A big trend in “green” living is to use cloth bags for groceries. Gotta love it!! For many years I tried to use them whenever I could, but found that I often would forget them at home or in the car. Now I have a system. After I unload groceries, I stuff all the bags inside one bag. Then I toss the whole thing by the door so I’ll trip over it if I don’t take it out to the car. Then, the next time I go outside, I take them out. That way I always have some in my car. We have 2 cars that I might possibly be driving, so I divided our bags into two groups and each car has about 5 bags in them at all times. Here’s the tricky part: remembering to take them into the store with you. Like I mentioned, for a long time I would forget them in the car. But a few years ago, when I made living environmentally friendly a top priority, I found that bringing them in became a habit, just like taking in my grocery list. And I love not having all those plastic bags floating around my house. The other thing I have that I love is cloth bags for my produce. No more of those thin, grey plastic bags for me!

Here's some avocados in my produce bags. These can be purchased in a 3 pack for $9.00 at www.coolhats.biz, or try to make your own!

If you do forget your bags, try paper. Paper bags can be recycled easily, where plastic cannot. However, producing paper bags does have it's environmental impacts. It takes 17 trees to product one ton of paper bags. If you do have to use plastic bags, try hard to think of other uses for them. And defiantly remember to take them to a plastic bag recycling bin. Most grocery stores have them in the lobby.

It takes 11 barrels of crude oil to produce a ton of plastic bags, which is why Ireland has placed a tax on them, thus cutting their use by more than 90%. Make it a priority in your home and it surely will become second nature!