Oh, we’ve all been there.
I was one of those people who used a single use plastic bag to pack an apple or a banana and then I would carry those items in another plastic bag. Plastic inception! I would come home with hoards of plastic, a lifespan of 30 mins before I would throw it out and let it sit in landfill for thousands of years.
Then, like many I saw this as wasteful. And like many, I’m still wasteful (in many ways) but I am trying to improve. At first I stopped using plastic bags to carry my groceries and used my old canvas bags. I still used plastic for my produce and it seemed odd to use plastic for one thing and not for the other. Not long after, I stopped using plastic for my produce, letting those babies roam free in the shopping trolley. It was a little bit of a hassle at checkout and even more of a hassle for the checkout chick. It was also a hassle when it came time to cook as it was difficult to rummage fridge to find what I needed, as everything was “loose”.
For convenience and the sake of checkout employee, I needed something hold my shit together.
A few months ago, I came across reusable produce bags.
Price: $19.95 for 8 bags.
There are many types of produce bags out there, but I decided on going with Ever Eco as theirs was made from recycled plastic bottles. I’ve purchased them at Biome. (If you’ve noticed a trend of me buying my “zero waste” products from here, you aren’t alone. They are tha bomb. And I recommend them highly.)
But I digress.
Are the produce bags any good?
Yes, yes they are!
I shop at my local grocer. It’s cheaper and a lot of their fruit and veggies don’t come in pre-packed plastic. So here, I can put my produce bags to full use.
The funny thing is when I first took this picture, I was sorta proud of myself. A) that I put in some vague effort for a photo but also I was proud for not using single use plastics to pack my fruit. I stared at the photo a little longer and noticed over half of my shopping was using plastic in some form or another. It made me realise how far I still need to go. But first comes realisation, right?
The produce bags are strong, stronger than they look. The fruit and veggies definitely seem to last better in these produce bags and there’s no “sweating” like there is in plastic.
To clean the bags, I simply throw them in the wash every once and a while. Sometimes, I’ll just wash them with water and let it dry. They’re very low maintenance. All you have to do is remember to bring them on your shop and after a while, it’ll be automation.
I highly recommend getting one of these if you can (I’ve had them for months now). Or if you’re savvy with the machine, you can probably sow a couple of bags up using a soft meshy material.
simple-ish.com 