I do drive a car on occasion. But not very often – I don’t own one myself.

I rent or borrow one a couple of times a year if I need to move something heavy or travel somewhere I can’t easily get to by other means. Other than that, I get around by walking or riding a bike or by bus or rail.

Which means I don’t rely on a car to carry my reusable bags around. I keep one or two light-duty ones in my jacket or backpack, and after a week or so of this I hardly noticed they were there.

Is it slightly less practical than just getting a couple of plastic bags at the store every time you shop? Absolutely. But not prohibitively so, considering the damage plastic bags cause.

And while I certainly agree that cars at least are one of the worst things for the environment, I don’t really see why that’s important in this context.

My take on the whole cars vs. plastic bags issue you bring up is:

Cars pollute. So do plastic bags. Both are problems that should be dealt with somehow.

The fact that one of these problems exists isn’t a good reason to ignore the other.

Not dealing with all the problems in the world at the same time doesn’t automatically devalue the effort that goes into dealing with one of them.

Another little idea : If you MUST get a bag and have left your bags at home or in the car (how many times has my husband run back out????), ask for paper. Most grocery stores and big box stores STILL have paper bags. They are well hidden and you must ask for them, but they ARE there! :-)

My biggest problem when switching to reusable bags was that I would automatically say yes when the sales clerk asked me if I wanted a bag, just out of old habit. Took a while to unlearn that :-)

I hope you keep your Wednesday challenges up. I really enjoyed writing today’s post, and felt that extra little bit inspired to change my habits for the better.

Take Care!

I love your tips … especially the one about getting the reusable bags back into the car after they have brought everything into the house. We fold ours up and put our car keys on top of them … no way can we leave without touching them.

Bringing them into the store is my downfall … I almost never remember to bring them in. So, I simply ask the “bag” person to put everything back into the basket and I bag it myself when I get to the car. It works!

“What will I use for the garbage can” is the biggest reason I hear for using plastic bags … thank you for offering a green alternative!

Have a great day!