Bagging the Bags

Culls from our reusable bag collection

Reusable shopping bags is an easy and obvious way to say a little money while cutting down on waste, thus helping our environment in a small way. I've picked them up in all sorts of venues, and over time the collection has grown. My very first, "Old Blue", came from the community dropoff point when I lived in Shorewood Apartments; it's hard to count how many disposable bags its displaced, but it must have been a lot. With its sturdy cotton construction and handles long enough to go over my shoulder, it's extremely practical - and every time I use it, most stores give me a nickel off, so it would have paid for itself many times over if I hadn't gotten it for free.
There is a limit to everything, and that includes the number of reusable bags than can be usefully kept on hand. Tonight after dinner we sorted through the collection, cutting it down to the Top 5 each. We tended to keep the cloth bags, as they lasted longer than the more common mystery-fiber or plastic ones; the exception was the LuLuLemon bag that Kris really likes. Hey - it's a bag - we're entitled to pick what we want!
The culls all fit into the largest bag (an Amazon Fresh delivery bag) and we'll take it to the foodbank tomorrow for reuse by others (there's no sense wasting, now is there?) and ... to be realistic ... start the long process of accumulating another pile of bags. In some sense, I guess they're just another crop!