Bring your own bags, or pay the price

How would your plastic bag usage change if you had to pay for them? I recently read about IN House Bill 1521, a bill that if passed would mean consumers would be charged 10 cents per plastic bag they use at stores. I’m a bit of a cynic when it comes to politics and don’t want to get my hopes up, but I can’t help but be giddy at the thought of a fee to use plastics and how it would hopefully make people think twice before loading up on the things.

What I’d really like to see is a ban on plastic bags altogether like San Francisco has done, but hey, let’s not get ahead of ourselves here. This is after all the Midwest, not exactly known for its progressive prowess. But speaking of San Francisco, has anyone been to the city since the plastic bag ban was instituted? I would love to hear from you. People are surviving okay without them, right?

The reasons to avoid plastic bags as much as possible are obvious and it can only be good news for all of us and for the environment.If passed, the plastic bag fees will become effective January 1, 2012. I’m hopeful that this topic will get exposure and becovered widely in the media and that more and more people will become conscious of wasteful plastic bags.

I love that our awesome library stopped offering plastic bags to patrons over a year ago (way to go, HEPL!). People seem to have adapted just fine. You go into Aldi's, you pay for your bags or bring your own. You go into Costco? No free bags there, either. You learn to bring your own, or pay for plastic, and it’s really not that hard. Once again, just like most things, it becomes a habit.

Plastic Bags can stuff it, but not with my stuff

And the winner (drawn by Lily) is.....Arthouse!  Congrats!  Thanks all, for entering, and I loved reading your comments.  Here's to fewer plastic bags in our lives.  If you have trouble remembering, making this pact to NOT use plastic will help, because carrying groceries one by one isn't fun. ;)  Also, these little bags that roll up into pouches do make it easy to always have one with you.  It becomes a habit and second nature after awhile, too.

It's time for another eco-conscious rant, and this topic that gets me riled up as much as anything: those annoying, ubiquitous plastic shopping bags.

Can’t stand them and go to great lengths to avoid them. I won’t use plastic bags when shopping, which leads me to either plan ahead and bring my own bags, or not get everything I went to the store for--buying only what I can carry.
I’ve always tried to minimize my plastic bag usage, and so even before I started using reusable bags I was disgusted at how many plastic bags I accumulated even though I was such a minimalist. The recycling bins inside several stores helped, but, still, what a pain to bag up and recycle all those plastic bags that I didn’t want to possess in the first place!

Then I got this big, huge beach bag. Since I don’t go to the beach too often, I realized it would be perfectly suited to hauling groceries, and it held so much. That was quite awhile ago, and I have an assortment of reusable bags now, from cotton totes to my little nylon bags that fold up into little pouches, perfect for stashing in a purse or pocket.

Hopefully cashiers are getting more used to customers bringing their own bags.  They are often surprised how much mine hold, especially considering that cashiers sometimes only put one or two items in each bag when using plastic.  Unless you bring your own, you could easily walk out of a shopping trip with dozens of those things.  Yikes!

Here's a challenge:  count how many plastic bags come into your house in the course of a week.   Leave a comment on my blog about how you’re reducing your plastic bag consumption.  I’m giving away a cool green flip & tumble bag that will fit in the palm of your hand.  I'll pick a winner Sept. 21.