In Praise of the Everyday: String Bags
About six months ago I bought five or six of these:
I was sick of dealing with the tidal wave of plastic bags. We were already plastic-bag resistant. Most shopping went into knapsacks or into other plastic bags. And the bags we did end up with, we re-used and “donated” to the library and St. Vinnie’s. Didn’t seem to make a dent. Every month or so, we’d end up throwing away a bag full of bags. Drove me crazy.
Now we have these soft cotton bags, strong and capacious. They easily hold all the groceries we schlep and don’t cut off the circulation the way plastic does. Stuff them in a pocket or in a bag. Take them along on trips and fill them with the extra stuff that always seems to come back with us. There are still too many plastic bags here but I’d say we’ve reduced the in-flow by about 2/3rds.
You can’t buy them in Ottawa. (The first time I asked about them in the eco-friendly store, the clerk looked at me as I was a loon. Can you say “missed business opportunity”?) But you can buy them online for about 30$ US.
