Here's to the Bag Ladies, Bag Gents Too!

(Repost from March 2005) As a young student in France I acquired what seemed to me a very cool European thing to do: taking multicolored string bags with me to do my grocery shopping. The habit came home with me two years later, and became an affectation I cherished for its coolth and sophistication in dull and boring American grocery stores.

Soon afterwards, however, I became very involved with the burgeoning environmental movement and realized my string bags were not only cool but environmentally friendly. They saved at least one shopper's worth of plastic or paper bags from entering the world of over use and over littering. Furthermore, I lived in Texas then and Whole Foods gave you a nickel refund for each bag of your own that you used. When I moved to Massachusetts and started shopping at Bread and Circus the same nickel perk for bags held true. Now, of course, Whole Foods has taken over Bread and Circus in New England, as well as Fresh Fields here in the Mid-Atlantic. Yes, it's the conglomerate Whole Foods - but they still do profit sharing with their employees, have great benefits, and still give a nickel back on bags you bring in to reuse.

The original string bags from France have long since worn out, but my collection of canvas and mesh bags has grown massively. As a teacher I attend conferences and workshops of one sort or another almost every year, and canvas bags are a favorite giveaway at those events. I carry a set in each vehicle, one in my backpack, have miscellaneous of them here and there. I get strange looks from some cashiers, but most of them are used to me now - and at least one major grocery chain in our area, Giant Foods, now gives a three cent rebate for using recycled or cloth bags.

For several years now several other countries, most notably Ireland, have been charging a tax on the use of plastic "carrier bags," a pretty hefty tax it is, too. A good deal higher than the refund I get for using my canvas bags. Europe, once my model for cool environmentally-friendly shopping behaviour, is now awash in plastic bags, endangering wildlife, clogging drains, just being as ugly as mortal sin. I think other countries in the EU are also contemplating the bag tax.

So imagine my joy to read on AOL news this morning that a major American city is finally doing the same sane and sensible thing. It's that hip city by the bay, San Francisco, that is considering a municipal bag tax of up to 17 cents a bag. It's in the initial stages of working its way through the process, and of course it may not even make it. Still, it's a first step in the right direction. Anyone who lives anywhere in the vicinity of a Wal-Mart knows the plastic wasteland that develops almost overnight in about a three mile radius of the store.

March 2006 Update to this post: I wrote this last year, and since then have found no further info on this proposed bag tax. Anyone out there able to cast any recent light on this? A great online resource for bags of all kinds is Reusablebags.com. Consider buying some of their greenbags for produce, as well as canvas or string bags for toting the goodies home. The greenbags are total miracles, keeping that nice fresh organic produce fresh for far longer than the grocery story produce bags. Real true money savers.

Another update is this Squidoo Lens on living without plastic bags. Lots of good info.

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