Are You a Thread Head?

February 6th, 2008

The latest podcast show by the Thread Heads over at ThreadBanger is all about reusable shopping bags, one of my favorite subjects. Just ask anyone who has had to endure my incessant ramblings about using them when I explain the great pleasure I get every time I walk out of a store with my bags in hand. It did take me awhile to learn to bring them with me on shopping trips but now it has become a force of habit. I now remember before I leave the house to bring my bags with me and you must form a habit of bringing them into the store with you as well. One of my local grocery stores used to give me $.05 off my total shopping bill for each cloth bag I would bring to put my groceries in so that was a big help and a great reminder. They have just recently changed to giving me points on my frequent shopper card but it is still an incentive. I do find that if I have my bags with me at all times that I use them everywhere I go. I love telling the cashier at any store I shop at, with a smile of course, that I have brought my own bag. It just makes me feel good and makes me feel like I am making a difference, however small.

I have all sorts of different bags. I have several Classic String Bags and also a couple of Produce Bags. I have started a collection of health food store reusable bags which are usually made of canvas. Whenever I go to a new health food store I always pick up a bag with their logo on it. I have one from Greenlife Grocery, Nature’s Food Patch, Earthfare and Whole Foods Market. My Whole Foods bag is so big and durable that I have used it like a back-pack to lug my stuff around. I haven’t picked up any chico bags yet but I do plan to get some of those awesome bags at some point in the future. They are very convenient and compact so you can stuff them in your car so you don’t forget. The other reuasable bags I take with me on shopping trips are just canvas bags I have collected over the years with various organizations logos on them. I have customized some of them by painting or sewing over the logo. A friend of mine made this bag completely from scratch.

One of the organizations mentioned in the Thread Head podcast was Morsbags whose goal is social guerilla bagging. They give you a pattern for a really simple to sew bag and give out their labels in printable .pdf form, then you give away the bags you make for free usually on a day set by the head organization. I really like this idea and so much so that I created a pod for my area called BlueRidgeBags so if you want to make some with me contact me through the morsbags site.

6 Responses to “Are You a Thread Head?”

The Kept Woman
Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 8:06 am

I bought some cheap-o reusable bags at Wally World and every single time I shop and don’t come home with a plastic bag I get this warm fuzzy feeling. We’ve always recycled them but it feels so much better to not bring any home in the first place!

dawn
Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

Author Comment

I agree! It definitely feels a lot better to just not bring them home in the first place. Even if they are recycled it is so much effort to store them and bring them to be recycled not to mention the energy spent to actually recycle them. If I do end up bringing some home (with has happened on occasion) I can bring them in to a local health food store which gives you an option of using either a new bag or a recycled bag. If you choose no bag, bring your own or use a recycled bag (i.e. do not use a new bag of theirs) they donate $.10 per bag to a different local non-profit organization every month. Those bags can really add up as the non-profit I volunteer for was given a donation of over $600 one month from this store.

Lauren
Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 5:14 pm

hey — thanks for stopping by, and for the link!

I didn’t check out all of your links, but here’s one that might interest you:

http://etsylabs.blogspot.com/2007/05/long-overdue-fusing-plastic-bag.html

You may already know how to do this, but it’s a tutorial on fusing plastic shopping bags together to make reuseable shopping bags, wallets, etc. I’ve been meaning to try it!

dawn
Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 7:58 pm

Author Comment

Lauren: Thanks for the link. It sounds like a fun way to recycle plastic bags. I did stumble upon this while searching for reusable bag sites but forgot to include it in my post. I do have plans in the very near future to crochet a bag with plastic bag yarn. I plan to do a post about it with a link to video instructions so stay tuned.

More links to fusing plastic bags:
http://blog.craftzine.com/archive/2007/08/plastic_bag_crafts.html
http://blog.betzwhite.com/2007/07/bag-this.html
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/07/diy_more_fused.php
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/2309732/

Bag Monster
Posted: Feb 8th, 2008 at 8:24 pm

So I take it you don’t like single-use bags? What a bunch of Bag Monster Busters! There’s a blog for people who want to be entertained and informed about the bag crisis: http://www.BagMonsterBusters.com

Nobody seems to want us around anymore… It’s hard being a Bag Monster in the Age of Bag Bans! I can’t even get a job because of those new-fandangled reusable ChicoBags.

I just got back from getting trashed at Mardi Gras! To see my latest shenanigans go to my blog: http://www.BagMonster.com

With competition like ChicoBag, I don’t know how long we’ll last without endangered species protection. *sigh* It’s tough being a Bag Monster.