sari0009
October 28th, 2007, 05:05 PM
In our household handling three generations, I have been creating a column of plastic grocery bags (http://www.instructables.com/id/SXB2IR2F2L4FTJE/) between the microwave cart and wall about every two weeks. In three weeks, the column is about as tall as I am, and I'm about 5'6" now. We have a stash under the bathroom sink too. I hate wasting the things without putting them to use at least one more time, so we bag up used diapers in them.
My mother sent me money for my birthday and I've finally decided what I want to get/make for my birthday -- reusable grocery bags (which account for much of the plastic waste we create (http://www.notawaste.com/articles/reusable_shopping_bags.html)).
This came to me after vowing to run a less cluttered and wasteful household and after reading about the (mostly plastic) unknown thousands of pounds of waste now found floating in the ocean between the U.S. coast and Hawaii (http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Ocean-Plastic-Landfill-Algalita1nov02.htm). Turns out we use somewhere between 100 and 500 billion plastic grocery bags each year on this Earth. Something like that.
I got into that topic after yet another major appliance broke down within months of the waranty and it has a lot of plastic in its construction. The repair person said it cannot be fixed. That got me reading not only about plastic but the whole concept of 'planned obsolescence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence).' Anyway ...I already had bolts of dark green heavy tightly woven canvas material (military surplus maybe?) that I got for a dollar a yard (at Wal-Mart) so I could use that instead of ordering resusable grocery/shopping bags and really cut down on the number of plastic grocery bags and plastics we use in the first place! Even one-use disposable bioplastic has environmental impact from production (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioplastic).
You can either buy or make reusable grocery bags.
Buy Reusable Grocery Bags/Totes
They can vary in price and materials used so shop around!
http://www.ecobags.com/ (http://www.ecobags.com/)
http://www.eurobags.ca/stock.html (http://www.eurobags.ca/stock.html)
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3324-AA.shtml?lnav=clothing.html (http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3324-AA.shtml?lnav=clothing.html)
www.chicobag.com (http://www.chicobag.com/)
http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php (http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php)
http://www.amazon.com/tag/reusable%20grocery%20bag%20environment%20green (http://www.amazon.com/tag/reusable%20grocery%20bag%20environment%20green)
http://www.greensak.com/ (http://www.greensak.com/) (Says they will have stock in early Nov. '07.)
http://www.reusablebags.com/ (http://www.reusablebags.com/)
http://www.reusethisbag.com/custom.asp (http://www.reusethisbag.com/custom.asp) Custom poly bags (you may prefer natural fabrics) but you have to request a quote? Hah. Well, if you're corporate, you might be interested?Make Reusable Bags and Totes
I might want to make some since I already have bolts of dark green heavy tightly woven canvas material (military surplus maybe?) that I got for a dollar a yard and I have a huge plastic (wince) trunk of outgrown jeans! We'll save the bioplastic bags for garbage and yard waste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioplastic) (saw some at Menards).
Patterns
Fabrics. Lisa at U-Handblog offers a reusable grocery bag sewing tutorial (http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2007/04/one_of_the_medi.html). Each bag folds up into its own handy carrying case. (She has a page of .pdf bag tutorials, by the way.) I have a trunk of used jeans after housing 7 kids, counting one grandchild (but they'll soon to be two).
Cotton Knit or Crochet Yarns.
This page offers many crochet bag projects (http://crochet.about.com/od/bags/Handbags_Purses_Pouches_Sachet_Bags.htm) because if you think about it, many of our purses and other bags are synthetic and just don't last as long.
Lily offers a members only pattern for crocheted grocery bags (http://www.sugarncream.com/pattern.php?PID=133). Totally awesome. You can opt out of third party interaction, by the way.
http://www.worldknit.com/ (http://www.worldknit.com/) or http://www.yarnsbydesign.com/ (http://www.yarnsbydesign.com/) Buy a kit and knit your own "eurobag"
Plarn. You can even crochet a reusable grocery bag out of plastic grocery bags (http://crochet.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marloscrochetcorner.com%2FPlastic%2520Bag%2520tote.html)and use them before recycling them (our local Wal-Mart started recycling plastic bags again and our Pick and Save has been recycling plastic grocery bags for a while). Some have taken to calling the plastic used this way "plarn (http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/02/17/instructions-for-cutting-plastic-bags-creating-recycled-plastic-yarn/)." Here is a whole page of patterns using plarn (http://www.myrecycledbags.com/my-pattern-links/).
Juice Pouches. You can also collect used juice pouches and make totes out of those (http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/juice-pouch-purse.asp). I suppose you can create insulated bags using these as well.
