Breaking Up With Single-Use Plastic Bags

Top: thrifted | Skirt: Missguided via a friend’s closet | Canvas Bag: Teen Vogue x Toms event | Black bag: thrifted | Sneakers: Converse

photography by Kathryn McSherry

I recently read an article about how a plastic bag is now the deepest known piece of debris at the bottom of Marianas Trench. Among all of the debris logged in Marianas Trench, the majority of it is plastic. And 89% of that plastic is single-use plastic – like plastic straws, plastic bags, and plastic water bottles. Even the bottom of the deepest trench in the ocean has single use plastic floating around. And this problem is so preventable!! This article really got me thinking about all of the little ways someone can cut single-use plastic out of their lives, and even beyond that, all of the little ways people can lead more sustainable lives. I was inspired by a conversation about plastic straws with my mom and blogger Autumn Sorelle’s monthly mindfulness challenges, and thought it would be fun to start a series of simple sustainable lifestyle changes on here. They say on average that it takes about two months for something to become a habit, and while these challenges will change monthly, I hope that it will serve as inspiration to begin making a new, more sustainable habit. In this new series, I will be posting about a new challenge each month that will help you take easy little steps to a more sustainable lifestyle. Here goes nothing!

This month’s challenge is to avoid using single-use plastic bags.

Here are some not-so-fun-facts about single-use plastic bags from the Center for Biological Diversity:

Americans use 100 billion plastic bags a year, which require 12 million barrels of oil to manufacture. The average American family takes home almost 1,500 plastic shopping bags a year.
According to Waste Management, only 1 percent of plastic bags are returned for recycling. That means that the average family only recycles 15 bags a year; the rest ends up in landfills as litter.
Up to 80 percent of ocean plastic pollution enters the ocean from land, and 100,000 marine animals are killed by plastic bags annually. (And one in three leatherback sea turtles have been found with plastic in their stomachs)
Plastic bags are used for an average of 12 minutes.
It takes 500 (or more) years for a plastic bag to degrade in a landfill. Unfortunately the bags don’t break down completely but instead photo-degrade, becoming microplastics that absorb toxins and continue to pollute the environment.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t know the majority of those statistics before looking them up while writing this post, but these facts only made me feel more strongly about finding serious ways to avoid using single-use plastic bags! Since coming to college and taking a few environmental studies classes, I have become much more conscious about my plastic use. Even when I lived down the street from a CVS my Sophomore year and would make weekly trips there for posters or iced tea or candy, I would make a real effort to bring a reusable bag there or carry all of my purchases home in my arms to avoid using a plastic bag. But CVS and grocery stores are not the only places that give out unnecessary bags. Even clothing stores give out single use bags that you can easily replace with a reusable bag. You’ll be surprised when you become conscious of the unnecessary bags that pop up throughout your month!

Keeping a reusable bag in your go-to purse, in your car, or just use a reusable bag as your purse, can help easily eliminate the need for unnecessary single-use plastic bags (and shopping bags). My mom keeps reusable bags in the trunk of her car so that she never forgets them when she goes grocery shopping. It’s super simple to set yourself up for success for this month’s challenge. You can also just go bagless! After my sister and I took these photos we visited our favorite thrift store and wound up making more than a few purchases. I left my canvas bags in the car, but instead of using a single-use plastic bag, we just carried our purchases back to the car with us. If you don’t have a far distance to go, going bagless is a great alternative.

I have collected a number of canvas bags over the years from places like camp, Teen Vogue events (aka the bag featured in my photos), and summits. I have gotten in the habit of carrying a canvas bag with me on my way to class and in my purse on the weekends, especially when I know I am going somewhere that will be quick to offer me plastic bags (like flea markets). My mom keeps a nylon tote that folds into a little pouch in her purse. There are also net bags that are perfect for produce shopping or flea markets. Choosing a bag that will fold up super small will make this challenge much easier!

Don’t have a reusable bag you like? Shop some of my favorite picks below!

Make sure you’re following me on Instagram & Facebook for reminders about this challenge throughout the month, and circle back to this post at the end of the month for a recap! And if you plan on participating in this challenge, comment your experience below or DM me on FB/Instagram for a chance to be featured in the recap!

RECAP

I am so excited to be wrapping up my first sustainable lifestyle challenge post! I am so excited about launching this series and loved seeing so many people getting involved.

