Loblaws, where we do most of our food shopping, is selling these reusable bags for 99 cents each. They're made of 85% post-consumer recycled materials, they're big and they seem very strong.
I've only seen a few people at the store using these bags for their entire shopping. I'd like to do that, both for the plastic bag replacement itself, and for the visibility, to encourage other to do the same.
As I've mentioned before, we re-use all our plastic grocery bags. One use is for household trash, but there are always bags from the LCBO (which are sturdier) or Canadian Tire to use for that. With diligent recycling, we only have two or three small bags of trash each week.
The real issue is dog poop. We save all our grocery bags for dog poop cleanup, and with two dogs, we go through a lot of bags. Unlike Toronto, Mississauga doesn't want dog waste in the green bin - we have to throw it in the trash.
In New York, we used newspaper to clean up after our dogs. But in NYC, there's a trash can on every corner. We could scoop the poop, walk a few steps (half a block at most) and toss the paper.
In our little Mississauga subdivision, there are no public trash cans. We have to walk home with the poop, which makes newspaper pickup very impractical. Try walking two dogs, one of them young and energetic, holding two newspapers full of poop in your hand. Actually, don't try it. You'll end up cursing in frustration, and possibly worse. The grocery bag can easily be held along with the leash. Bags are really the only way.
We could buy small plastic bags for dog poop cleanup. But doesn't it seem silly to buy new bags for a single use, instead of re-using bags you get for free?
So if we buy reusable grocery bags, how will we clean up after our dogs?
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