Bagging those bargains

Fiona Russell, Megan Brady, Dale Scoles and Jono Glassey of Studio 2 with some of the recycled...
Fiona Russell, Megan Brady, Dale Scoles and Jono Glassey of Studio 2 with some of the recycled cloth bags they make. Photo: Gregor Richardson
New Zealand’s two main supermarket chains are both renouncing the use of single-use plastic shopping bags, aiming to phase them out over the next year. Eco-shopper Peter Dowden ponders how to cope in a plastic-less future.

The first step is remembering the bags. In our household they usually make it as far as the car, but they have trouble finding their way into the supermarket without a little help. It takes a truly eco-battle-hardened shopper to, upon discovering the cloth bags’ absence near the front of the queue, shunt the trolley to one side and storm out to the car park to get the bags from the back of the Nissan Leaf. But it will help you to remember next time.

So then it remains to do the rest of the shopping without plastic. To make things easier let’s leave the not insubstantial issue of product packaging to one side and think about shoppers’ bag use within the supermarket. First up is the produce section. Bananas and oranges are already born in perfectly adequate biodegradable packaging: their skins. Brussels sprouts, long beans and baby onions are all fiddly to weigh and take home without bags. This is easy: I just grab a paper bag from the mushroom display, put my greengrocery items in and make the time-honoured little flip-and-twist motion to scrunch the corners closed. The checkout staff will freak out when they see you apparently stealing several hundred grams of expensive fungi so be prepared to expose the contents if asked.

As everyone knows, paper bags are environmentally friendly, right? Well, not according to the totally impartial website allaboutbags.ca sponsored by the Canadian Plastics Industry Association, which says with impeccable English that "Plastic bags are made from clean energy natural gas in Canada, specifically from are a piece of natural gas — ethane that is often burned off in the natural gas refining process so that the gas will not burn too hot when used to heat our homes" [sic]. Thus in one articulate sentence convincing Canadians that plastic bags are the embodiment of true patriot love. But I disregard this heresy because I know that paper bags will turn soggy and decompose rather than being swallowed whole by dolphins and turtles.

Next is the meat section, assuming that you don’t have to be a vegan to care at least a little about the environment. Understandably, having gone to all that trouble sewing your lovely new bags with organic, unbleached cotton fabric, you certainly don’t want them sullied with animal blood. No, don’t accept the kind offer "would you like the chicken in a bag?", just ask the checkout staff for a sheet of newspaper, which they always keep handy for customers buying ice cream.

You have finally made it to the checkout, when, horror! Not enough bags for all this consumption. You can buy reusable shopping bags at the supermarket, displayed handy to the checkout and they start at a dollar a pop. They are of course made of plastic-based fabric. Some have aluminised lining to exclude excessive heat from your chilled groceries. Decidedly non-biodegradable. But reusable is good.

At Gardens New World, in Dunedin, pupils of Dunedin North Intermediate  have made cloth bags and generously placed them in a bin by the door. Other shoppers contribute spare bags to the bin and it is becoming a well-used sharing system. I got two bags from Reconnected, a charity second-hand shop in Corstorphine, where they sell "Boom Boom Extremo Freecycled T-shirt bags" made from old clothing at the organisation’s Studio 2 creative workspace at Cargill’s Corner. Tank tops make the best bags with their waist hems sewn together and the shoulder straps forming carrying loops. I donated mine to the aforementioned Gardens New World bag bin where they looked suspiciously like discarded clothing ...  I hope someone there got the right idea.

So, no excuses: buy, borrow or simply bring back reusable bags and avoid yet another plastic bag-slide.

 

Free bags

• Studio 2 will be giving away their free clothing bags at the South Dunedin Street Festival next Saturday.

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