Remembering Your Reusable Shopping Bags

Reusable shopping bags were introduced in the early 1990s to cut down on the use of single-use plastic bags that are harmful to the environment. The harm plastic bags have on our environment is heavily documented and by now well-known. Plastics sit for thousands of years in landfills and oceans, are ingested by birds and marine life, use billions of barrels of crude oil, and ultimately, never fully break down. Although it takes more resources to produce one reusable bag than one plastic bag, the idea is that the reusable one will be used frequently enough to negate its initial negative environmental impact.

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Toss the Totes in the Wash

Reusable bags are the latest trend. And with good reason. They are inexpensive and eliminate the big pile of plastic bags that’s stuffed in the closet. Tote bags are used as grocery bags, to hold gym clothes and laundry, and maybe even to take a towel and a book to the beach. But studies have shown that most people rarely, if ever, wash these bags, no matter how often or what they are used for. Enter the bacteria. Yes, reusable bags have sparked a rather surprising amount of controversy, especially over the deadly bacteria issue. And yes, it has to some degree been blown out of proportion. But not completely.

The Danger

Our bags are not something that we tend to wash until they are noticeably dirty or start to develop an unpleasant odor. But when the bags that carry raw meat and veggies and other food products all sit together in the bag, which sits in the dirty car—before you know it all the germs from the environment have mixed with the bacteria from the food and suddenly your environmentally friendly bag has formed an environment of its very own. The pathogens that can form in the bag can be dangerous to your health, but are simply the result of cross-contamination and lack of proper sanitary precautions.

The Solution

This doesn’t mean you should stop using your reusable totes. Not at all. What it means is that you should be a bit more careful, and run the bag through the washing machine now and again—after every use would be ideal, but that would be a bit excessive. Just spray it down with a bleach-type mixture after a trip to the grocery store, and don’t use the same bag that you use for groceries as a gym or laundry bag. The tote bags at CYMA are both durable and inexpensive, so you can afford to have an eco-happy tote for every outing. Plus they are sold online and in many retail and grocery stores across the country, so there is no reason not to buy all the bags you need.

Reusable bags make a difference to the environment and a more comfortable shopping trip. Paper and plastic bags are inconvenient to carry, and there’s always that chance that the bag will suddenly break and leave you running around the parking lot chasing your purchases. CYMA canvas shopping bags are sturdy and built to last so that you never have to worry about that again. All it takes to keep your family and the environment healthy and happy is a little cleaning after use.

Plastic Bags, Politically Provocative?

Plastic bag bans are fueling bi-partisan debate, as West Coast cities institute fees and declare outright prohibition of these environmentally devastating totes. Radical right-wingers are quick to assert that a plastic bag ban will take away jobs from thousands of American workers and that other materials will facilitate the spread of disease. Hopefully, common sense will prevail and time will heal the bruised egos of tea party journalists. The fact that plastic bags are clotting our soils and seas with the glut of consumerism is undeniable. We must acknowledge that our wasteful and negligent behaviors are the wellsprings of ecological degradation.

Enter, the era of canvas shopping bags. Though apparently harmless, these benign baggies are coming under fire from the ultra-right flank. Conservative conspirators site nonsensical facts that the production of cotton totes has more harmful effects on the environment than plastics. Let’s talk about that…A bag made of petrol and natural-gas-refining byproducts is less harmful than one that consists of cotton? A bag that’s used once and never again is less wasteful than reusable shopping bags? Only on Opposite Day. It goes to show that people can make a living on being contrarian for argument’s sake alone.

Here’s the real stats…every year, 500,000,000,000 plastic bags are used worldwide, of which Americans use 100,000,000,000, only recycling 1 to 3 percent. That leaves 3,500,000 tons of plastic bags in landfills per annum—not to mention what ends up in the ocean. 

As for taking away American jobs, neglecting American production and being generally un-American in nature by restricting our God-given rights…What’s more American than cotton? Did we or did we not fund our independence with the sale of tobacco, sugar and ugh, oh yeah, cotton? And petroleum…is that not the main export of OPEC, namely Saudi Arabia? Russia comes in at a close second in petrol production. Listen, ye disparagers of development, ye harbingers of havoc, let go of mercilessly touting the party line into territory where there need be no party line. May we all, one day, be led by reason and reason alone.