Plastic Free Challenge - Day 2
Today's challenge is to "Keep a cloth/green bag with you". That can be anything from having a bag that folds up small that you can keep in the glove compartment of your car, or in your purse or back pack - and you can pull it out anytime you need it. Here are some Happy Ocean bags that fold up small (in the shape of a dolphin) for convenience and when you need a bag, they open right up.
This past year I have been very diligent to ensure I always bring my green bags with me for grocery shopping - I keep them in the trunk of my car. The first few times I forgot them, but instead of choosing plastic I ran out to the car to get them. It only took me a few times of having to run to my car until I remembered to take them inside the store each time I went shopping. Then the moment I put the groceries away at home I would stack them all in a bag and return them to my trunk so I wouldn't forget them the next time I went shopping.
Another idea is to clean out your t-shirt drawer and grab that t-shirt you haven't worn in a while - why not turn it into a useful cloth bag. Here is a great video "DIY No Sew T-shirt Bag". These bags would be great for on the run and are useful gifts as well.
One fact that resonated with me is when you are at the grocery store and you choose a single-use plastic bag, the life of usefulness of that bag is the duration from when your groceries are packed to when you get to your house and unpack them. That's five minutes for me, hard to believe something that has a useful life of 5 minutes (an average of 12 minutes for the population) takes between 500 and 1000 years to decompose due to the plastic's durability. I have heard some say they reuse them for garbage bags, but since they are not clear bags they go against the waste watch collection rules of Island Waste Management, and then that disrupts their system.
One cloth/green/reusable bag equates to a savings of 170 single-use plastic bags being used. These single-use plastic bags end up in our oceans where marine life eat them, and then end up back in our food chain. Be proud that you are making the switch (or have already done it).
This past year I have been very diligent to ensure I always bring my green bags with me for grocery shopping - I keep them in the trunk of my car. The first few times I forgot them, but instead of choosing plastic I ran out to the car to get them. It only took me a few times of having to run to my car until I remembered to take them inside the store each time I went shopping. Then the moment I put the groceries away at home I would stack them all in a bag and return them to my trunk so I wouldn't forget them the next time I went shopping.
Another idea is to clean out your t-shirt drawer and grab that t-shirt you haven't worn in a while - why not turn it into a useful cloth bag. Here is a great video "DIY No Sew T-shirt Bag". These bags would be great for on the run and are useful gifts as well.
One fact that resonated with me is when you are at the grocery store and you choose a single-use plastic bag, the life of usefulness of that bag is the duration from when your groceries are packed to when you get to your house and unpack them. That's five minutes for me, hard to believe something that has a useful life of 5 minutes (an average of 12 minutes for the population) takes between 500 and 1000 years to decompose due to the plastic's durability. I have heard some say they reuse them for garbage bags, but since they are not clear bags they go against the waste watch collection rules of Island Waste Management, and then that disrupts their system.
One cloth/green/reusable bag equates to a savings of 170 single-use plastic bags being used. These single-use plastic bags end up in our oceans where marine life eat them, and then end up back in our food chain. Be proud that you are making the switch (or have already done it).
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