Sustainable Practice Tips: Reusable Bags

Hello again all!

In my first post, I briefly touched upon Sustainable Consumption and my experience with the idea. With the brief introduction of the idea, I mentioned the hope in individual choices.

The first part of my START project involved a survey because I wanted to know about people's current sustainable practices. (If interested, the link to that survey is here.) Since beginning my survey, I have learned that more people have heard about Environmentally Conscious shopping than not - and this makes me hopeful in terms of overall sustainable consciousness. After the results of that first question, many of the questions after that were pretty widespread in peoples' sustainable actions. A future outlook for this project would be to possibly observe a large amount of people to note their sustainable practices.

Going off my survey, one of the first questions asked about reusable bag use.
I am not exactly sure when reusable bags really boomed in popularity, but recently I believe that they have indeed increased in popularity as they are now sold and available at nearly every retail store.

One of my first tips for consumers is to put these reusable bags in a place where you can use them easily and not forget when you get to the store. I think that the first few times, a shopper tends to forget they have a reusable bag and just purchase another at the store. Don't be too guilty at first if this happens because doing this a couple times will probably allow you to have 5+ different bags. But I suggest to begin putting the bags in your car and if you have a fold-able one - in purses/backpacks. If you go to the store and see your reusable bags in your car, you simply remember to bring it into the store. Once it becomes a habit, you can even start to only use reusable bags, even when you are doing larger shopping (such as groceries).

This is the foldable bag I keep in my purse when I forget my large reusable bags.

*Also, if you happen to be only purchasing one or two items, do know you have the option to decline a bag and just carry the item. This is also a good sustainable alternative than having a plastic bag for a small item. 

Pro's:

• Most stores will give you a discount ($0.05 - $0.25) for using your own bag
• Using reusable bags will stop the build-up of plastic grocery bags in your house
• Reusable bags are sometimes stylish!
• Reusable bags can carry more and are easier to carry - so the challenge of carrying plastic bags in one trip is no longer an issue (I know we all do this!)
• Helpful to the environment!

Con's:

• It may be hard at first to remember to bring in your reusable bag every time you go shopping
• If you are starting to use reusable bags, you may have to purchase your first few to be able to fit all your groceries or bought items in them (my suggestion here is to be on the look-out for events where organizations and companies hand out these bags for free!)

Here are just a few of my reusable bags! Some I've purchased (from Joann Fabrics, Giant, etc.) and others I've received for free at events (XM was at a convention and lime green from a GMU Health & Fitness expo!)

Overall, this action can be a first step for individuals looking to start small in their sustainable lifestyle change. I definitely adapted this as a sustainable choice and I do enjoy being able to depend on my reusable bags rather than plastic bags everywhere I go.