Various Materials. You can pull up many "instructables" for various types of totes made out of various materials here (http://www.instructables.com/)on "The World's Biggest Show and Tell."
My mother sent me money for my birthday and I've finally decided what I want to get/make for my birthday -- reusable grocery bags (which account for much of the plastic waste we create (http://www.notawaste.com/articles/reusable_shopping_bags.html)).
This came to me after vowing to run a less cluttered and wasteful household and after reading about the (mostly plastic) unknown thousands of pounds of waste now found floating in the ocean between the U.S. coast and Hawaii (http://www.mindfully.org/Plastic/Ocean/Ocean-Plastic-Landfill-Algalita1nov02.htm). Turns out we use somewhere between 100 and 500 billion plastic grocery bags each year on this Earth. Something like that.
I got into that topic after yet another major appliance broke down within months of the waranty and it has a lot of plastic in its construction. The repair person said it cannot be fixed. That got me reading not only about plastic but the whole concept of 'planned obsolescence (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planned_obsolescence).' Anyway ...I already had bolts of dark green heavy tightly woven canvas material (military surplus maybe?) that I got for a dollar a yard (at Wal-Mart) so I could use that instead of ordering resusable grocery/shopping bags and really cut down on the number of plastic grocery bags and plastics we use in the first place! Even one-use disposable bioplastic has environmental impact from production (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioplastic).
You can either buy or make reusable grocery bags.
Buy Reusable Grocery Bags/Totes
They can vary in price and materials used so shop around!
http://www.ecobags.com/ (http://www.ecobags.com/)
http://www.eurobags.ca/stock.html (http://www.eurobags.ca/stock.html)
http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3324-AA.shtml?lnav=clothing.html (http://www.dharmatrading.com/html/eng/3324-AA.shtml?lnav=clothing.html)
www.chicobag.com (http://www.chicobag.com/)
http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php (http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php)
http://www.amazon.com/tag/reusable%20grocery%20bag%20environment%20green (http://www.amazon.com/tag/reusable%20grocery%20bag%20environment%20green)
http://www.greensak.com/ (http://www.greensak.com/) (Says they will have stock in early Nov. '07.)
http://www.reusablebags.com/ (http://www.reusablebags.com/)
http://www.reusethisbag.com/custom.asp (http://www.reusethisbag.com/custom.asp) Custom poly bags (you may prefer natural fabrics) but you have to request a quote? Hah. Well, if you're corporate, you might be interested?Make Reusable Bags and Totes
I might want to make some since I already have bolts of dark green heavy tightly woven canvas material (military surplus maybe?) that I got for a dollar a yard and I have a huge plastic (wince) trunk of outgrown jeans! We'll save the bioplastic bags for garbage and yard waste (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bioplastic) (saw some at Menards).
Patterns
Fabrics. Lisa at U-Handblog offers a reusable grocery bag sewing tutorial (http://u-handbag.typepad.com/uhandblog/2007/04/one_of_the_medi.html). Each bag folds up into its own handy carrying case. (She has a page of .pdf bag tutorials, by the way.) I have a trunk of used jeans after housing 7 kids, counting one grandchild (but they'll soon to be two).
Cotton Knit or Crochet Yarns.
This page offers many crochet bag projects (http://crochet.about.com/od/bags/Handbags_Purses_Pouches_Sachet_Bags.htm) because if you think about it, many of our purses and other bags are synthetic and just don't last as long.
Lily offers a members only pattern for crocheted grocery bags (http://www.sugarncream.com/pattern.php?PID=133). Totally awesome. You can opt out of third party interaction, by the way.
http://www.worldknit.com/ (http://www.worldknit.com/) or http://www.yarnsbydesign.com/ (http://www.yarnsbydesign.com/) Buy a kit and knit your own "eurobag"
Plarn. You can even crochet a reusable grocery bag out of plastic grocery bags (http://crochet.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.marloscrochetcorner.com%2FPlastic%2520Bag%2520tote.html)and use them before recycling them (our local Wal-Mart started recycling plastic bags again and our Pick and Save has been recycling plastic grocery bags for a while). Some have taken to calling the plastic used this way "plarn (http://www.myrecycledbags.com/2007/02/17/instructions-for-cutting-plastic-bags-creating-recycled-plastic-yarn/)." Here is a whole page of patterns using plarn (http://www.myrecycledbags.com/my-pattern-links/).
Juice Pouches. You can also collect used juice pouches and make totes out of those (http://www.mormonchic.com/crafty/juice-pouch-purse.asp). I suppose you can create insulated bags using these as well.
Various Materials. You can pull up many "instructables" for various types of totes made out of various materials here (http://www.instructables.com/)on "The World's Biggest Show and Tell."