The Chicago Tribune wants to know if this environmental bag craze is a real trend. The Bag Snob is quoted in the article saying I go for plastic for now but only in cases of extremely leaky chicken! I use the I’m Not a Plastic Bag for all my shopping now and if I do occasionally ask for the one plastic bag here and there, I am still saving many many with each shopping trip. Not to be defensive or anything =) Read on for the whole story.
GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK –in grocery bags
Fashionistas promote eco-chic totes as cities look at banning non-biodegradable plastic
By Jane Meredith Adams
Special to the Tribune
Published June 25, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO — Plastic grocery bags are out.
They’re not just being banned from large grocery stores here — which a new law mandates will happen before it’s time to buy a Thanksgiving turkey — but out as in outmoded. In a merger of environmental concern and fashion sensibility, big-name designers are introducing eco-chic grocery totes, while lawmakers in New York, Boston, Phoenix, Los Angeles and elsewhere debate San Francisco-style bans on non-biodegradable, petroleum-based plastic bags.
These green fashionistas hope to lure the style-conscious into a nationwide anti-plastic-bag frenzy egged on by, of all forces, the fashion bible Vogue magazine. “Today, let us go out and harness the power of fashion to change the way the nation shops,” contributing editor Sarah Mower wrote in last month’s edition. “One stylish act of rebellion in supermarkets, delis, drugstores and designer emporiums and at market stalls is all it takes: Say no to plastic bags.”
The goal is to make it chic to bring your own bag, be it a Hermes $960 Silky Pop grocery tote, due out this summer, or a $1 Whole Foods green bag, said Claire White, editor of ShoppingBlog.com. It’s been estimated that plastic bags take up to 1,000 years to degrade in landfills. “Eventually everyone is going to end up reusing grocery bags,” White wrote in an e-mail. “The only question is when.”
Roughly 100 billion plastic bags are buried in landfills each year in the U.S., according to Worldwatch Institute, an environmental research agency.
On Thursday, British designer Anya Hindmarch released 20,000 of her limited-edition “I’m not a plastic bag” cotton totes in the U.S., as 90,000 bag-hungry consumers competed in a lottery for the privilege of buying the $15 bag, according to Kelly Cook, co-owner of Bagsnob.com. When an earlier version of the bag was spotted on the arm of actress Keira Knightley, the tote became a must-have item, said Cook, and the panache has only been enhanced by the fact that most of Hindmarch’s other shoulder bags sport a $1,000 price tag.
Also due out this summer in supermarket couture is Stella McCartney’s $495 organic cotton canvas shopping bag and Consuelo Castiglioni of Marni’s $843 collapsible nylon grocery tote.
Meanwhile in San Francisco, shoppers appear to be using everything from Trader Joe’s $1.99 Hawaiian print totes to their bare hands, as was the case with a man who shunned a paper bag and carried a container of edamame beans to his car from Real Foods in the city’s Marina district. That’s good preparation for Nov. 20, when large supermarkets in San Francisco will have the option of providing customers only with paper bags or compostable bags made of cornstarch.
Andrea Arria-Devoe, the San Francisco editor of the style Web site DailyCandy.com, grocery shops with two green Whole Foods totes. “My husband and I got into a fight about it, because he mindlessly accepts plastic bags. Now he refuses them with ‘My wife will kill me.’ ”
San Francisco is the first city in the U.S. to opt for the bag ban.
The law, passed in March, affects large supermarkets and drugstores. Small stores will still be able to pack customers’ goods in plastic. The pharmacy bag ban takes effect later.
The 50 grocery stores that would be most affected had argued that the ban was not reasonable because plastic bags made of corn byproducts are a relatively new, expensive and untested product. Some said they might offer only paper bags at checkout.
Rainbow Grocery, a vegetarian emporium, has never offered plastic bags to customers. Outside recently, art student Ying Hsiao wore a handsome messenger bag slung across her back and prepared to fill it with bounty. “I started bringing my own bag about four years ago, when I became vegan,” she said.
Poised to pedal off on his bike, Philip Watson carried a half-gallon of soy milk, yogurt, a hunk of kale, and oranges and apples on his back in a sturdy backpack, while Michelle Menegaz and her daughters, Eva and Gabi, wheeled out provisions in three large canvas bags. But canvas wasn’t an ecologically perfect choice either, Menegaz noted. “Cotton is extremely resource intensive,” she said.
“I’m going to miss the plastic bags when they go away,” said Diana Shook, who carried frozen hash browns and other supplies in a blue and white canvas tote. “I use them to clean out the kitty litter.”
When consumers bring their designer bags into the supermarket, will they really be loading them up with melting ice cream and slabs of salmon? Cook of Bagsnob.com has a confession. “I had my Anya bag when I went to the market, and it was so cute that I have to admit, when the guy was bagging my chicken, I said, you’d better not,” she said. She took the plastic, for now.
Tribune news services contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune
