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I hate the bloody things! I've not taken them since I was a teenager but piling up apples to weigh them is a bit tedious. When I was in Canada visiting my best friend, I went to my new favourite shops EVER, Grassroots and The Big Carrot, and I bought some reusable mesh produce bags. It's just the same sort of mesh as you get oranges in or whatever, but really big and spacious, and they are awesome! I have no idea if there's somewhere in the UK that sells them, I know I've seen some ridiculous ones with zips for a small fortune in lakeland, but these are awesome! Just wanted to share!

Made some reusable fruit and veg draw string bags recently. I didn't have an old net curtain but bought a voile curtain (99p + £1.50 p+p) from fleabay and cut it up. Frustratingly I couldn't find anything suitable in the charity shops

Onya bags do a reusable grocery thin bag, not sure of cost, but I love the idea of the net ones, any nets on local Freecycle?

I too like the sound of the net bags. We try not to use any plastic bags wherever possible. We get most of a veg from a local farm shop and just place it all in the basket. The kindly shopkeeper has never questioned this although it does obviously take him longer to weigh everything.

The net bags sound like a great idea. I must admit, I have taken to putting large things in my trolley loose - that really bugs the cashiers, though. When I do use a bag, I just 'twirl' it, rather than knot it, then growl 'Do NOT knot that ruddy bag. If I wanted it knotted, I'd have knotted it myself' at the poor cashier. Saying that, I've now used the bags 15 times, so it is working......the key is in my remembering to put the wee bags back in the big jute bags so they are already there before we go shopping. And giving the cashier a big 'I'm not mental' smile and making cheery conversation.........

Why, exactly, do they feel the need to wrap a swede? The bloody things are like cannonballs with half-inch skins, so why wrap them?

citizentwiglet wrote:The net bags sound like a great idea. I must admit, I have taken to putting large things in my trolley loose - that really bugs the cashiers, though. When I do use a bag, I just 'twirl' it, rather than knot it, then growl 'Do NOT knot that ruddy bag. If I wanted it knotted, I'd have knotted it myself' at the poor cashier. Saying that, I've now used the bags 15 times, so it is working......the key is in my remembering to put the wee bags back in the big jute bags so they are already there before we go shopping. And giving the cashier a big 'I'm not mental' smile and making cheery conversation.........

Why, exactly, do they feel the need to wrap a swede? The bloody things are like cannonballs with half-inch skins, so why wrap them?

cackles manically... the Co-0p have got used to me doing that now and the market guys just wait for me to thrust a shopping bag at them ... and if that one guy says do you want a bag once more thinking its funny he just might get his kit kat shoved were the sun don't shine...

Even my veg box bags things occasionally ! WTH ???

but they get used for pack lunches or dog poop clean up, so I guess not totally wasted

Sarah

citizentwiglet wrote:.....the key is in my remembering to put the wee bags back in the big jute bags so they are already there before we go shopping

You're not alone in that one
I have thirteen fabric shopping bags - never manage to fill them all - but they live in the boot of my car.
Whenever I forgot to take them into the shop with me, I made myself go and fetch them. It annoyed me so much that i cured myself of forgetting them because it was such a nuisance when I did.

I really like the net bag idea, I'm going to make some........thanks

tizzy wrote: I have thirteen fabric shopping bags - never manage to fill them all - but they live in the boot of my car.
Whenever I forgot to take them into the shop with me, I made myself go and fetch them. It annoyed me so much that i cured myself of forgetting them because it was such a nuisance when I did.

thirteen? i dont think ive ever done that much shopping to need that many but i must admit the little one now has his 'own' one. he never leaves the house with out his back-pack a wooly stripe hat he insisted on wearing today with shorts and t-shirt and a flowery orange shopping bag was almost as funny as him putting on a high school musical outfit and hoiking the skirt up to run!

sarahkeast wrote:Even my veg box bags things occasionally ! WTH ???

but they get used for pack lunches or dog poop clean up, so I guess not totally wasted

Sarah

Same here, their last use is for the cat poo. That's the only time I do throw them away, before that they get used for putting my bread in or veggies that I've picked from the garden. The really smeggy ones (with the shop bought veg that starts going a bit slimey gets used first for the cat poo.

We can't not use them really because of the problems of putting a dozen apples/oranges/whatever loose on the moving checkout thingy (what is that thing called? ) - would mean it taking twice as long to pack our bags at the checkout, and at Lidl where they have to do everything at breakneck speed (why? ) and there's no counter at the other end to put bags to pack up, it would be impossible!

Those wee net bags look very like the stuff those net bath scrubbies look like - that gives me an idea!

Atomic shrimp has a great idea how to use plastic bags. I try very hard not to get any but still have a drawer full of the things. But do I have enough patience to do what Atomic Shrimp did?
http://www.atomicshrimp.com/st/content/ ... _recycling I doubt it. I love his website and his out-of-the-box thinking. I could, actually I do, spend hours browsing through his website.