I have many cloth tote bags that I use. It disgusts me when I see the people with 10 or 15 plastic bags in their carts, especially when none of those bags are packed well! I personally think supermarkets should charge for the bags–then people will really start to think twice!

The only times I don’t use my tote bags are when I’m purchasing chicken, and when I need paper bags for my recycling.

I used to forget them a lot–now I always keep extras in the car so I have them no mater where I am!

I love that communities are starting to outlaw the plastic bags.

Later another company I worked at discovered that with purchasing and delivery fees those little cups by the water cooler was costing 5 cents a plastic cup!! Shopping at Costco the office manager found on clearance some plastic cups for 20 cents each. He bought a bunch, passed them around. Six years later I still use it every few days for drinks. It saves the company money, good for the environment, and my favorite, it’s XX-Large!

It’s all those little frugal things that many have followed to prosperity

There are also two discount chains in our area, Price Rite and Aldi, both of which give a de facto discount on the grounds that they charge for bags.

Doing this back in the 90’s, we had a bunch of burlap tote bags we were using, and it got us the funniest looks, because almost nobody was doing this sort of thing at the time. As we are greenies, we used them even if the store didn’t offer a discount for doing so.

The bags that Hannaford currently sells are really neat. They fold up into a neat little package when you aren’t using them, and snap shut to stay folded. Opened up, they hold easily twice as much as a plastic bag.

I like them a lot. You can put a lot more groceries in one of these bags than you would a plastic bag. No discount at Shaw’s, and each bag is $1, but so worth it IMO.

Can we go back to the paper sack? Then there isn’t any problem with biodegradability…