I just searched for "hoarding shopping bags" and found a nice list from Martha Stewart's website. Of five things to stop hoarding, bags are #1 on the list.
"Unless you re-use them, eliminate that stash of once-used paper and plastic shopping bags.
Paper ones can go right into a recycling bin, and plastic ones can be
donated to farmers and flea markets (or even animal shelters) for
re-use." And, I learned you can recycle plastic bags at many grocery stores in a box outside the front. Keep your eyes open for those.
Plastic bags are banned in my city, so I do keep the few I have and don't feel much guilt. But paper bags--I constantly forget to bring in my cloth bags, so I bring home quite a few brown paper bags. Then I feel some green guilt about "wasting" a bag and want to reuse them. I use them to hold my recycling, but other than that...I don't have much use and they just sit around and take up space.
In the end, if I remembered to bring in my own bags, I wouldn't take home so many. I also need to just recycle them quickly because they take up valuable kitchen space.
To add to this bag conundrum, reusable bags can get pretty germy. It's not sanitary to use unwashed bags repeatedly. Outlawing plastic bags was meant to be a green move, but there have been unforeseen consequences and a rise in bacteria spread via bags. (FYI: "The baby carrier portion of the grocery cart is the most contaminated public surface you ever come in contact with." Thanks, USA Today.)
Growing up, we seemed to have only a reasonable number of bags stored. Perhaps because plastic is smushed and stores more easily. At any rate, I need to work on:
1. Bringing in my own bags--cloth or past paper ones. (Paper might be more sanitary because it's disposable?) I wonder if I need a sticky note in my car to remind me?
2. Washing cloth ones occasionally.
3. Recycling about half of my current paper bags. I can't use them fast enough unless I come up with a clear system of leaving some in my trunk and using them for a while.
