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Do you ever find yourself at the French Broad River staring at piles of plastic litter wondering what you can do to stop this?  Asheville GreenWorks and our sister page, Going Plastic Free, are here to help you make this happen! Mind Your Plastic May is a month-long campaign to inform you about the grave social and environmental harms that ensue from plastic waste and equip you with the knowledge to reduce plastic in your own life.  

All month long, we will be sharing plastic reduction tips, volunteer opportunities to address plastic waste, educational materials featuring local Asheville businesses, and much more. We aim to foster knowledge and encourage mindfulness around plastic consumption and disposal for individuals and business owners. This month, we hope you will follow us on Facebook and Instagram, where you will gain valuable knowledge about how to refuse, reduce, reuse, and recycle plastics, as well as learn about local waste reduction efforts.

Join our 
Race2Reduce and commit to decreasing your plastic usage for the entire month of May. Sign up here to join the challenge and earn points to win a $25/$50/$75 gift card to Ware!

Many thanks to the businesses and restaurants who supported this effort and are working hard to reduce their own plastic waste. #goingplasticfree

Join us in our love for the planet as we
 address and defeat our global plastic addition.
Donate now for a plastic-free future
Mind Your Plastic May is meant to encourage and challenge us in our journey to live plastic free. These posts are created by GreenWorks staff. If you've found these posts helpful and encouraging, please consider making a donation to support this work. If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

A Review of Different Types of Reusable Bags

5/5/2020

8 Comments

 
By Meghan Ibach

​With so many ‘environmentally-friendly’ options for reusable bags, it’s hard to know what to pick. Each type of reusable shopping bag has a series of pros and cons associated with it. In this post, I’m going to highlight a few of the pros and cons of the most common reusable bag options.

Most of us already own several shopping bags; the first trick is remembering to bring them along when you leave the house! In order for reusable bags to work, we must commit to using them as often as possible. No matter what type of bag you choose, remember to use it. 

Clean your bags frequently, dry, and store them properly. By taking good care of your reusable bags, you can keep them for years to come. If you already have a plethora of bags, it may be time to stop taking in new ones. We love free stuff (myself included!), but sometimes enough is enough!

Here are some Pros and Cons of the most common reusable bags to help you decide what should stay in your home:
​

Canvas/Cotton

Pros
Cons
Made from natural fiber
​Must be reused many times to negate the 
resources required to make it
Decompostable
Takes a ton of water to grow cotton
Durable​
Consume resources like water, arable soil, and electricity to create
Machine washable​
Uses virgin materials
Nice, soft material
    
Picture


 
  • A note on the Cons: A 2011 UK report and a 2018 Danish report found cotton totes must be reused 131 to 20,000 times more than a disposable plastic bag to negate the resources their creation consumes
  • Cotton takes a lot of water to grow. Hemp bags are a great alternative option for strength, durability; they use way less water to produce. 


Polyester

Pros
Cons
Versatile material
Made from plastic
Resistant to mold and mildew​
Uses virgin materials
Compactable
Plastic is a non-renewable byproduct that profits the petroleum industry
Picture


  • Typically made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET), either woven or non-woven. Think of a bag that stuffs inside itself. ​

Recycled PET

Pros
Cons
Made from recycled post-consumer containers
Uses energy in transportation, sorting, recycling, and manufacturing
Supports market for post-consumer materials
Still a form of plastic
Requires ⅔ less energy to manufacture than virgin PET bags
Non-biodegradable and non-compostable
Strong and durable
Product of the petrochemical industry
Picture


  • I’m a big fan of buying products made from recycled materials. We need to prove there is a demand for these kinds of goods!

Polypropylene

Pros
Cons
Low cost
Non-biodegradable and non-compostable
Somewhat durable
Product of plastic industry
Can be made of recycled materials
Eventual fate: the landfill
Picture


  • Personally, I’ve had more holes develop in these kinds of bags than any other, especially in the non-woven type. Woven polypropylene is stronger than non-woven. ​

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Some research shows disposable plastic bags may be, technically, more environmentally-friendly than certain reusable bags when accounting for the energy and materials required to make each type of bag. However, we need to consider what kind of environment we want to have. Those studies did not take into account the overall environmental toll that single-use plastic bags have on our world. Plastic bags litter streets, waterways, and natural environments. They make their way into the bellies of marine life and into our own food products. 

