Bring Your Own week: BYO Bag

This week's eco-topic: Bring Your Own

Stop stressing about the paper or plastic conundrum, and tote your own bag! Don't be left out on "A Day Without a Bag," an event that encourages all Angelenos to forgo disposable bags, which is Thursday, Dec. 20.

If you don't already have one, freebie tote bags are going to be given out at a bunch of locations around L.A. County. Stop by the Grove or Highland Park or one of the other spots to collect.

Usually though, the issue I hear about is not so much that people lack reusable bags but that they forget to bring them. So -- some handy tips to keep bags at hand:

1. Get a bag you want to show off. Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" is one bag everyone wanted to be seen carrying. But you don't have to go for the latest fashion fad. Because you're going to have these bags for a while anyway, maybe you want to invest in one that shows off your personal style -- whether you're a Mutts fan or an Amoeba shopper or whatever.

The one I always get compliments on is my red Built wine bag (above left)-- available at Whole Foods, Wild Oats, and many other grocery stores now.

2. Get a teensy bag that fits in your purse. Most of the time my Envirosax bag (right) sits folded and buttoned up at the bottom of my purse until I unfurl it when I need it. If you always have it with you, you'll never be caught empty-handed.

3. Get a bra-bag. OK, this is more of a novelty item. A Japanese company has made a bra that turns into a bag. A helpful idea for some, perhaps....

Lastly, if you wrap something in plastic, then put it in your reusable tote, you are still -- duh -- using a plastic bag. So when you hit your farmers market or grocery store, try to go prepped with smaller bags to put your individual items in.

You've probably seen WHY we need to tote our own bags already: We've got plastic bags all over the place -- on our streets, in our oceans, even in our trees. And of course, the bags fill up our landfills, harm marine life, and pretty much never biodegrade.

Another reason why you should BYOB: Most major grocery stores give you a nickel or dime off for doing so. One day, I'm hoping for a reversal of that -- where non-BYOBers have to fork over extra to get a bag. A simple nickel bag tax seems to be changing habits for IKEA shoppers --

Plastic bags consumed this year:

Top image courtesy of Heal the Bay; wine bag photo by Siel; Envirosax photo courtesy of Envirosax; bra-bag photo courtesy of Pink Tentacle

Comments

[chris brandow]

seriously, if you are going to talk about byob, you have to consider the "hassle" factor. We just stumbled across this bag, and it totally takes care of the hassle factor. it folds up into a little ball that my wife carries in her purse. it is awesom:

http://www.flipandtumble.com/

[m]

I don't know if I the minority on this, but I feel embarrassed to carry around a bag that has any sort of "slogan" writing on it, yet these are the bags I seem to happen upon. There is the Whole Foods reusable bag that I rescued from the trash can (maybe someone didn't figure out it was reusable?) that I flip inside out when I take it into Trader Joes and to the Farmers market and the "Brag about your Bag" printed bag I got when participating in the Coastal Clean up day, that I also flip inside out despite my support of Heal the Bay. Part of me feels that one of the reasons that stores (especially) sell bags with "their logo" on it is not only to advertise, but also to bank on that weird feeling I get when taking my Whole Foods back into Trader Joes and make me feel like I need to buy a special bag for each store I visit. Like I said, maybe I am in the minority on this though and luckily with some of the bags I have, this issue is mostly easily solved by turning a bag inside out.

In the meantime, if you do come across plastic bags (I know many of them magically appear at work for me), if you take the time to flatten them and fold them up, they are reallllllly easy to slip into a small compartment in a purse, pocket or toss in the bottom of a bag for emergencies. Folding them neatly and using the handles to "tie" them shut helps a lot.

[elizabeth kelso]

I have made it my personal mission to live a plastic bag-free life since learning of the incredibly shocking facts and stats regarding plastic bag pollution. Its one small lifestyle change that has been easy to implement and it has eliminated the huge mass of plastic bags underneath my kitchen sink. I turn heads in the grocery store with my old school mesh grocery bags and cotton produce bags. The only issue that i have encountered that i wish markets would work on, is training their bagging staff to understand how to use the reusable bags properly. They often misunderstand what bags are for what and they dont know how much weight they can actually hold. Heres a great website - Reusablebags.com has so many great reusable solutions including bags, lunch kits, water bottles and much more.

[Siel]

Hey m -- most of the ecosax (mentioned in post, and also v. foldup-able) don't have any logos / slogans on them. this one might work for you too --

elizabeth -- I think I initially bought my built wine bag on that reusablebags.com website :) The staff at the grocery stores I go to -- Whole Foods, Co-opportunity, TJs -- are usually v. nice and helpful with the reusable bags -- but I think that at many of the conventional supermarkets are not as used to seeing the reusable bags. Hopefully that'll change -- maybe on the 20th!

[James]

m, I admire your tough stance, but here's my take on it.

A company can promote themselves in many different ways.

I must recieve 20 - 30 un-solicited junk mailers a week, (how many trees does that add up to in a year?), so if they want to put their name on a re-usable canvas bag that keeps me from using a disposable paper or plastic bag, it's not the worst way of promoting themselves.

