Cotton Bags

Using canvas bags to carry groceries instead of plastic bags?

In my home we use the plastic bags from the grocery store as garbage bags for the bathroom or kitchen, etc.. But ever since we started using less bags or canvas bags to carry groceries, we have less bags for the garbage, which means we end up having to buy garbage bags. So either way we end up wasting plastic bags, I don't see any benefit here.. Can someone explain?

Public Comments

1. cus most people jsut throw away all those plastic bags they dont recycle or use them for trash.. only smart people use them for trash bags...
2. It's typical Enviro BS. They don't think much. Just like going to the fuel cell cars, these fuel cells take up a TON of energy to make and good luck disposing them!!!!!
3. if you use the plastic bags as trash bags, then you're recycling them. you should use canvas bags to hold groceries only if you would usually throw the grocery bags away, otherwise it doesn't make a difference because like you said you just have to buy actual trash bags.
4. LOL
5. when they ask me "paper or plastic" i say "both. And double bag each of them." that way instead of just 1 bag i have 2 plastic bags and 2 paper bags. face it. it's over for the earth. i might as well have enough bags.
6. Have to agree with you. There are plenty of other ways to conserve and recycle. Hope you're doing all of them that make sense. It all comes down to using common sense.
7. I thought about that too. I use the little bags for my garbage cans and thought abought just not using liners in the cans, but then I am left with a can I have to clean more often and that takes water, which is also precious. So I hope someone here has a great solution as I want to do my part too. Or maybe there is a cleaner we could both use with the water to clean our non lined cans that won't hurt plants and we could dump the water on our plants afterward thus not wasting it, but I don't know what because baking soda will kill my plants.
8. I put a garbage bag in the kitchen garbage can only. For the other rooms in the house, I use the bins with no bags/liners. I clean the bins out once a week with a bleach solution.
9. I switched to trash cans around the house that don't need bags. In the bathrooms I have nice wicker ones that have a built in plastic liner. The rest are plastic and can be cleaned and disinfected very easily. Most of the really gross trash stays in the kitchen trash can, which has a trash liner.
10. No, you're exactly right. I think when you purchase garbage bags, that's exactly what you use them for. However, when you use grocery bags, you never use ALL of them (they get thrown away if they have holes in them) so the just get thrown out. And that's the behaviour people are trying to cut back on. I think supermarkets should give u credit when you use canvas bags and that credit can be used to purchase garbage bags. Or something like that...
11. It's truly horrible that you should be put in such a position as to question use of plastic bags. Who put you in this enviornmentally questionable position, the Government? Yes. If you had your real world back, as our predicessors did in past times, your world would be just fine. You can see who is running the place now, all those money hungry, power crazed buttheads called the us DOT gov. Look at what they want to do. Grow and spread out all over the country and world. Make it all just one big taxable city (or is that village?)Those people are retarded and must die. Censors are just as bad, just ask people here on Yahoo. Our predicessors use living methods similar to the Amish. But our Americans are too sick and lazy for such a life as this.
12. I suggest u switch it up a little each time u go to the grocery store. u can being your own bag to your grocery store at one time and ask for plastic bags to bag at another time.
13. There's trash and there's garbage. Garbage is wet or will attract vermin or smell up the place. Trash will just sit there until you get rid of it. You can put a liner in a "trash" basket and empty the basket without replacing the liner. You can also attempt to teach members of your household to put garbage in the garbage container, *not* in trash baskets. If they can remember to not put unwrapped garbage in their own pockets, they can remember the same for trash baskets, eventually. We also get plastic bags with our fresh fruit and fresh veggies ... they get re-used for garbage too. Plastic inner wrappers from cereal can hold garbage. If newspaper doesn't go to recycling, it can be used to hold garbage. I find the challenge to be remembering to not only tote the cloth bags back to the car, but also to remember to bring them in to the stores. I have one that can be tucked into my purse and I pull it out at check-outs and unload it when I return to the vehicle. Sometimes the goods from 4 or more stops will *all* fit into one large bag without strain (the large bag only between the car and home, not into stores). If you get soda pop or frozen foods or lots of books or anything heavy-enough for sufficiently sharp-cornered, a cloth bag save on double-bagging and the frustration of bags tearing between the vehicle and home. Personally in this location and time, I'm more concerned about bags tearing and me throwing my back out trying to grab stuff than I am about the ecology. If you reduce plastic usage to what's actually *used* as a necessity, then that's a benefit.
14. I would like to clear one thing, if you use plastic bag or any other bag manufactured of non-biodegradable material, as a matter of fact it is not recycling. The term recycling means, using a material, by decomposing it in such a way that it does not affect environment. Identify Recycling and reusing the material as two different methods of disposal. Carrying Canvas bags, rather than Nylon/plastic bags is a good practice. For small size stuff, paper sacks are also helpful. I often say to my fellows, if we can not stop an evil, we may effort to minimize it. Minimizing means, when you are offered with shopping bags of different size, containing different items, try to reduces the number of bags, you have to carry to home. If this practice is common, in a normal shopping trip, you may reduces 75% of the plastic bags, just workout if we may reduce only 50% of the usage, yet we achieve a lot. and next we may talk about further reduction.
15. Use the canvas bags as often as possible, and if you find you need a few plastic bags, forego the canvas for that trip to the store. The thing is you don't want to have more bags then you need. You may also want to consider purchasing biodegradable trash bags if you really want to help the environment. You can use less bags by not putting liners in your smaller trash cans and then throwing them all together in one bag on trash day. Kim at: http://www.peaceful-organic-planet.com/reusable-bags.html
16. maybe try this: continue using your canvas bags, and when you run low on bags for your garbage, take one less canvas bag to the store so you can get a store bag instead. But try using paper bags as they will breakdown much faster than plastic in the landfills. OR.... ask your friends if they will donate their plastic bags to you. that way less get thrown out uselessly and you can still use canvas and not have to spend money on store bought garbage bags! As long as you are using LESS plastic or are utilizing it else where, it is still recycling. If you THREW OUT your plastic grocery bags and then BOUGHT actual trash bags, that would be where the waste was happening.
17. Why must you have plastic bag liners in your trash cans at home? Probably, at your local market is a Plastic Bag Recycle Bin. When youre running low at home, take some that have been returned by other shoppers.
18. I use paper bags for the kitchen trash. Sometimes I bring 1 canvas bag to the store, sometimes 2. I make sure I have enough paper bags for the trash and to bag up the newspapers. Occasionally we have to buy bags for outside use, but since we compost and bought a leaf mulcher, our purchase lasts us a really, really long while.