Grocery Bags

Top 5 Reasons to Reuse a Bag:

1. The petroleum in 14 plastic bags could drive a car a mile.
2. Americans use over 14 billion plastic bags annually.
3. It takes 70% more global warming gases to make a paper bag than a plastic bag.
4. Paper bags do not biodegrade in landfills.
5. Cities spend up to 17 cents per bag in disposal costs.

-www.1bagatatime.com

Steve and I just returned from grocery shopping - of course, using reusable bags: ) Until this year, we were pretty terrible about remembering our cloth bags, but Steve and I have made it a priority and while we do still forget them, we mostly remember and I think it would be much easier to remember an interesting bag than a boring school marmy-type bag. An idea that I've been playing with in the back of my mind is making my own fabric bags; if you make your own, you can make them as pretty, crazy, and interesting as you can imagine.

Five reusable grocery bag links:

1. ReadyMade's DIY grocery bag made form old raincoats: http://readymademag.com/printarchive/article?id=1256
2. Already made beautiful cloth grocery bags: http://www.envirosax.com/
   
3. DIY reusable grocery bags made from t-shirts: http://www.fashion-incubator.com/mt/archives/reusable_bag_contest_1.html
4. A very cute version of the reusable tote: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=47761.0
   
5. And finally, an entire blog dedicated to the reusable grocery bag: http://makeabag.blogspot.com/2007/08/project-feature-easiest-diy-reusable.html
   

A little more education on the impact of using bags:
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/byobag/faq.html