Plastic We Don’t Need: Produce Bags

Potato Storage photo by Lorraine Dolbear

Reasons People Think They Need Plastic Produce Bags

Germs

Some people think a produce bag protects items from germs in the cart and at the check-out counter. There may be some truth in that, but it actually provides a false sense of security. The food has traveled a long way before being placed on store shelves. It spent some time growing, being harvested, being packaged, being transported and being stocked. Protecting items from germs in those last few moments of travel between the shelf and your home has little importance. It’s more important to have a good setup for cleaning your produce before eating it.

Cheaper

Currently plastic produce bags are free and reusable bags cost money. This factor alone is enough to deter some people from ditching the plastic produce bag. Fortunately there is a third option… ditch the plastic bag… period! I put the unwrapped fruit and vegetables in my cart/basket and bag them in my reusable grocery bags after checking out. If that option isn’t desirable to you, then you likely have a bag or a few bags around the house that you can repurpose into produce bags. I plan to find a reusable bag I can use for potatoes. We buy A LOT of potatoes and it can be time consuming to load each potato onto the checkout and then into my grocery bag. 

Storage

Some people find that their vegetables keep better when they’re kept in a plastic bag. In this case, the plastic produce bag seems like a good option. You can wrap up your produce for transporting home and then store it in the same bag. While this is convenient, it isn’t environmentally friendly. It does not take much more effort (especially after it becomes a habit) to transfer your produce into containers/bags when you arrive home.

Routine

Humans are creatures of habit and this offers many benefits but it also means we get stuck in our ways. And they’re not always good ways. Most of the choices we make at the grocery store are automatic. This is a good thing because grocery shopping would be utterly exhausting if you hadn’t developed mental maps that let you coast through shopping on cruise control. The downfall, however, is that it feels like a lot of work to make a small change. So you want to stop using disposable produce bags? Now you have to find a reusable option and remember to bring it with you. The first few times you implement this change it will feel like a lot of work. I promise it gets easier, though. And, the benefits of reducing your plastic waste are immeasurable.

Pre-packaged

This one still gets me sometimes. Grocery stores like to pre-package some of their produce to keep it fresh for longer. A few items I can’t get without packaging recently are cauliflower and cucumbers. To sort this out, I’ll contact my usual grocery store and ask about plastic-free options. I’ve also heard about a local produce store, and this is a good reason to check it out! Hopefully they don’t pre-package anything.

Growing Your Own Produce

The next challenge I want to take on in the area of produce is starting my own garden. I plan to start slowly, so I won’t be growing all of my own produce right away. I’ve heard that when you grow your own vegetables you gain appreciation for the amount of resources (soil, sun, water and time) that go into them. With that appreciation, we’re less likely to waste food. If you have tips for starting a garden send them to me via contact page.

No Produce Bags + What About Stickers? photo by Lorraine Dolbear

What About Those Stickers??

Finally, while I’m able to go without plastic bags when I’m buying produce, there doesn’t seem to be a good way of going without the produce stickers. I’ve just completed a one month challenge in which I collected my garbage rather than dispose of it right away. The process has drawn my attention to sources of waste in my lifestyle. Produce stickers aren’t very big, but they’re certainly a source of waste. I could leave them behind at the store, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’ve been created and will still need to be disposed of. I may contact the grocery stores I mainly shop at and ask about this issue.