What do you use for your groceries? Plastic, cloth or paper bags? Plastic bins? Take my poll below.

Two days ago, I finally remembered to bring cloth bags with me to the grocery store to bag my groceries.

This is a big deal for me!

I’ve been carrying half a dozen cloth bags with me in my vehicle for a long time, fully intending to bring the bags into the store with me each time I go shopping, but never remembering! I’d get partway through my shopping and remember I’d left my cloth bags in my car. Again!

That all changed a couple days ago. For some reason, that day I remembered those bags as I was getting out of my car at the grocery store.

Wow, a break through! Finally! I’m hoping this means I’ll be able to repeat the experience regularly from now on because…….

Yesterday, a couple grocery stores I usually shop at, announced that starting on Earth Day (April 22), it will be charging $0.05 for each plastic grocery bag. Zehrs and the Real Canadian Superstore (RCS) are joining numerous stores worldwide that now charge for their shopping bags.

(Please Note: Loblaws, the parent store to Zehrs and RCS, just started a fee-for-plastic-bags campaign this week in select stores in the Toronto area. Instead of using cloth bags, another option is to use plastic bins for your groceries. Between now and January 22, you can get a free G.R.E.E.N. Box if you spend $25 or more at certain stores in the Loblaws family of grocery stores. See Loblaws website for a coupon for the bin and a list of the participating stores.)

I usually bring home about eight plastic bags full of groceries on my weekly grocery shopping excursion. Come April, that will be about $0.40 worth of plastic bags. That’s a pittance really per week, and only about $21 for the year.

But the money may just be that extra bit of motivation I need to remember those darn bags in my car, and in the process, contribute in a small way to a greener planet and a healthier environment!

What do you use for your groceries? Take my poll below.