Comments on: Plastic Bags vs. Cloth Bags

By: David Melander

David Melander — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:26:33 +0000

Ariah, I am working with a company in Indonesia that makes bags from Tapioca – so they are renewable and biodegradable. We are selling them to Lakewinds Coop here in Minneapolis, a wonderful, progressive place.

We are telling people that you should try and use canvas if you can and stay away from the non-woven ones because they are really polypropylene and take up to 40 times MORE plastic that regular plastic bags. But since you can’t always use a canvas bag, like for things that are wet or frozen or a few other types of uses that just don’t work with canvas, we are trying to get these Tapioca-based bags into the mainstream. So far only Lakewinds is picking it up here in the Twin Cities.

When we make these we also have a chance to do Fair Trade with the farmers and to employ some really poor people. So we feel great about this all around.

By: Ian Quittner

Ian Quittner — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:38:31 +0000

While I realize that plastic bags are not a good thing, does anyone know how much energy is used to produce a cloth bag? I know people talk a lot about using free trade labor and jute etc… but how much energy is used to produce and harvest raw materials, bring to the factory where it is sewn, woven, etc into a finished product. It seems like the best idea would be to create your own bags out of worn out cloth around the house rather than buying more fabricated goods to have a trendy bag. This is the toughest thing about trying to live “green”. A solution sounds good but it is hard to find enough info to make an informed decision on whether it is really a good one when all the factors are looked at.

By: Jayaram

Jayaram — Wed, 20 May 2009 05:21:51 +0000

We are in to manufacturing, Export & supply of Eco friendly bags made of woven Cotton Fabric, Jute, non-woven synthetic and Paper, now being internationally replaced against plastic bags that are harmful to environment. We do supply the same with customer designs and colours of their interest and logos.

By: Cindy

Cindy — Sat, 16 May 2009 22:57:05 +0000

One plastic tall kitchen garbage bag will hold 4-5 Walmart bags filled with garbage, with space left around the grocery bags, so I’m assuming that by replacing grocery bags with cloth bags and using kitchen garbage bags for garbage, ends up using more plastic than using the grocery bags! Recycling to the point that my family no longer has garbage, or recycling and composting to the point of reducing our garbage output, is out of the question. We simply don’t have the time and discipline for that. So it makes more sense for us to continue using the plastic grocery bags as garbage bags. Also, are more natural resources used to manufacture Walmart cloth bags than what are needed to produce plastic grocery bags?

By: Denise

Denise — Sat, 02 May 2009 21:03:25 +0000

i am also moving towards the cloth bags…but i have a question …the plastic bags i get are recyclable. if everyone put them with their recyclables..why would they end up in landfills? and why are they as bad as everyone says?

By: aubrey

aubrey — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 21:02:57 +0000

i agree completly and i will put this web site in my noodle bib because i am going a project for going green thanks so much

By: jenny

jenny — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 15:26:58 +0000

Did you know plastic bags take 1,000 years to disapear, and about 100,000 animals die every year because of plastic bags being stuck in their throat or being sufficated.

By: Check Out Deep Green Conversations at Trying to follow

Check Out Deep Green Conversations at Trying to follow — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 09:48:02 +0000

[...] I’ve had the privilege to start writing occasionally for Creation Care’s new web initiative, Deep Green Conversations. Josh Brown (from that podcast), has been working really hard on this project and I wanted to be sure to give him a shout out. You should check out the new site, where you might find a familiar article by me about plastic bags. [...]

By: Julie Clawson

Julie Clawson — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:41:57 +0000

I’ve managed to collect a good number of canvas bags at conferences and conventions. I find them easy to use and way more sturdy than plastic – plus they can be washed when dirty.

with other things it is hard to cut down our plastic consumption. I’ve almost eliminated pop from our diet and get glass juice bottles (the organic stuff usually comes in glass anyway). But still its everywhere.

By: Drew Odom

Drew Odom — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:38:21 +0000

Great points Ariah. I, too, have jumped on the bandwagon, so to speak and have quit accepting plastic bags and have encouraged my family and friends to do so as well. I have even begun scolding my Momma for her collection of Wal-Mart plastics (another conversation entirely, methinks). I instead, use the blue bags I got at IKEA about a year ago when doing some home shopping there. I even blogged about it in these places . I have exhausted all plastic bags now with trashcan use as you talked about and am now simply using the cans and washing them with warm water and high-concentrate detergent every Saturday morning like clockwork. It will be hard to minimize plastic as the earlier comment noted, almost everything comes in plastic. I am working on converting my fridge and pantry right now from just buying plastic condiments and such to buying the glass and refilling the initial plastic containers and then recycling the glass. I also found a store around the corner that has agreed to let me bring them up to 25lb. of paper to put in their large paper shredder/recycling bin (that they then have picked up by a private company) per week.