first of june: green goal

I am all about using reusable shopping bags when you go to the grocery store.  In fact, I even remember to bring my bags into the store with me now!  But what about those pesky produce bags?  Dan tries to get me to leave everything unbagged...I am okay with it sometimes, but when you're buying 8 apples at a time, it just makes more sense to put them in a bag....not to mention what my mom has told me about the germs that like to live on the conveyor belt at the checkout.  

Reuseit.com offers a variety of reusable produce bags for sale.   The colorful tags on this first set (5 for $10.95) calls to me.  The description says that these Flip & Tumble Reusable Bags are made of breathable polyester and therefore are more durable and less likely to get stains than bags made of other materials.

What are these other materials? They're recycled or organic.  And therein lies the problem.  If you're trying to be green, should you go all the way? These SmartCycle Recycled PET Produce Bags (2 for $6.95) are made of 100% recycled plastic bottles and each bag saves a 1 liter bottle from going into a landfill.  They also claim to resist the stains that must be common to organic fiber bags and are available in two sizes small and large (which is pictured below).

Then there's the organic bag. I really like the mesh look for some reason.  This reusit Produce and Snack bag  (1 for $3.95) is made with certified organic cotton.  It just feels looks clean and organic and breezy.  Can you describe a bag as breezy?  Maybe it wouldn't feel that way after it got all stained though, huh? 

Now, for the ultimate in budget saving reusable bags, make your own!  The bags pictured below were made by Delia of Delia Creates (free!) by cutting up old t-shirts that she wasn't going to wear anymore! Such a good idea! Especially since this week I plan on going through all of my old college t-shirts that I just had to buy for every event Colby ever had.  For a tutorial, click on the above link to the Delia Creates blog.

So, this month's challenge is to go all the way on the reusable bag front.  Why am I bringing reusable bags for the rest of my groceries just to get plastic bags for my produce? No more!