I’ve been really trying to reduce our waste and have found some products I love. Looking for recommendations on reusable produce bags, anybody have any they like? What are your favorites?
Big hits:
Stasher silicone bags are super cool. I have been using them a ton. They go right in the dishwasher too.
Metal straws. We have been using the same set for years.
LunchSkins - these are reusable zip lock bags. I have been using them for snacks for my toddler to send to school.
Thermos travel mug. This thing is a workhorse. I use it daily.
Misses for me:
-Beeswax wraps that are supposed to be like plastic wrap. I feel like I need to baby them (no hot water, hand wash only) so I don’t use them as much.
1 Like
Harters
(John Hartley - a culinary patriot eating & cooking in Northwest England)
2
Single use supermarket carrier bags have all but disappeared in the UK, since the government introduced a tax on them. Even before that, we’d converted to reusable bags - partly on environmental grounds, partly because you can carry more in them.
As for an actual environmentally friendly product, I’m a longterm fan of Ecover washing-up liquid which is plant based and entirely biodegradable.
Slowly but surely, @gracieggg. My town will be changing over on 4/1/19, and the town next to us did so on 1/1/19. I’ve been using the reusable bags for many years now, and often bring them into the local CVS Pharmacy to use one as my carrying bag for the items I’m buying that day. I’ve had a couple people say “Oh, I never thought of doing that here - just in the supermarket!” I also have fabric wine bottle carriers that I bring into liquor stores vs. them using the paper bags.
But still not enough being done statewide. It seems it’s been a town-by-town case in Massachusetts.
I stopped in to a local Aldi here in metro Detroit earlier today. First time I had visited the store in years.
I made sure I had a quarter for the cart “rental”, too. What I saw in the 20 minutes or so of my shopping was many other shoppers were not using a cart, but their own reusable fabric bags to carry their picks throughout the store. Clever, I thought. And practiced by a significant number of customers.
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meatn3
(equal opportunity eater in the NC Triangle)
7
I do that at Aldis. Most of the time I’m picking up 12 items or less so it makes it much easier to manuever through the store. Last week, as I was paying for my groceries, I remembered they had a very inexpensive deal for an office chair and asked where I might find it. I figured I’d finish paying, drop the groceries in the car and come back in to get the chair. The cashier called for someone to bring me the boxed chair and let me use the cart by her station! That saved my back and saved me a bit of time too. I loaded the goods into the car and brought the cart back to her register. Unexpectedly great customer service!
For the price I’m quite happy with the desk chair. Most of the ones in office supply stores seem to start around $175. This $40 chair works fine for a chair that gets light duty.
I always have and use reusable bags, i seem to have a ton of them and a few that fold really small that fit in my handbag, so I rarely come home with any kind of plastic bags.
I received one of these crazy amazing zojirushi travel thermos maybe two years ago and can’t imagine life without it. If i pour in hot coffee i will literally burn my mouth three hours later! And in the summer ice cubes will be in there barely melted five hours later. Super light weight and has never leaked- even upside down in my backpack while biking around.
I actually found produce bags and an assortment of those rezip bags at target- the produce bags are very basic and i just toss them in the washer. They’re the only ones i have used so can’t say if they’re better than others out there
A friend sent me a coupon for the company Brandless and i tried their tree free bath tissue and paper towels (cuz sometimes you can’t avoid using paper towels) and am very happy with both- bonus that most of their products are $3. (Also into their coconut oil and parchment paper)
I like my reusable canvas tote bag for groceries too, but I admit to still using plastic bags for all my cat litter scooping. sigh
I use small re-usable containers (read: re-used takeout containers) for a lot of leftovers now, so I rarely use plastic wrap. On the occasion I need something for a big bowl, I like these silicon dish covers. They do a nice job of providing a seal without wasting a piece of plastic. I don’t have this kind but something like this: Silicon bowl lids
I also like these Greenworks Compostable wipes for the kitchen. They do a nice job of de-greasing surfaces, but are supposedly compostable.
