Going Green with Reusable Bags

Ever since my daughter started Kindergarten, I’ve had to make her a lunch for school.  Since September, I’ve gone through two boxes of sandwich bags and one box of snack bags.  That’s ridiculous for my wallet and for the environment!  I can’t imagine continuing to do this throughout the school year.  I went looking for an alternative and found it! LunchSkins Reusable Sandwich and Snack Bags solved my problem and rescue the environment by creating less waste.

These reusable snack and sandwich bags come in wonderful patterns.  These bags are hand sewn in the USA, have a heavy duty velcro closure and are washable in the dishwasher.  The inside is made from food safe polyurethane liner that is BPA and phthalate-free.  One problem I was worried about is grease, since my daughter likes to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I have no problem cleaning greasy peanut butter from the liner.  I just place the bag in the top rack of the dishwasher and it comes out clean.

These sandwich bags seem very durable and I’m hoping that they will last for a few years.  I did the math and purchasing these will save me about $50 in sandwich bags this year.  I also got some for my husband in the more masculine green lizard pattern.

I’ve been using reusable grocery bags for a few years now, probably since they started selling them in the grocery stores.  However, I always found these bags to be bulky and inconvenient.  They take up a lot of space in my grocery cart and are hard to carry into the store with two kids in tow.  Recently, I came accross the bags made by Baggu. BAGGU Reusable Shopping Totes can be purchased as a six pack and fold into their own pouch, making them easy to tote them around without taking to much space.

One Baggu holds the contents of 2 to 3 plastic grocery bags.  Six bags can hold a whole cart full of groceries.  They are made from strong rip-stop nylon weighing only 2 oz. and can carry up to 25 lbs.   I keep them in my car’s glove box and also keep one in my purse. I feel like Baggu reusable bags are a much better alternative than using about 1,000 plastic grocery bags per year, which is the amount an average family of four uses per year.

Making these two changes in our daily lives are easy, meaningful, save money and the environment. What do you think?