Tips for Remembering your Reusable Shopping Bags

Got your reusable shopping bags already? Remembering to take them to the shops?

This is can be frustratingly difficult when we have all grown use to being handed free bags each time we shop! I know it's something I've struggled with.

Here's a guest article by ReuseThisBag.com which offers some great tips for remembering your reusable shopping bags before visiting the store.

We are beginning to wake up to just how damaging plastic bags are to our environment. Estimates put the world's use of plastic bags, anywhere from 500 billion to a trillion bags per year, globally, yet less than one percent of them are recycled. The recycling of these plastic bags is not a priority, becauseit costs manufacturers far more to recycle them than it does to make new ones from raw materials.

So where do all those bags go? We see them blown against fences and strewn across vacant lots. But the majority, end up polluting our oceans and endangering wildlife.

In fact, in 2005, the World Wildlife Fund reported that over 200 species of wildlife, including whales, seals and turtles, were killed by plastic bags. Many animals in the wild eat the bags, thinking they are food of some sort, and end up dying as a result. Dead whales have been found to have a stomach full ofplastic, birds have become entangled, and sea turtles have suffocated.

We know that billions of bags end up in our oceans, each year. Those bags eventually break down into smaller particles that go on to pollute the ocean and be ingested by many marine life species. As a result, humans, who eat a variety of marine life, ultimately ingest those toxins, as well.

So most of us know we should use reusable shopping bags instead of the one use disposable plastic grocery bags. We know this and yet, despite our best efforts, many of us forget them from time to time. We end up feeling guilty on the ride home, with plastic bags of groceries bouncing along, and we know we need to be more diligent about remembering to take the reusable bags with us. So just how do we accomplish that? There are many ways, but here are a few to get you started:

Pay the fee. More and more cities across globe are banning plastics bag. If plastic bags are outlawed where you live, you may be forced to pay a five-cent bag tax for the paperones. Pay the fee and take it as a lesson that you don’t want to repeat.

Tough it out. When you check out, just put everything back in the cart after paying and wheel it all out to be placed in your car, bag-free.

Think small. There are many small bags that, when unfolded, become regular size reusable shopping bags. Get one for your purse or keychain so you always have at leastone reusable bag on hand.

Reminder notes. These days, many grocery stores offer free bag-reminder stickers you can place in your car, as well as window signs that you will likely see on your way in. You canalso use a note or door hanger at your home to remind you to take your bags along as you leave the house.

Arms length. When you get in the car, keep the reusable bags within arm’s reach, near your purse or on the passenger seat, so you see them when you prepare to get out of the car. If you do forget them until you are in the store, you can still go back outside to get them. Just ask a store employee to keep an eye on your items while you run back out.

If your challenge is forgetting to put them in the car in the first place, always keep extra in your trunk – which is particularly handy if you unexpectedly drop into the store to pick up some items.

Calendar it. If you have a particular day of the week that you go habitually go shopping, put the reusable bag reminder right on your calendar. You can also set your phone or PDA to give you a reminder ahead of time.

Note pads. If you are like the millions of people who write up a grocery list each week, consider having a custom grocery pad list made that includes a reusable bag reminder right on it. Or write it ahead on the next few pages of your grocery list pad.

Try one or two of these tips for a few days. You will find that, remembering your reusable shopping bags for your grocery and other shopping trips soon becomes a habit so natural to your lifestyle that you don't even have to think about it.

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