Reusable Produce Bags

We've been using old grocery store produce bags to gather trash from the trail while we are geocaching (CITO).

The problem is if you buy a lot of produce, there are soon a mountain of bags.  There are soon more bags than trash on the trail.  We've been using cloth grocery bags for over seven years so when our local grocery store began selling reusable mesh produce bags it was easy to switch over and say goodbye to another source of plastic in our lives.

Remember Your Reusable Bags

If we all work at it, we can reduce plastic bag usage by 98% (or more).

27 July 2019 Hotel Soaps

For the ten years I have travelled to Washington and stayed at Oxford Suites, they have used refill containers for soap, shampoo, and conditioner.  I was happy to see at least one Courtyard has adopted the same practice of reducing plastic use through this process.

The little, plastic-bottle onslaught is one of the things that we do because we can.  This is one small way to turn the tide.  It is even more concerning to see companies are now bringing the little hotel bottles in by boat rather than using U.S. products and adding the diesel fuel emmisions to our climate change mix.  A typical hotel can probably eliminate a couple hundred plastic bottles a night.  A big congratulations to at least one Courtyard.  Now if every hotel would just add a proactive, visible recycling program...

Recycling Aid

A few months back, Ali bought soft-sided storage containers from our local grocery store. They were being sold as an alternative to cloth grocery bags and a better way to protect groceries. Ali thought they would make perfect bins to hold recycle items. She was right. We used to toss our recycles into a large plastic bag(s). The bag could roll in the car and the recycle items would be all over the vehicle. These containers put a stop to loose items rolling around and they fold flat so once the recycle material has been dropped off these collapse to about the size and thickness of a newspaper. Ours came from a local store, but these are available at many retail locations.

Cloth Bags

We've used cloth bags for grocery shopping for a number of years. On the page supporting the continued use of plastic bags, The American Plastic Manufacturing Association states, "The equivalent of approximately 12 million barrels of oil goes into the annual US supply of plastic bags." It goes on to say this about the 12 million barrels of oil, "Bag manufacturing is a fraction of 1% of US oil comsumption." I guess I would rather fuel cars with that oil than carry my groceries in plastic bags. For me, we can't fuel our cars with cloth shopping bags, but we can re-use them for years.

So why is this news to post on bits? Because there is actually some discussion that Cuyahoga County Ohio may finally do something progressive and start making plastic litter (shopping bags) less attractive. This is radical thinking for the land of Northeast Ohio, and all of Ohio in general. From the state which has given up trying to charge bottle deposits because business buys their way through the election every time that opportunity to reduce roadside trash and landfill size is raised, this is big news. We are used to seeing shoppers routinely bring cloth bags whenever we are on the coasts, but always appear to be part of a very small minority when we take our reusable bags to our local store. Maybe the Northcoast can finally begin to become that progressive attractive place it always dreams of being.

Oxford Soaps

The Oxford Suites has a smart idea to get rid of those little plastic hotel soap and conditioner bottles that fill the landfills. I always feel guilty using those bottles and like the thought of a container that leaves a smaller trash footprint on the planet. Unlike the old Euro soaps, the products are good too.