Selfish Reasons for Using Reusable Grocery Bags

The proper reason for toting one's groceries in reusable bags is, of course, to reduce the flow of paper and plastic waste into landfills. But if you're the type of person who likes to be wasteful, if only to spite Al Gore, here are a few selfish reasons to go reusable:

• Reusable bags are a more effective means of carrying groceries than their paper and plastic counterparts. On average, I'd say that about 16 plastic-bags-worth of groceries fit into 6 or 7 standard reusable grocery bags, resulting in fewer trips from the car to the kitchen. Second, most reusable bags have sturdy, comfortable handles. Plastic bag handles, by contrast, tend to break or cut into one's hands. Paper grocery bags generally do not have handles, making it difficult to carry more than one at a time and nearly impossible to carry more than two.


• Reusable bags are inexpensive and potentially profitable. Kroger sells its reusable grocery bags for $1.00 each or 5 for $4.00; and the bags last forever (more or less). Many Kroger franchises also have incentive programs through which one gets about a nickel's worth of store credit per reusable bag per visit. It isn't much, but it adds up; and given the low initial cost of purchasing the bags, the frequent grocery shopper eventually comes out ahead. (I speak of Kroger, because we have four Kroger stores within ten minutes of our house, but I know other stores have similar deals.)


• Reusable bags are versatile. Do you need to take a cassarole, a pecan pie, and two bags of chips to a family pitch-in or church picnic? Use a reusable grocery bag. Taking the family to the park or the pool? Carry your towels, sunscreen, bug spray, and whatever else in a reusable grocery bag. Need to return the razor, shampoo, loofah, water pick, and pair of briefs that a recent house guest left in your bathroom? Gather them into a reusable grocery bag.

The point is that reusable grocery bags not only improve the environment, they also improve your life.

Image from Paper Nor Plastic.