How would I be helping the environment by using those green reusable shopping bags?
We use the disposable ones as tidy bin liners. If I switched to the green bags, I’d have to buy my tidy bin liners, which are bigger and thicker than the supermarket shopping bags and thus worse for the environment. Is there something I’m not getting?
No, I love the way you think! The problem is that we go through hundreds of thousands of grocery bags a day! Most people do not reuse them, they carry their groceries in them for about 20 min to load and unload their car. Then they throw them away to sit in a landfill for hundreds of years. The trick is to rotate in your case. I use the linen bags for most of my groceries. Occasionally I will get a plastic bag and then reuse it to scoop kitty litter or pack a lunch. If you reuse it wisely and only use what you have to then you are being environmental. I think it is great that you recognize what will sit in a landfill longer and have made an educated decision based on that. Most people just chose to remain ignorant.
Since you DO reuse them, and since you can recycle most shopping bags even if you don’t, I’d say you’re actually doing more good by just taking the disposable ones. I do the same thing, actually, although it’s more to save myself some cash.
Do you really use ALL the plastic bags you get?
That is amazing to me.
I always use canvas shopping bags at the grocery store. Even if they were not environmentally "green", I think they are better. They are stronger and hold more, so fewer trips between car and kitchen.
I still end up with more plastic bags than I can use just because I don’t always have the canvas bags with me when I go into stores besides the grocery market.