Normally most of my
weekend cooking posts are made on my other blog:
She Likes Bento, however for this week I want to turn the spotlight on something different, namely a greener way of shopping for groceries. I think you all know the problem of getting loads of plastic bags while doing your groceries. For example all the plastic around your fruits and veggies or bread for example. I like to look at alternatives myself to reduce the plastic I use in the household and one way to do that is bring your own bag while shopping. And getting my fruits and veggies on the market where they use mainly paper bags.
Janneke of
Eco Beauty has brought something to my attention that is even better than paper bags and I would like to share that with you. Since it requires creativity in some cases, I thought this blog would be better suited :) This fabric produce bag shown above is one of the great alternatives that Janneke featured on her blog and you can find a pattern for free on
Daisy Janie.
Another great alternative to save plastic is by replacing the plastic sandwhich bags. Those are almost used daily and you can only imagine how much pastic is used by all those families. I don't used them myself very often because I mostly use bento boxes, but on the rare occassions that I do use them I find these sandwhich bags from
Lunchskins a good and pretty alternative. And us Dutchies can buy them at
Gezinnig.
Lastly I want to focus on these reusable fruit, veggie and bread bags by
Again and A-gain. It seems to me that these will come in handy to save a lot of plastic packaging while buying the food we use the most. For the Dutchies available on
Pink and Green.
I have to say that I do not yet own any of these items myself, but I hope I will be able to save up and purchase them soon because this is one of the easy ways to make a difference :)
Thanks for putting this up...you are so right about doing what we can to reduce the ubitiquous plastic bag...in our used bookshop we invite people to bring their bags in so that we can re-use them for customers's purchases, and most of our customers are grateful to put the bags to good use.
ReplyDeleteI am off to check out Lunchskins...it never occured to me that you could have a reusable sandwich bag :) Also, I love the look of the mesh fruit and veggie bags.
I try to remember to bring my reusable bags when I go grocery shopping..but honestly, I so often forget.
ReplyDeleteBut I am trying, because I hate those plastic bags.
Those mesh bags from Pink and Green look great!! I'll have to look into the sandwich bag too. I don't pack a lunch but my husband does.
ReplyDeleteI have a bunch of random tote bags in the car that I use for the grocery store, but the mesh bags look great for the farmer's market.
Thanks for the links! I love the mesh bags, looks like they can be stuffed, which I need when I grocery shop these days. Two kids and their friends, they eat like horses :)
ReplyDeleteI am with you on reducing plastic. Here in California the trend is to eliminate plastic bags completely from the stores. Soon, if you don't bring your own bags, you will be charged extra for plastic. That incentive works for me and lots of other people. It's a great idea to have these alternative bags. I especially like the mesh ones I like this new blog of yours too.
ReplyDelete@ Margot: The supermarkets have been charging for plastic bags as long as I can remember here in the Netherlands. I am glad to see that this will be happening in California now too :)
ReplyDeleteI always go shopping with my own bags. It just feels so much better. Plus, I am not paying for plastic bags when I have tons of cotton bags at home.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the link to the pattern!
I have a huge assortment of bags and keep them in my car so I have them when I need them.
ReplyDeleteI love those fruit/veggie bags!
Feel free to visit my W C
Great products. We have used tupperware sandwich containers for over 20 years. They keep sandwiches from getting squished in the most ruggedly carried knapsack. I do like the idea of the mesh backs for shopping. Good in the store for items sold by number, but I wonder how much they weigh for items sold by weight? Worth looking into. Thanks for the idea.
ReplyDeleteWe have lots and lots of enviro friendly bags which we keep in the car. The challenge is remembering to take them into the shops! Thanks for this reminder
ReplyDeleteAt Heather: I was thinking the same about the weight. But I figure I will just weigh the items without the bag once and with to see the difference.
ReplyDeleteThanks for linking up these Dutch stores, I've been looking for reusable vegetable bags for ages!
ReplyDeleteI hate plastic bags. I started using cloth bag years ago before they were really popular. I had a one woman campaign that I jokingly called "Bag Me Not!"
ReplyDeleteI still come home occassionly with one, but it's rare.
Now, most stores here sell reuseable ones with the store logo.
I love those mesh ones from Pink and Green.