never accept a plastic bag

So far this month I’ve only accepted two plastic bags. Not bad for three weeks.

I’m getting really used to using my own shopping cart and shopping bags. Some checkers have sighed at me like I was an inconvenience, but many of them have been very supportive.

It might take a few extra moments to bag into reuseable bags rather than automatically sticking things into the plastic bags they’re set up to use, so I can see why a rushed checker who feels the pressure from the next customer to “keep it moving” as quickly as possible might feel a little exasperated at humoring my “little quirky request”.

I WAS DOING SO WELL! I totally messed it all up today.

We went to Safeway to buy groceries for my daughter’s party on Saturday. I EVEN REMEMBERED TO PUT THE BAGS IN THE CAR. But somehow I boneheaded taking them in, and never even thought about it when they were bagging my stuff. I didn’t realize how I had totally ruined my winning streak until we pulled into the car wash to vacuum the car, and I had to take out the (plastic) bags of groceries and then take out the cloth bags.

Damn, damn, DAMN.

Well, shit.

Okay. Rant is over. Tomorrow is a new day. Winning streak begins again, starting… NOW!

Today at Wal-Mart I dashed in the store so fast I forgot to take my bags with me out of the trunk. I was very disappointed with myself, and annoyed that I would have to break my winning streak of not accepting any bags.

Then I suddenly realized I could just BUY ANOTHER cloth bag right there at the register. (Duh.)

That made me much happier. I only needed to buy one bag to hold all the things I was buying, and that was only one dollar. My winning streak continues!

Another successful day yesterday! Better than normal, I think.

-I remembered to bring my own bags to the grocery store.

-I always buy loose onions, and I buy a lot of them. Yesterday I didn’t remember to bring little “produce” bags with me, but I did think to gather the onions into an old plastic shopping bags which I’m now re-using, which I had with me because I remembered to coil it up into my pocket.

-I bought carrots in bulk for the first time, instead of buying them pre-wrapped in plastic. I left them loose at the bottom of my cloth bag. When I checked out, I told the clerk to just weigh them in the cloth bag. What real difference was that bag going to make? A penny? Not worth worrying about.

-I needed to buy celery, and it only comes with a stupid little plastic diaper around its bottom. The produce man happened to be nearby, and I explained to him that “I’m not supposed to accept any plastic bags this month” and asked if I had to take the little plastic celery wrapper. He said I could leave it there. I said I hoped he could re-use it, maybe. Don’t know whether he could or not, of course, but at least I communicated my message to someone that extra plastic on my vegetables ISN’T something that makes me happier as a shopper.

I feel really good about that.

BTW, I’ve used that line “I’m not supposed to accept…” on several store clerks now, especially when they’ve already started bagging my stuff into plastic. Somehow I feel it defuses the situation from me preaching at them about plastic bags. Makes it sound more like I’m doing this on a dare. To me, it also sounds like I’m taking some responsibility for not having let them in on the gag earlier, and asking for their help in achieving this goal, whether it is serious or just silly. So far everyone has been very nice about it, and all seem happy to be pitching in to help me “win my bet” or whatever reason I’m doing this.

Today I went shopping with my kids at Walgreen’s. We remembered to bring along a cloth bag, but when we realized we were buying more than would fit in it, we bought another cloth bag right then. In the car somehow my kids emptied both bags and repacked them in some other way, because both bags came in handy when we then stopped at Grocery Outlet. We filled both bags again.

I think they emptied the first two bags because there were toys inside, and packages to open, and stuff to mess with.

After Grocery Outlet we went to our garden plot. Some of the stuff was gardening supplies and got used, then stored in the trunk. The remaining stuff got put back into the two bags, and somehow it all ended up fitting, and when we went home we brought it all inside.

It was a day of amazing wormhole adventures as matter materialized and dematerialized at will, just to make these bags seem useful.

Did great today! Stopped at three different stores and bought a variety of frozen foods and produce, as well as sewing stuff. Only accepted one plastic produce bag, because the tomatoes I bought (at a discount, for sauce) were going a bit squishy on me.

The rolled-up plastic bag in my purse saved me at the first store. The cloth bags in my car did fine for the other stuff.

I’m becoming curious how many times I might be able to re-use that one plastic grocery bag. It’s had three lives so far.

At the fabric store I picked up some clear vinyl. It is relatively thin. Not sure if it will make ideal bags or not, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I have ideas for pockets which might make things nicer.

This worked well for me. Besides the ‘bag of bags’ in my car, somehow I also ended up with one rolled-up plastic bag in my purse. They’re really small when they’re rolled up. Small was important this time, because I had just switched purses from my big tote to my sexy little clutch.

I popped into a little store just to inquire about something, and certainly didn’t intend to buy anything, but you know how it goes. When I brought my stuff to the counter and got out my wallet to pay, there was the bag! I whipped it out, and felt so utterly ecological.

If I’d had to truck all the way back out to the car to get a bag for this impulse buy, I’m sure I wouldn’t have bothered, and would have ended up accepting another plastic bag. I am going to keep an “impulse buy” bag rolled up in my purse all the time now!

Today I made sure that I put a bag full of bags into my car, so I won’t find myself again at such a loss as yesterday.

It is really just a cloth bag stuffed with lots of old plastic bags that we hadn’t thrown in the trash yet. I’ll let you know how well it works out trying to re-use them!

Today was a total failure at this goal. I wasn’t organized. I went shopping almost on impulse, and didn’t have any bags packed in my car to bring with me. I ended up accepting six plastic bags, four from the farmers market, and two from Safeway.

I did put a few things into my (rather spacious) purse, and therefore did NOT accept two more bags which I could have. I guess I’m a little proud of that. I am NOT proud, however, that I allowed so many multiples of bags when I know each bag really only contained about one thing.

I guess I was afraid things would get bruised. I had some fresh fruit, candy, jelly, vegetables and bread at the farmer’s market, and I had milk (2 gal), cream cheese, butter and crackers from Safeway. At least I didn’t ask for the milk to be bagged. So I guess that is another savings of about two bags which I MIGHT have taken.

Hmmmm… How could I work this better next time? I know I really did want the soft tomatoes and pluots and bread packed separately from the jelly and even from the beets, which might have bruised them. That could be solved just by having brought two bags, and separating delicate things from sturdy ones. It would have been nice to have mini-bags to separate the items inside, but to be quite honest it wasn’t strictly necessary.

Wow. That makes me feel even guiltier. All I needed was just two of my shopping bags, and I could have saved all six of the bags I accepted.

I must find all my shopping bags and set them by the front door, and remember to grab them as automatically as I grab my purse before leaving home.

I think this is a cool goal. I’ve been trying to use reuseable bags, but I must admit that more often than not I end up forgetting them and accepting the plastic bags from the store.

Of course, I don’t really believe in absolutes, so “never” to me actually means “as rarely as reasonably possible”.

I’m going to try to find some sort of waterproof, or at least water-resistant fabric (like maybe the sort of nylon you make parkas from) to sew a bunch of mini-bags to keep wet stuff from the store in, so I don’t have to accept those flimsy plastic bags for meat and produce either. I sure hope I can find something see-through enough that the checkers don’t hate me.

I think I’ll sew some extra pockets and stuff onto the shopping bags I’m using now. I’ve always thought they could be more useful with a little better storage organization.

Ooooh! Hey! Howabout a clear plastic pocket sewn onto a bag, made to hold your grocery list? With a place for a wipe-off marker like overhead projecters used to use, like in school! That would be clever as heck.