OK, sure, it's shameless self promotion. But there are worse ways for a company to promote themselves. I figure I'm subsidszing their advertising budget, so that it gets done in a more earth friendly way.

I'm OK with that.

[james]

Check out Envirosax at www.envirosax.com they roll up so small that you can just pop them in your purse or pocket. The designs are so cool that I always get comments at the checkout.

James

[m]

Siel, I know I could buy a bag someplace online with no writing on it... but when it comes down to pulling a bag from the trash and reusing it or buying a new one, I'm not going to buy a new one. I actually made bags for myself before I obtained the current bags. When I used the handmade bags however, it suddenly turned into this huge deal at the stores with people asking where I got it from, asking what it was made out of, if I was going to sell them, and showing them off to other people working at the store, when all I really wanted to do was get in and out of the store.

James, I know that the store can put whatever they want on the bag since they are selling it, but in general, I don't like being a billboard and I really don't like being a moving billboard for a store that I am not inside of. But if we want to be picky, what about those inks they use to print the bags? How eco-friendly are those? Isn't printing adding extra cost and materials to the bag, regardless of what they print on it? What happens to the bags with imperfect printing, but is otherwise completely usable?

[LanceThruster]

I have another take on this. I have those waste baskets throughout the house that are notched in order to use plastic grocery bags as liners. I have not bought any can liners (except for the tall wastebasket used only for 'dry' kitchen trash) and find it quite practical. I double bag them so as to be able to ignore holes and tears in them and place a section of the newspaper at the bottom to resist punctures, soak up excess moisture and help keep bags spread open. I tie them off easily for disposal and because of the coast-free nature of the bags, take out more disagreeable refuse sooner than I would if I was concerned that the bag was less than full. To me, recylcled means to get additional use out of something and I have done just that with my plastic grocery bags as well as eliminated the purchase of store bought liners. In doing so I have created a more hygenic environment in my living space and have somewhat isolated the refuse in a manner advantagious to the trash collectors. What I would like to see is larger plastic shopping bags made to fit my tall waste basket so that I could put all my household waste in recycled bags.

[Siel]

m -- I thought your major issue was with the logos -- which plastic bags from stores, even if reused, generally have printed all over them. But yes, I'm all for reducing and reusing as opposed to buying new stuff :) I actually like talking to other people in stores, esp. if they might be converted into getting BYO bags themselves, but if you'd rather minimize human contact, I agree that nondescript bags might be best.

Lance -- Reusing your plastic bags at least once is better than simply discarding them after one use, I suppose. I have found that I get more than enough plastic bags to put non-recyclable trash in -- the plastic bags that loaves of bread come in, for ex -- without getting an additional plastic bag at checkout --

[m]

I don't like logos, but I don't like wasting things more. I wish things didn't have logos so they would be wasted even less frequently since logos can sometimes be the thing that causes waste due to irregular printing, trends, extra pieces and advertising. I have some bags I picked up from the LA Marathon starting line aftermath. They are striped with a little blue honda "H" symbol. The H is a separate piece of plastic sewn onto the bag and the bag would still work the same without the H. It's just wasted material that I hide whenever I use the bag on the train or walk to a grocery store (and not when I drive my non-existent Honda). I know that is all wishful thinking at this point though.

I do like talking to people about stuff in some environments (like here!) and I love making things out of "trash" and other discarded or dropped items, but I'm not a sales woman. Sometimes the logic of "being green" drives my thinking a little too much and scares people away, so I've learned to keep my potentially enviro-grinch mouth quiet.

All of this is sort of a moot point though since I just received an envirosax bag as a gift today!

(By the way -- the reusable polypropylene bags that most grocery stores have for about $1 or $2 are intended to be used "dozens" of times according to the manufacturer. I'm not sure if dozens means 24 or 144, but I was very surprised at the somewhat limited extended life when compared to a normal plastic bag and when compared to a canvas tote bag.)

[Roxanne]

If you want great canvas bags. Try Happy Monkey Planet on the internet. Sorry they do have designs but they are pretty cool and you can pass on the company logo and get a good and stylish natural canvas bag.

[JS]

A great line of sturdy reusable bags - with a modern graphic print (no store logos) are the reusable bags by SKN. They won't fit into a small purse but they are made of natural fabrics, are machine washable and hold up to 40 pounds each. All of the bags are made in he USA too!

Check them out at http://www.getskn.com

Every order placed plants a tree!

[Joe]

As for myself, there are some great reusable wine bags with and without logos from the clever folks at winebags.com. They have a NEO tufftote carrier that can be used exclusively for wine bottles or any other breakable 1 liter bottle and it has a 1 year guarantee, so I’d say that’s pretty reusable. I do not condone or condemn paper or plastic, I really think any bag from your home will do for quick trip to the market. But, when it comes to my wine, it’s nice to be able to throw my wine bag on the backset of the car, knowing it won’t be rolling around. Here’s their web site for more details: http://www.winebags.com or email them at wines@winebags.com.