When my mother went in to the nursing home, I got her bag bag... it was made from a kitchen towel with elastic at the bottom and a hanger at the open top. It as purposely made to hold plastic bags. I used that thing until it was worn out. I was even using a clothes pin to keep the bottom shut because the elastic has worn out. Well.... the clothes pin would slip off and I'd end up picking up plastic bags that had fallen out all over the floor. I found a stainless steel bag box to hang on the wall, so I purchased it. I didn't really pay attention to it, but one day I looked at it and saw the 'big picture'. There were plastic bags sticking out of this box in all directions; and it looked a hundred transparent octopuses were trying to make an escape! So, I pulled every single last bag out of the box and spent 45 minutes neatly folding each and every one. My husband noticed it right away when he got home that night. There was a bag on the table from grocery shopping that day, so I demonstrated how to fold the bag so it would fit in the box. I think he's afraid of the grief he'd get if he didn't stow the bags properly, so the box has stayed nice and neat. Our local Giant store (the very first one ever built by the Akel brothers, I might add) recycles all plastic bags, not just their own. They have a box at the entrance for you to drop them in. We reused all of ours. We have a dog, so we use quite a few of them that way, not to mention when we take her with us any where. I also use them to line my bedroom and bathroom trash cans because it makes it easy to just swoop the bag out to the big garbage can in the kitchen. I keep several extras folded up in the bottom of each can so I always have a replacement. We also use them for recycling: one bag for plastic and glass; another one for paper. When full, they are easily taken down to the recycling bin in the garage. Oh, yes.... I also use them to hang the large bags of snacks up so they take up no shelf space. My cousin's sewing club recycled plastic bags into tote bags one year. Those things were mighty strong, let me tell you! She said the hardest part was cutting the plastic bags into strips and tying them together in order to crochet with them. As with everything else they do, they donated all the bags to charitable causes. One handy tool I have to use when bringing groceries into the house in plastic bags are plastic bag handles. It is a handle designed to slip into the handles of plastic bags so you can actually carry several bags in one hand without hurting your fingers. I love mine and use them all the time. As soon as I am done with them, I put them next to/on top of my purse so I will remember to put them back in the car. It took a few lessons in remembering to put them back in the car, but it finally worked. I also have a zippered frozen foods bag that I use in the summer. They are wonderful. I do believe that progress is a necessity to keep us moving forward; but it is a double-edged sword. The more progress we make, the more things we are able to accomplish in a short period of time, but the less time we have to spend on quality things like our children and our spouses. Progress is saving thousands of trees every year - which BTW is a renewable source - by creating Styrofoam or plastic everything. But now we are paying thousands of dollars to recycle them in land fills because they are not bio-degradable, and burning Styrofoam and plastic sends toxic fumes into the air. Yes, we are making bio-degradable packing 'peanuts' out of cornstarch, but not everyone is on that bandwagon because of cost. Take a look at any office supply catalog. You will notice that a box of pencils might cost $7.00, but that a box of pencils made with 10% recycled materials is $7.50. Recycling is a wonderful thing; but it is labor-intensive, and we have to pay for it. There are still some things I believe would be best done 'the old way' - like taking tote bags made out of woven cotton, flax, or grass cloth with us to the stores. I can't help but wonder how many plastic bags one good-sized tote bag would replace..... hundreds? thousands? Hugs, Mary -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Trish Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 11:38 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [PD-LIFE] Hmmmmm Cotton Bags! Cathy, I think in this economy, the City is realizing it might just stop a lot of people from shopping, which would cut the tax base even further. I liken to it not having a shopping cart available at the market---nothing to put the groceries in, it will limit how much I can carry, limit how much I buy and limit how often I'll return to the store. We recycle the bags we get to a maximum, even putting a less than stellar bag inside another one in order to make it last longer, then putting in our recycling bin on trash day when it is no longer useful. A lot of places here stopped offering paper grocery bags with handles on them in order to push people to use plastic ones (or the cloth ones). Apparently, a number of folks have taken to asking for them to put a plastic one outside the paper one, in order to allow it to be carried, thereby, defeating the purpose of "saving a tree". I have complained loud and proud about the lack of paper bags with handles. I noticed today at the local market that they now have handled paper bags again. Yippie! Our local Trader Joe's has been offering all sorts of fun reuseable bags, encouraging folks to use them not only for shopping but other fun things. They run about 99c for basic cloth or oil-cloth type up to about $6 for a zippered insulated bag that keeps things warm or cold (not both at the same time). My problem is that I often forget to bring the bags in with me, but, I'm learning to remember! Trish On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 8:18 PM, Cathy And donald w raber < [email protected]> wrote: > Trish, > > Well, I hope they don't adopt that rule of charging for the bags. I > get allot of groceries, because I have 4 people in my family, 5 before this. > I would think that was outragious for that. I already paid for the > groceries! But agree that is great to reuse bags too! we have one grocery > store here near-by us, that does that, but don't shop there, but had a > friend shop there & she'd take a bag or two to shop. That'd be bad fro me, > because I'd have to take about 10 bags of my own at least! I mean recycling > them is enough isnt' it? I think so at least! > Its all very interesting hearing what other places, states do with > everyday things though! Ya never know what will catch on! I mean to a > certain extent, i like paper bags because they are allot easier to carry & > would carry more, & won't break & are reusable too! We have too much of a > throw away society nowadays! > By the way Lynn, I'm glad to hear that your relative or friend, likes > TracPhone, I know I do. I only used mine if we're going to be out & about, > but do enjoy visiting with my friends long distance that way! But also use a > regular phone too! But I like the fact of the double minutes! Cathy > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Trish" <[email protected]> > To: [email protected] > Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 10:56:54 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern > Subject: Re: [PD-LIFE] Hmmmmm Cotton Bags! > > I'm sitting here half wondering how far out some of you live from > town...then realize, I'm in Nor Cal, where we're on the cutting edge of a > lot of things. Technology is a big one. The other is green living. Ergo, we > have had reusable shopping bags for years. Nearly every little shop offers > a > reusable bag of some sort, most offer a discount, rebate, or offer of a > drawing for a give-away if you use your own bags. The City of San Francisco > has been threatening to have stores CHARGE 25c for EACH bag to put your > purchases into. I would really dislike seeing the bill for a big shopping > trip to the market! One day I came home with 20 bags---it would be $5, just > to take home my groceries? Makes me want to not shop so much, at least in > SF. Good news is I'm not there. > > We have been reusing the plastic or paper bags from stores for as long as I > can recall. I used to watch my Grand-daddy fold up the bags after a > shopping > trip and store them in the closet. It amazed me, until I realized about > non-renewable, or less-renewable resources. > > The one thing I can say is---I have never had a reusable bag break, tear, > rip or split on me and they have hundreds of other uses---holding choir > books.... > > Trish > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 7:40 PM, Lynn Vondran <[email protected]> wrote: > > > WOW! That's a GREAT site, Mary! > > Thanks! > > Hugs! > > Lynn > > PS Have to get off for the night. Have wash to get finished yet. Have > a > > GREAT night everyone, and a good day tomorrow_don't know how much I will > be > > able to be on this week. > > Mary wrote: > > > Lynn, > > > Check out this site: > > > http://www.papermart.com/Index/index_retail_bag_reusable.htm > > > There are many more on line if you just type in 'cloth shopping bags' > or > > > 'reusable shopping bags'. > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without > the > > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > > ------------------------------- > To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to > [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the > quotes in the subject and the body of the message > ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to [email protected] with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message