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Stop using plastic bags!

Just because I don't post anything doesn't mean I don't do environmental stuff.
Most of the time I must say I'm just lazy: I have an article to write about homemade yogurt for example and I know this one will take time to write...

So today I decided to write about small, easy, random (and short to write about) tricks I do all the time.

Trick n°1: use reusable shopping bags

France is terribly ahead of Norway in that matter. 10 years ago you could also get (free) plastic bags at the supermarkets. Non biodegradable bags were forbidden in 2005, but I discover now that only the law was voted in 2005, and the deadline was fixed in 2010. Free plastic bags actually disappeared from the great majority of supermarkets as early as 2006 it seems. Instead you could buy very solid plastic bags for 0,50 cts (right one on the picture). From then on people got used to carry their own bags when going shopping. But I remember a friend who kept forgetting in the beginning and who had to buy one of these super solid bags every time.

In Norway, plastics bags are not free, but so cheap that it's the same. Most people use them as waste bags, but do you really need that many? Try reusable bags just the time you empty this kitchen drawer full of bags ;)

It requires a bit of planning as you have to remember take the bag(s) or backpack with you.
In TromsĆø it's easy, I almost always have a backpack, especially in the winter (important for the balance when it's slippery ;)). It's also easier to carry groceries this way, think about it!

I always carry a textile bag (middle one on the picture) around for unplanned grocery shopping: doesn't take any space in whatever bag I have that day. 

You can either reuse one of the plastic bags you have at home, buy one on GrĆønnhverdag's website (link in the right side menu) or make your own from an old t-shirt for example:

- Marilyn Monroe T-shirt bag, with a stapler
- Another T-shirt bag, this one is with a sewing machine

Plastic bags harm us, by polluting the environment, and killing animals as well as aquatic life. Read more about it here.

Turns out I wrote more than I expected :) Another random trick in the next article!

Comments

  1. Important issue! I have just been to Italiy and noticed that plastic bags very often was biodegradable, and I was suprised and happy.

    I use different kind of bags daily. I have nearly forbidden my husbond to come home with plastic bags, and in the car there are allways some big bags from Coop that we use again and again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Your poor husband :D But great to hear!

    And let me know how it goes with the toothpaste ;)

    ReplyDelete

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