Reusable Shopping Bags Buyers Guide
Adapted from a NotAWaste Article.
If you are in the market for reusable shopping bags there are quite a few choices available now. The selection of the right bag for your needs can make all the difference between finding them to be a nuisance or finding to be indispensable. That's right, if you have the right bags on hand you just might prefer the whole process of using your own bags!
The most important factor that makes a good (and versatile) shopping bag is the design. Not the color or the graphics on the bag but the pattern used to make the bag. We have tested all of the fundamentally different bag designs and can say with confidence that the shape and size of the venerable old paper shopping bag is just about as perfect for general use as it can be. The rectangular shape and overall dimensions of the paper bag has been fine tuned over many years of day to day shopping. There is no point in turning your back on a good thing but where the paper bag fails to be practical is in durability. You pack it full and what happens, it rips open. Someone also got smart and added handles to paper bags but that was even worse, they tear off just looking at them.
However change the material from paper to a durable cloth and stitch on good handles ... now it starts to have the makings of a good shopping bag!
The next most important factor is the handle length. We suggest they be just long enough to carry the bag when full and not an inch more. If the handles are too long, the bag "carries" too close to the ground and actually feels heavier as it swings back and forth in your hand. It is also much harder on the arms and back to lift a bag with longer handles into the car. Handles that are long enough to sling a bag over the shoulder are possibly useful if you have only one bag to deal with. Otherwise, they are a real nuisance.
A choice of the material your bags are made of is also important but to some extent it falls more into a matter of personal taste and preference than practical benefit. However there are cheap bags being sold now at chain store checkout aisles that are made of materials that will not hold up to serious use, especially the rough handling of guys like me who insist that one trip from the car with six bags is better than three trips with two. Among the most durable and environmentally friendly materials in use today, the best materials are 100% cotton canvas and a recycled polypropylene blended fabric. When designing the NotAWaste bags we came down to a choice between these two materials. Recycled polypropylene, which is basically made from soda bottles, is a very suitable material but is considerably more expensive than canvas. We also determined that the durability and weight capacity of a well made canvas bag is more than adequate. If you are seeing a price for a "plastic fibre" bag that is less than a good canvas bag, beware! This is most likely not the best polymer-based material and is probably not recycled either. Canvas has several very important benefits. It is a renewable natural resource, it is strong and durable, it is washable (air drying suggested), and it is 100% biodegradable.
The last factor that may prove to be the most influential is cost. As with everything in life, you really do most often get what you pay for. The bags selling for a buck at the candy aisle are typically too small, are made from low quality material and are most likely to be sewn poorly. Yes, they are better than disposable bags if you can get 10 or more uses from them but when they fail, they too will be in the landfill and, odds are, they will not be biodegradable! You should expect to pay between $8 and $20 per bag (depending upon the quantity purchased and how much of a design statement you want to make) for a durable and well designed product that will make using them seem like a natural part of the process of shopping. In fact, having good bags that carry well, load better and sit better in the car will actually make you regret the times you run to the store without them.
A few last words to stress what you should definitely avoid regardless of cost or clever looks. Bags that are basically two pieces of cloth sewn up around the perimeter to make a bag without real depth are not suitable for shopping. They cannot fit much, are a pain in the neck to load and tend to crush the contents by the very nature of the design. Also, bags that feature cardboard bottoms to make a flat surface when loading are likely to be smaller than the ideal size and the cardboard will simply not last long.
Whatever reusable shopping bags you prefer, we all need to make a serious effort to reduce needless waste in our day to day lives. You can have a valuable impact!
... read the Reusable Shopping Bag Buzz article!
