I'm not a plastic bag.

[ina]

Or maybe have a large bin outside, with a bag in it - recycled feedbag, if you have access to them, so you don't have to buy any - and then empty the indoors bin in that to take away? (Sorry, I'm a bit of an obsessive when it comes to plastic bags - it's nothing personal! )

Although I never accept a plastic bag when out shopping, I still have more than I need in the house. Some have been around for many years, some come with goodies friends bring along. And OK, some are quite useful, too, for transporting dirty veg etc.

But somebody here in the UK must be using my 167 bags per year!

[Stardust]

I baught one of these today

http://www.thebodyshop.co.uk/invt/34187 ... gofpassion

It was £3 and 40% of that went to charity.

[QuakerBear]

I have a solution for my day to day shopping: A MIGHTY voluminous handbag. I could fit baby Ernest in with ease, plus a few tins.

[Mare Owner]

I splurged and bought a magazine at the grocery last week. And lo and behold, it has a little blurb about these "I'm not a plastic bag" bags. It has a picture of the one that this thread was started about by Anya Hindmarch and also gives some other places to buy cloth/mesh bags.

This is a major nationwide magazine here, hopefully the message reaches some new people!

[Bridgette]

I must admit - I'm impressed about SA (ecologically speaking) for a change! About 2 years ago, it was deemed illegal for major stores to hand out free carrier bags - you can buy them (the new ones are all biodegradable ...apparently) for anything between 10c and about R1, and I must tell you, it's made a remarkable difference in the amount of refuse laying around. Living in situ, obviously we didn't really notice the difference at first, until one day I had to drive to the airport to pick someone up - the route takes you through quite a few socia economic areas, including driving past a really huge squatter camp - that's when the difference hit home! Suddenly for the first time in years, we noticed that besides all the other litter and debri, there was barely any plastic bags lying around!
Unfortunately though, our municipal councils aren't 'big' on recycling though, and if you live in the inner city - besides driving (too dangerous to cycle!) around in circles and finding recycle bins for (only) glass and paper, you have no choice but to use plastic bags in your bins - so we still buy them. At least the carrier bags can be recycled - unfortunately most of the actual bin bags available, aren't! It's pointless even taking your refuse to the landfills, that's all they are - landfills... no points for seperations! It's sad really considering we've come this far with the carrier bags !

[hmk]

Although I'm not as good at it as Ina (and DH is still undergoing rigorous training) I refuse pretty much every plastic bag and yet they still multiply in the cupboard....

I'm actually suprised it's only 167 bags per person. The amount of times I've had to bite my lip to keep from pointing out that the lipstick the person in front has just bought will fit in their handbag and doesn't need a dinky carrier bag.... And if people use even 2 bags a week at the supermarket, that's 104...at least it means there's a few people being 'good', I suppose.

The buying-more-than-I-meant bags are the ones that get me, but I've now accquired so many jute/fabric/string/reusable bags (quite a lot free through the supermarket and councils) that I keep a stash in the boot of the car. I also have a couple of cloth bags that roll up really small and stay in my handbag. I got the first from People Tree, but they don't make them anymore, so I made the other on my old hand Singer. It's like the photos of the ones already posted, but not lined, and with 2 plaited pieces of fabric/ribbon attached to the centre of the top edges of the bag (ie between the handles) so you can roll it up and tie it. I think I will be doing some for Xmas, as it was v simple and looks rather good