paying 28 bucks for them.
So, what’s a girl like me to do? Well, since I do the majority of my shopping at our local Super Walmart, I decided to buy the 99 cent black totes at Walmart:
I got three and so far they have worked out pretty well. They’re bigger than I thought they would be, and they hold quite a lot of groceries and stuff. I’ve taken them the last couple of weeks and handed them to the check-out lady to use instead of plastic bags. I’ve sort of made a game out of it, LOL!! 😀 I’m trying to spend less money and just buy what we need, nothing extra, and I’m trying to just fill up those bags. Now, to be fair, I’ve also bought some bedding plants and some cases of Coke Zero that didn’t fit in the bag, but otherwise, I’ve been good. I’ve gotten all of my groceries in those three bags for the last couple of weeks. And I’ve cleaned out a huge stash of plastic bags here and taken them to the drop-off box at Walmart. I’ve also been spending less money every week. So, a win-win for me!
Now, a question for you guys out there in blog-land — do you recycle? Do you use reusable shopping bags? Have you seen them in the store and have you bought any? Leave me a comment and let me know!
Excuse me, backwoods area? That would be MY area/town, not yours! We have nothing, no recycling of any sort and there are none of these bags at my store. I’m gonna get some, I sure hope your store has them the next time I come down! I like all the other, more expensive options, but I’ll probably just get these for now….and when I take them into walmart they will probably look at me like I’m crazy!
I definitely recycle. I used to have to drop off as well. I did it every week. Now we have biweekly pick up.
I haven’t purchased any bags yet but I have been thinking about it. I reuse a lot of bags for small trash bags or carrying my lunch to work, etc. and I also return them to the bin at my grocery store.
Have a great weekend, Stace!
The fancy reusable bags at Target are more expensive, but if you shop a lot at Target and want theirs –Small are .99 and Large 1.49. See here -http://www.sustainableisgood.com/blog/2008/01/target-reusable.html
Pier 1 also has decorative reusable bags for 2.99. Not bad and have a picture/theme on them.
i am horrible. i do not recycle anything here at the house. i still get plastic at the grocery store(to puta certain baby’s stinky diapers in) so i am not yet ready for getting rid of plastic bags at the grocery store. however i do return cans and bottles but honestly it is just for the money.
Walgreens, like many other retailers is selling “green” bags that are literally green. They sell for 99 cents a piece and starting on Sunday they are part of the sugestive sell for June, which means if you buy one, the cashier will get credit with the store and will get a small commission for the sale. There are over 6000 Walgreens locations in 49 states, District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.
I had big plans to slowly build a stash of those bags from Safeway (.99 each) until I had enough- then we went to a Rockies game and they gave one to every fan. Somehow we ended up with 5 of them so now I have plenty. The trick is to remember to take them with you.
We recycle cans, glass, plastic, newspaper and cardboard. My husband insists on recycling the cardboard and paperboard, and if he didn’t then truthfully I would probably give it up because it’s a pain! But I’m glad we do. I’ve been using canvas shopping bags for several years now, and recently bought some of the larger, square bottomed bags. I love them because it’s so much easier to carry groceries in. I like your idea of budgeting by just filling a certain number of bags. That’s a great challenge!
We don’t recycle, but I do use the bags from Kroger and Publix and Walmart. The Kroger and Publix bags have a firm piece that sits in the bottom which I think makes the bag easier to fill and stand up in the car. I keep them in the trunk of the car so I’ll remember them each time. It’s amazing how much each one can hold. Makes it a lot easier to bring the groceries into the house too.
I bought some of those at Walmart, and the lady packed them in plastic bags!
Those bags look perfect! I did buy one at Target (for only $.99) that folds up to about wallet size. It doesn’t hold a lot of stuff, but I can keep it in my purse so that I always have it with me. Otherwise I forget to bring it with me. Those kinds of things are very popular and very common up here, lots of people are green-conscious.
I paid 99 cents at Fresh Market for mine…maybe that was just the first couple of weeks they were open. I love my bags, I just need to find out how to always remember them!
I’m working at it all the time (having curbside recycling certainly helps) and like you, am trying to integrate canvas bags (Whole Foods – 99 cents) into the scheme of things. Years ago I read the quote “If you aren’t recycling, you are throwing it all away.” For some reason, it stuck, and haunts me when I get lazy.
I’ve looked at the reusable bags. I would still need to get plastic bags occasionally because I use them to line my bathroom garbage can, but I’ve come within an inch of getting the totes from my Publix. Then I wonder how do they know that you’ve already paid for them when you use them again?? (Yes, I *am* a dork. LOL)
I try really hard to recycle! We have two curbside recycle bins for kitchen items such as milk jugs, cardboard boxes/packaging, cans, and paper (junk mail, old school papers, newspapers, etc.). I also bring home paper from work to recycle though next year I want to institute recycling in my classroom. I hate to see all that paper go in the trash!
Our family recycles soda cans and water/soda plastic bottles for money. I also bring my empty soda cans/water bottles from work home to recycle.
We have very little trash.
My next move will be to buy the reusable bags and use them. Maybe this summer!
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