Shades of Green: Greening your shopping, part 1

Green Meter: Light Green

Did you know that we consume over 380 billion plastic grocery bags per year? Worldwide, the rate of consumption is approximately 1 million per minute. All this consumption costs retailers over $4 billion annually, a cost that is paid by the consumer.

One of the easiest things you can do to green up your grocery shopping is to take your own shopping bags with you to the store. This isn’t just limited to grocery shopping – take a bag with you to the mall, the drug store, even the hardware store. Reusable bags are easy to find these days; it seems that everyone has branded their own roomy bag. Walmart, Target, even Home Depot offer recycled, recyclable bags sporting their own logo.

But if you are looking for something beyond plain, bland and branded – something that screams, “I’m an individual,” – you’re in luck! Reusable bags are newest fad, and fun, fancy, flighty bags are easy to find. Whole Foods and Target both carry branded decorative bags for under $6 each. For even more individuality, check out Envirosax and Blue Q. Both of these companies offer a wide variety of reusable shopping bags to fit any personality.

Chico Bags carries a line of brightly colored compact bags. These bags stuff into a small sack that is about the size of my fist. I can comfortably carry one to two Chico bags in my hand bag.

The popular web retailer Reusable Bags offers a wide variety of fun and functional grocery bags.

Looking for the free option? Next time you head to the grocery store ask for paper bags. A paper grocery bag can be reused many times and hold up quite well. When the bags wear out, you can recycle them.