Grocery stores have always been known to use plastic grocery bags for their customers' purchases. There are also some grocery stores which use paper grocery bags rather than the plastic ones because they think that this is the more environmentally-friendly choice. However, there are some drawbacks to this thinking since paper grocery bags pose the same environmental threat as plastic grocery bags.
There is a safer way to shop. Use canvas tote bags.
Canvas tote bags are environmentally-friendly alternatives to the traditional paper or plastic grocery bags. They are ideally made out of canvas although there are other reusable bags made out of cotton materials and the like. They are also made out of sturdier material when compared to paper or plastic bags. Wet products are not a problem if packaged carefully and separately from the dry products.
So why use a canvas tote bag instead of plastic grocery bags? There are numerous reasons to not use plastic (or paper) grocery bags.
Plastic grocery bags are made out of petrochemicals. These petrochemicals are not renewable. These plastic bags are not biodegradable which means that if a person disposes it improperly, he/she might be endangering wildlife. There is also the danger of suffocation as an infant may get his/her hands on the bag, play with it, and accidentally suffocate if the bag somehow gets on his/her head. These bags may also end up littering sidewalks and roads where they may clog the sewer system.
Paper bags, in the meantime, also pose a threat to the environment. Although the material decomposes and is biodegradable, these bags are made out of trees. Trees are an important part of the environment which is why people should work hard to conserve them. These paper bags also break easily especially if a product taken out of a freezer or a fridge is placed in these bags without any support whatsoever.
Be it paper or plastic, these bags mostly end up in the same place: the landfill site where trash is deposited into. Paper bags usually end up as trash and plastic bags have a limited time of reusability and so they end up in the same landfill. A canvas tote bag can be used for an unlimited number of times. There are also different designs to choose from so people can look stylish even when they're just doing the groceries.
Grocery stores nowadays offer paper or plastic bags for their customers' use. However, to conserve natural resources and to be mindful of the environment, it is good practice to use a canvas tote bag instead of the paper or plastic bags. Look around the house and check for canvas or cloth bags which you can use. There might be some old cloth bags lying around in the back of your closet. You might also have received some as giveaway products or gifts from an office party or from a sales promo. Using canvas tote bags instead of paper or plastic grocery bags not only enables you to help in saving the environment, but you also feel good in doing so in doing your part in this effort. After all, everyone has to do his/her part in protecting the world.
