Bagging it - grocery style

The other day, I wrote about "green" guilt and how it hits me every time I go to the supermarket. Well, another Modern Eco Mom, I'll call her "V," wrote to share her solution. It's smart, practical, and very inexpensive. Here it is:

Modern Eco Mom idea: buy reusable food bags and keep 'em in your car

When V goes to the market for her weekly grocery buy, she brings along 4 big re-usable food bags that she bought at that same market. She fills those bags with her market goods, pays, and brings the food home. After she unpacks everything at home, she puts the now-empty bags back in her car. Brilliant. She keeps them in her car!! They easily slide inside one another for space savings.

But, wait, there's more. Maybe you do a giant monthly shop at your supermarket. Those re-usable bags won't necesarily provide you with enough storage capacity. So, V suggests that you buy a handful (maybe 3, maybe 4)of those green recylcling-type bins with strap handles. Keep them in your car trunk for super organization. When you head to the store for the huge shop, just bring in the bins, store them under the shopping cart, and place your items inside. Again, a great idea.

You can buy the reusable bags and bins at Whole Foods and Trader Joes, just to name a few. Some of the bags sell for as little as $.99 each. (Go to www.wholefoods.com and www.traderjoes.com for more info.)

This is exactly what I'm talking about. Modern moms around the world sharing their "seem small but make a big difference" ideas to help protect the planet.

Definition: recycle

Most of us know what this means - to reprocess a material into a new product. Some of you may live in towns that have adopted recylcing programs. You try to sort the glass, paper and metals as best you can. Well, thanks to those of you who are doing so because I just read that the average person in the US produces over 1600 pounds of waste each year - almost one ton. If you really, really try hard and just recycle all of those same glass, paper and metals, you will save waste by up to 75%. Yes, that's SEVENTY-FIVE percent. Staggering, no? And, it really doesn't take too long to do so. You may need to get a separate bin in your kitchen or garage to store the to be recycled materials, but it really is worth it. You don't even have to buy a bin - just use a box from the grocery store or from the mail. Just make sure any aluminum cans or papers are dry before you store them in your recycling box.

Thank you for trying! You can do it!

Resources:

www.wholefoods.com
www.traderjoes.com