USE REUSABLE SHOPPING BAGS
U.S. consumers go through about 100 billion shopping bags every year. They take 1000 years to break down, they choke marine life, and sadly, paper bags are not the solution.
I’ll admit it. I’m terrible at this habit. It’s not that I don’t believe in reusable grocery bags or that I don’t own them; I absolutely do on both counts. It’s that I forget to bring them with me when I’m just stopping in to pick something up on the way home. Of course, that always somehow turns into buying groceries for a month.
I even keep a few bags in my car, but I only remember that fact after I’ve loaded half my items onto the little checkout treadmill and I’ve got five people behind me.
The town I where I live actually banned plastic bags and now charges you five cents for each paper bag you need. Some people get pissed about this, but I don’t at all. It’s my own fault if I didn’t bring in my own bags. They’re just trying to do right by the environment, and since we won’t do it ourselves without consequences, they give us a little incentive.
To make this a habit, I’m going to commit to keeping extra reusable bags in my car, jammed in the door pocket. Every time I go to the grocery store or anywhere these would be useful like the hardware store or bookstore, I will train myself to have at least one in my hand as I walk in. If I don’t have it, I’ll turn around and head back to the car to get them.
But here’s the real challenge…
If I don’t have any with me at all, I have to buy more to carry those purchases. That’s a much better “punishment” than a five cent surcharge.
If/when I end up with too many reusable bags because I’ve screwed up enough times, I will start gifting them to friends and family. I’ll even include a printed copy of this article inside. It gives me the motivation to remember and helps spread the message that disposable bags are just not ok anymore.
In the off chance that I find myself in a place that doesn’t sell reusable bags and I can’t just carry my things on their own, I will use a disposable bag, but I’ll recycle the paper ones and find recycling options for plastic ones.
Originally published at goodfuckinghabits.com/bags
