By: Melissa
Remembering Your Reusable Shopping Bags Can Save the Environment and Your Wallet!
We are all guilty of having 1 or 20 reusable shopping bags and forgetting them every time we go to the store. Mine were scattered throughout the trunk of my car and I remembered them after I already had a cart full of groceries.
Here are a few tips I’m using to remember my reusable bags and a couple of reasons to make you WANT to remember them – aside from saving the world, one bag at a time!
*As soon as you have unpacked your bags fold them neatly and put them under your purse or in the front seat of your car. Remember to wash the bags that you use for your meat and produce. It is a good practice to wash all of the bags after several uses but especially those. I mark my meat and produce bags with different colored twine (like you use in gift wrapping) on their handles so that there is no cross contamination.
*If you have more than a few bags, use one bag to carry the rest of them. There are also lots of cute bag holders that you can purchase. I’ve seen several homemade options as well at local craft fairs and on the Internet. These make it easy to store the bags as well as transport them to the store.
*Watch for the great deals at the online photo/printing websites to make your own bags. This way you will have something you want to show off! I have seen these for as low as $2 shipped.
*Make a note to remember your bags on the top of your shopping list. Even if you forget them in the car, you will see them on your list before you start shopping.
*Some stores give a $.05 or $.10 credit for each bag you have. Check your stores policy on reusable bags.
*I recently saw a popular chain store offering a $1.00 credit for every 4 times your “bag tag” is scanned. Of course, you have to buy the $.99 bag tag (and remember your reusable bag) but this quickly pays for itself and you continue to reap the rewards!
It’s not easy being green but this is one small step that we can all take to reduce our footprint!
I only have 2 bags and use them at the stores that credit , But I use the plastic bags for garbage—What do you guys use for your garbage thats free??
Where do you get the bag holders? I’ve got tons of bags but I always seem to put them into the one bag I want to use! This would help alot as I could just slip out the one I want. Thanks! 🙂
Same question as Sue. What do you use for garbage bags? I’ve been using plastic grocery bags to eliminate large garbage bags in the environment, but would be happy to eliminate grocery bags too.