Thursday, July 19, 2007

Let's save the world...one plastic bag at a time.

I just gave my sister and mother des sacs réutilisables during my last trip to the US. I also grabbed one off the shelf for my friend, Heidi, while we were waiting in line at Monoprix the other day. "Use this from now on, m-kay?", I lovingly requested of them. Yesterday, I read this NYT article.

I've tried using these loathsome plastic things less and less after moving to France for a couple reasons: 1) I have yet to find a recycling bin to throw them in like I used to find in the front of my local Safeway store (do they exist over here?) and 2) I don't enjoy getting evil eyes thrown at me by the ladies who ring me up at les supermarchés. But, plastic bags do make good garbage bags for the bathroom and they're great to use when I need to dump something moldy down the trash chute and am too lazy to carry it down to the basement of our apartment building (or scared I might step in dog poop on the way down). But, I find it necessary to spread my message through my blog: please go out and buy a reusable shopping bag today...if you don't have one already. And educate others about those evil plastic bags.

If only I could sell my little Monoprix reusable bags on eBay for hundreds of Euros like these Anya Hindmarch bags are going for...

3 comments:

mim said...

Oh Emily, so wild that you posted this on the very day I was at the Farmers Market helping with the CSA share pick up, and selling canvas bags I made, while using my own Monoprix bags for my produce share. I got them last fall when in Paris. They're the little nylon ones in sacs, a purple one and a black one. I've promised to bring some back when we're there this fall. Also, a woman in L.A. is selling reusable sacs under the title of "1 bag at a time." So there ya go! I'm promo-ing this on my blog. If I knew how to link, I'd link your site to mine. LOL a la prochaine

Anonymous said...

Plastic bags in German supermarkets aren't free, and to be honest, I'm kinda glad about it. A lot of shops offer (or sell) fabric bags with their logos on them. Plastic bags are good bin bags though, I think my mum hasn't bought a single bin bag in her life (Swabians are said to be very resourceful - or penny-pinching, depending on your perspective!

And talking about plastic bags: Do you know about morsbags.com? They've got a simple pattern for carrier bags, I'm going to try it out soon(-ish) and will let you know about the result :-)

PS: I love the cupcake pouch!

African Kelli said...

three cheers for cloth bags!!