My New Obsession Saves The Earth

I just recently got into reusable shopping bags, and I have now amassed quite a selection.

I love that I don't have to carry bags upon bags of groceries into the house, and I can now use my reusable bags and have to carry in less than half of what I previously did.

I have about 8 blue Wal Mart bags, 3 Safeway bags, 1 large Target bag and 1 smaller target bag, and one large Gymboree bag as shown below



When I was at Ikea with my husband on Friday, I was also able to pick up 4 other bags that I love. I actually took home all our stuff in the bags. Two are navy blue and red with floral prints, one was black with bright circles and lines all over it, and the last was green with the same print. Now I can just take them with me when I go shopping and don't have to worry about plastic bags anymore. Though I still do need plastic bags for some things (like cleaning out the litter box), so I guess we'll have to use some plastic once in awhile.

I was able to get all of these bags for less than $2 each (I think I spent less than $10-12 total to get them all, if that), and the Wal Mart ones were only .50 cents. I want to get some more "stylish" bags, but unfortunately all the nice ones are so expensive. I really like my Target, Ikea and Gymboree bags, but the Wal Mart and Safeway bags are just bare bones.

Does anyone know where I can find some cute, affordable, reusable bags? Even if you have a shop on Etsy, I might be interested in buying some!!

Did you know that each reusable bag used can potentially eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime? I found that out at Reusablebags.com When I go grocery shopping, I use tons and tons of plastic bags. So by using my 16 reusable bags, I have now elminiated 16,000 plastic bags!!!

Another interesting fact that I found was how plastic bags are created:

"These days, most plastic bags are made from a type of plastic called polyethylene. 80% of polyethylene is produced from natural gas - an abundant, yet non-renewable resource. Polyethylene, as a raw material, can be manipulated into any shape, size, form or color. It’s watertight and can made UV resistant. It can be printed on and reused many, many times. In many cases, it can be recycled but is not considered “cradle to cradle” meaning it cannot be recycled over and over nor returned to an organic state."
GreenFeet.com

I'd love to quote more from the above mentioned blog, but there is just a plethora of information, so I highly suggest you go and read it yourself. I found it a very very interesting article to read.