My Experience

This month, I did not use a single plastic shopping bag. Some of the times I found they were most often given to me or offered to me were when getting takeout at a restaurant and at flea markets / farmer’s markets. At restaurants, I either asked for no plastic bag or removed the takeout boxes from the plastic bag and left the bag on the table. At flea/farmer’s markets, I simply said “no bag” and put my purchases in the reusable bag I carried around with me every day this month. I learned early on to bring multiple bags when going to a place like a flea or farmer’s market so that I never had to use a plastic bag. I carried around this exact Teen Vogue x TOMS reusable bag this month, but have been thinking of investing in a netted bag for produce and other grocery items. For the few times that I forgot a reusable bag, I simply carried my things and dropped them off in the car or walked them home.

There were a few things that I did not originally see as plastic bags – like dog bags and garbage bags. These were things I most definitely used at home (and for the past few weeks in my apartment) but did not cross my mind as being plastic. Thankfully, many of you realized these same issues and sent me suggestions!

Your Experience

First off I was blown away by how many people took on this challenge and really stuck to it! Even my sister (who made fun of me for carrying things without a bag for the first week) started trying to go without plastic bags this month. Now that she’s out at camp she sends me photos of herself carrying all of her purchases at her favorite late-night snack place. Julia went the entire month without using bags until two days ago when she went grocery shopping in her mom’s car instead of her own (she keeps her reusable bags in her car’s trunk). Through this she learned how important it is to be prepared, and is working on creating a zero-waste to-go kit for her trunk so she can be prepared in the future. Laura took a pledge a while ago to never use/accept a plastic bag again. She has been quite successful, and the only time she has used them recently is when she got gifts from friends in plastic bags, but she always makes an effort to reuse them.

You all did come across some issues with going completely plastic-bag free, so I did a little bit of research and rounded up some of the best non-plastic alternatives.

Doggie Bags – A number of you found dog poop bags to be your biggest struggle in trying to go plastic bag-free. I don’t have a dog at school, but at home we reuse our newspaper plastic bags as dog bags. It didn’t even cross my mind that those bags are plastic bags until someone DMed me on Instagram asking if I knew of biodegradable alternatives. Naomi said using plastic dog poop bags were unavoidable for her this month, but has been thinking of looking for biodegradable alternatives. Caitlin‘s family uses biodegradable bags from Earth Rated and absolutely loves them. Hannah also uses biodegradable bags and feels much better knowing that they break down. After doing some research of my own I found that Amazon has quite a large selection of biodegradable dog bags, and they are relatively reasonable in price. This green pack has 360 bags for $16, which if you walk your dog twice a day like my dog at home, that could last 6 months. The rainbow bags have 900 bags for $17, which could last over a year. Investing in a pack of biodegradable dog bags is such a simple solution to using plastic bags! Attn: mom & dad a pack of these will be coming your way soon.

Trash Bags – Laura found biodegradable trash bags at her local organic store, and said she has been using them for a while now. We don’t all have the luxury of having a local organic store that sells biodegradable trash bags, I did find some on amazon which you can shop below. When I move into my new apartment for the next school year I will definitely be purchasing some of these.

Produce Bags – While reflecting on the last month, Naomi said “I never realized how many single use produce bags I used to use!” While I was home, I went to Trader Joes quite often with my mom and was excited to see that they replaced their produce bags with biodegradable bags, but that switch hasn’t been adopted by every grocery store. When I buy produce I normally just put it in my canvas bags (I make one specifically dedicated to produce), but I have been thinking of investing in non-plastic bags made specifically for produce. Here are some that have been recommended by some of my favorite zero-waste bloggers.

Favorite Reusable Bags – Talia‘s favorite bag is a parley for the oceans bag that folds up into a zip-up pouch the size of her palm. She bring sit everywhere and says it fits almost everything she needs when she’s out shopping. My mom loves her Baggu bag which she keeps in her purse at all times. It also folds up real small, and they come in so many fun patterns! I linked them in the beginning of this post so you can shop them there. Nafisa got this bag at her local community farmers market and makes sure to bring it each time she goes back! I also cannot for the life of me remember/find the person who DMed me at the beginning of the month, but she collects reusable bags when she goes on vacation, so they all hold a special memory for her, but are also useful.

All in all, this month was amazing and I am so excited to be posting next month’s sustainable lifestyle challenge post very soon.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links, which help pay for my daily Starbucks trips. All opinions are my own.

SaveSave

SaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSaveSave