schmidt.eva•1mo agoMost Upvoted

My reusable bag collection was making things worse, here's what tipped me off

I kept like 30 tote bags stuffed in my trunk for grocery runs, thought I was being eco friendly. Then last month I weighed them at a bulk store in Portland and realized those heavy canvas bags add maybe 2 pounds per trip, which means more fuel burned hauling them around. Plus I found out most of mine were made from virgin cotton, which has a huge water footprint compared to a single plastic bag reused 10 times. Now I just keep two lightweight nylon bags and wash them weekly, has anyone else run the numbers on their own gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

logan6321mo ago

Is this kind of math gonna make us all crazy if we keep digging? I've noticed people swap one thing for another and then never look at the whole system, like buying a metal straw but still grabbing a plastic bottle of water every day. The real win is probably using what you already own until it falls apart, not chasing the perfect gear. My take is you pick the option that feels right for your life, then stop weighing everything to the gram. It is a rabbit hole, and nobody has time for that level of guilt.

sageallen1mo ago

Hold on, so the extra two pounds of bag weight is the breaking point but you're driving to a bulk store in the first place? You're saving maybe a pound of CO2 while patting yourself on the back for the nylon, but I bet those bags were made in a factory that dumps dye into a river somewhere.

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