Overall, the best course of action is reducing the amount of all products we consume. Ask yourself, do you need a bag in the first place? Could you just as easily carry the items in your hands, purse, or a box the store would already be discarding? Our goal is to live in a healthier, more sustainable world and every single person is a part of the effort towards going plastic-free. 
​

P.S. Is paper better? Check out this great graphic comparing paper and plastic. 















​Meghan Ibach is the Sustainability and Marketing Manager for UNC Asheville Dining Services. She believes in collective power to radically change systems, and that we vote with our purchases and choices every day. She’s part of the Plastic Reduction Task Force to help reduce plastic waste in our community, hoping we can all make a greener, brighter future together.
 

Sources:
www.ecomena.org/reusable-fabric-shopping-bags/ 
https://www2.mst.dk/Udgiv/publications/2018/02/978-87-93614-73-4.pdf 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/graphic/2007/10/03/GR2007100301385.html

8 Comments
Lily Rose link
2/12/2021 08:38:19 pm

Awesome post, your writing style is very attractive and informative. i read your article really these all five types is very good and I used laptop messenger bag, so now I need a tote bag. thanks for sharing this informative guide with us.

Reply
Taylor Hicken link
3/4/2021 08:22:48 pm

You made a good point when you shared that it is important to always remember to bring along your reusable bags when going for shopping. My mother just mentioned that she had to buy plastic bags every-time she goes to the supermarket to get her groceries. I will advise her to get some reusable bags and put them inside her car so she can always take them out and use whenever she is buying her groceries.

Reply
cottoncart link
3/9/2021 02:56:43 am

It is a nice blog, I agree with you many benefits of using cotton Face Mask and also helpful for nature. It is a good blog us. For more details visit at <a href="https://cottoncart.in/">Face Mask Cotton Bags Jute Bags Hand Glove</a>

Reply
Rebecca Gardner link
3/10/2021 11:27:13 am

Thanks for explaining that reusable bags need to be taken care of through regular cleaning and proper storage. My brother and his wife mentioned they want to find a charity that sells reusable tote bags so they can buy some for their family before summer. I think they'll appreciate your tips to help keep the new bags in good condition for as long as possible!

Reply
kate hansen link
4/9/2021 03:21:45 pm

I loved how you mentioned that recycled bags are strong and durable! My sister was telling me last night about how she is wanting to look into finding more products to help with being environmentally friendly, and she was wondering which ones she should get. I'll make sure to pass this information along to her so that she can look into getting reusable grocery bags!

Reply
Chris Pederson link
4/9/2021 03:23:45 pm

I think it would be awesome to get a grocery bag made out of recycled materials. Not only would you be helping the environment by not getting more bags, but you'd also be helping get rid of the ones that are already thrown away. A ton of people might easily overlook this but any reusable bag is better than getting disposable ones every time.

Reply
Beverly Minyard link
7/16/2021 02:16:48 pm

I like that you mentioned that plastic single-use bags are harmful to the environment. My wife and I are trying to do something to be more eco-friendly every month. Next month I want to buy a bunch of reusable grocery bags!

Reply
Mia Evans link
2/4/2022 12:47:42 am

Thanks for helping me understand that some disposable plastic bags can be environmentally-friendly compared to reusable bags at times. I hope that most companies would opt for this if that is the case when they need packaging for their products. If there are plastic packaging manufacturers that can offer this, it would be great for our environment and to ensure that our future generations can still have a healthy world to live in.

Reply



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​Asheville GreenWorks is a 501(c)3 non-profit environmental organization, governed by a Board of Directors. Established in 1973, GreenWorks mission is to inspire, equip and mobilize individuals and communities to take care of the places we love to live.
  • Hard 2 Recycle
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    • Bee City USA Asheville >
      • 10th Anniversary Yearlong Pollination Celebration
      • Native Pollinator Plants and Nurseries
      • Pollinator Garden Certification
      • Pollinator Gardens & Meadows Project
    • Education
    • Urban Forestry >
      • Cool Green Asheville
      • Food Tree Project
      • RRI
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      • Treasured Trees >
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    • Rivers & Roads >
      • Adopt-a-Street
      • Clean Streams Day
      • Cleanup Supply Stations
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    • Waste Reduction >
      • Asheville Bag Monster
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      • Plastics Reduction Task Force
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