Impact!

 ...of the environmental sort.

This week I have been reading about the environmental impact of cotton shopping bags. The information I found referred to brand new bags, not ones made from repurposed or upcycled cloth as most of mine are. Also my reading was not terribly deep, there is a lot of information to sift through.

The UK Environmental Agency writes that cotton shopping bags need to be used at least 130 times before their environmental production cost cancels out their saving. I am unsure whether this takes into account the number of plastic /single use bags avoided, or whether it is just the cost of manufacturing a brand new cotton grocery bag. There are a lot of variables.

130 times= once a week use= 2 years and 6 months, roughly. 

Not so difficult. And many people would use a bag more than once a week. 

Natural Capitalism Solutions suggests that cotton shopping bags regularly used once a week could replace 520 shopping bags per year. Remember when you used two plastic bags together because you were afraid one was not strong enough? Decent cotton bags ARE strong enough. Remember using 3 or 4 plastic bags because they were never big enough? You can easily invest in one cotton bag which will hold everything. 

It all adds up, doesn't it?

Return to the above equation:

2 years and 6 months (520 bags x 2 years + 260 per 6 months) = 1300 single use plastic carrier bags. Even if the estimates are wrong (or my maths), that is still a colossal reduction in plastic waste.

And just out of interest, who throws away a cotton bag when it is still useful? Why would you not use one until it wore out? Mend, repair, ask a friend to repair it, give it to someone, donate to a charity shop, but why throw it away?

Since March 2002 here in Ireland we have had to pay for plastic grocery bags and it has made a huge difference; firstly to the amount of plastic litter one sees, and secondly to our habits. Almost everyone keeps a shopping bag in their pocket or handbag. One sees people doing the weekly shopping with 7 or 8 reusable bags stuffed in their trolley, and the worst swearing one hears at the checkout is from the few people who nipped out without bringing their own bag. (As this often results in an entertaining juggling performance to get their shopping home without paying for a bag everyone watches in anticipation as the person struggles to leave without milk, eggs, bread, crisps, frozen chips or sauce hitting the floor... but I digress!)

I took the above photo of my usual shopping bags:

       blue lower left I made over 20 years old when learning machine patchwork

       blue top right about 12 years old, I remember buying the handles in a craft show because they felt so sturdy and then I was trying out machine applique (the bear in the corner)

       coloured top left I made in December from old furnishing scraps left over from re-covering someone's kitchen seat cushions

       Cayman Islands bag was a sister's souvenir and says 2003

       the others are over 5 years old, souvenirs from Turkey, Vancouver Island and the local Library

All regularly used, washed, and reused; they live on the coatrack so are easily grabbed on the way out. How difficult is it to develop a habit of not using plastic bags? Could it be a resolution for the rest of 2021? Just think how much plastic even 10 people would save?

Think about it.