Green Tip #1: Use Reusable Bags for your Shopping

Hello friends,

Over the past few years, I have been trying to educate myself on healthy eating and living habits that are beneficial to our immediate families and also have a positive impact on our environment. With this in mind, I would like to start a blog to share ideas on how to incorporate ‘green living’ into our current lifestyles.

Now, many of my close friends are busy moms and dads, work full time, and are overcommitted at home and/or at work. On the other hand, you are also responsible parents who want the best for their families, and would like to have a positive impact on their environment… as long as it’s not ‘too inconvenient’.

If you know me, I am also all of the above! So, today, I would like to take a small step in the right direction by starting this blog to share tips on green living – these could include topics as varied as healthy eating, green cleaning, recycling, composting, or any other eco-friendly activities.

I would love to get your feedback, and welcome any eco friendly tips that you may have used and would like to share …

To start with, I would like to share one tip every month with you. But before I do this, I must:

- Test the tip for at least a month, and share how I incorporated it into our current lifestyle
- Show impact of the tip on your family’s health or wellbeing, or on the environment
- Share resources on where you can find more information

With that said, here’s my Green Tip #1:

Green Tip #1: Use Reusable Bags for your Shopping

Did you know?

Somewhere between 500 billion and a trillion plastic bags are consumed worldwide each year. Of those, millions end up in the litter stream outside of landfills.

Once in the environment, it takes months to hundreds of years for plastic bags to breakdown. As they decompose, tiny toxic bits seep into soils, lakes, rivers, and the oceans.

A sturdy, reusable bag need only be used 11 times to have a lower environmental impact than using 11 disposable plastic bags.

In New York City alone, one less grocery bag per person per year would reduce waste by 109 tons and save $11,000 in disposal costs.

I have been using reusable sturdy canvas bags to carry groceries and other items for several months now. You can find reusable bags at your local grocery store, Target or online. I prefer the canvas bags since they are washable (they are also ‘greener’).

In the beginning it was a little hard to remember to carry the bags with me every time I went shopping, so I kept a few in my coat closet, and a couple in each car so I always had a bag handy. I started with using these bags for groceries, but now I use them anytime I head out the door!


Coming up next:
Spotlight on Green Cleaning