The Great Carrier Bag Debate

sarah-jane

sarah-jane

VFG Member
I've just run out of the gold carrier bags that I hand out - sparingly - in my shop. I was about to order another box load, when I suddenly had pause for thought.

Polythene carrier bags and vintage clothes really don't mix, do they!

Perhaps I'm behind the times still handing them out, but I buy in the kind of quantities that last a long time, a couple of years, and views have changed so dramatically towards plastic bags recently.

So I was wondering what those of you with BM shops use? Biodegradable bags look awful expensive to me. Likewise eco-friendly paper. I'm all for saving the planet, but I have to be realistic about what I can afford.

I'm in the UK by the way. I don't if the US is in front of us, behind, or neck and neck on this. It's a hot topic here.
 
I'm big on environmentally sound policies, so I only use paper bags and also have reuseable calico bags. The latter are for sale, but are also given away to those who buy something big or a few things that can't fit into the smaller paper carry bags.

Like you, I stock up and buy in bulk but as I reorder, I'm going for recycled paper. I'm not sure what I'll do with the calico bags, as although they're lovely and make great shopping bags, cotton takes enormous amounts of water to grow. That's a big issue in Australia, where most of the country is desert and much of the rest has been in drought for several years.

Nicole
 
I remember living in London in the early 70's and loving the fact that they expected you to bring your own bags rather than automatically putting stuff in paper or plastic.

I just had an odd idea that would probably only work around here. After rummage sales there's usually a 1$ a bag sale day and there are always tons of "totes" - cloth carrying bags. Of course they are all over the place with designs, logos, etc., but it would be a fun, (but bulky for storing) way to use them.
 
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