Natural Environment Blog

Most of us are pretty well aware that plastic grocery bags are a big “no no” when it comes to helping the environment. And more people are realizing that paper bags are not much better.

So, if we shouldn’t use plastic bags or paper bags to do our shopping, what should we use?

That probably depends on who you talk to. I think you’ll be off to a good start if you can find a bag that’s:

• Eco friendly (environmentally friendly)
• Reusable
• Large

Although they are reusable, plastic bags aren’t eco friendly. They’re not very big either, which means you need to use more of them.

Paper bags are actually worse than plastic bags when it comes to the environment. Yes, they can be reused. And they are usually larger than plastic bags, but the damage they do to the environment makes them a much less attractive option.

Best Eco Friendly Bags?

Eco friendly grocery bags are those that have a minimum impact on the natural environment. This means in both the construction of the bag, as well as the disposal of the bag.

So, here are some of the things I would look for in an eco friendly bag:

• Requires less energy to be made than other bags
• Fully biodegradable (preferably can fully decompose within 6 months or less - inline with international standards such as EN 13432)
• Preferably made from a natural fiber (such as hemp, jute etc)
• Durable enough to be reused many times (say, more than 2 - 3 years under normal use)
• Large enough to not need too many of them

My post, Eco Friendly Grocery Bags, suggests some good product types to look for.

Larger Bags are Better

Another benefit of many eco-friendly grocery bags is that they are usually much larger than the typical plastic bag. Therefore, you can fit more groceries into them - you need less bags. Less bags means less energy to construct them and less bags to biodegrade.

Benefits of Reusable Grocery Bags

Even if you can’t find an eco friendly bag, you should get a grocery bag that you can reuse over and over again. If you can reuse your grocery bag for 2 or 3 years, then think of all the energy being saved. Every time you reuse your grocery bag, that’s one less bag that has to be produced.

For example, if you reuse your grocery bag over 3 years, and do your grocery shopping say, 4 times per week, that’s 624 less bags that have to be produced. If you use 2 grocery bags each time, that’s 1,248 less bags being produced. And that’s assuming the non-reusable bag is the same size. Most plastic grocery bags are much smaller than their eco-friendly/reusable counterparts (such as green bags, hemp bags, jute bags etc).

Summary

As with most things man-made, it’s hard finding anything that doesn’t have some level of impact on the environment. Bags made from natural fibers are usually best. And look for a bag you can reuse over and over again - for more than 2 or 3 years. That’s a lot of groceries that won’t require another plastic or paper bag.

Tags: biodegradable bags, eco friendly grocery bags, natural fiber, paper bags, plastic bags, reusable grocery bags, shopping bags

Related Posts:

• Paper Bags vs Plastic Bags
• China Releases Standards for Plastic Bags
• Whole Foods Market to phase-out Plastic Bags
• Eco Friendly Grocery Bags
• 6 Websites Offering Reusable Shopping Bags

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 13th, 2008 at 12:25 am and is filed under Sustainability. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.