Buy reuseable shopping bags

chitra - your comment is very interesting. i would like to understand more. how were polythenes a major cause of the bombay flood? if you know about this, perhaps you could tell us in the 'experience' section, so that it goes on the front page of oneclimate.net, and a lot more people may notice what you say?

In India plastic bags have gained popularity and thin polythene bags are very common with grocers., people are getting conscious and are using cloth and jute bags. I think if shopkeepers also start providing ecofriendly bags ,for which they can charge from the customer use of plastic bag can be checked. This will force everyone to carry cloth bag. Polythene bags have reached in rural areas too. where people are not aware about its impact on atmosphere. polythenes were the major cause of BOMBAY FLOOD.

string bags sound like a great idea, frank.

i carry around a silk bag which folds up into almost nothing, and is a pleasure to use because it looks and feels so beautiful.

there is a lot of discussion about plastic bags at the moment. joe (above) saves money by not using plastic bags because he has had to pay for them. but many of us in the UK get them free, so there is no direct financial saving to us customers if we stop using them. the real financial saving actually goes to the supermarkets, since they no longer have to supply us with these bags.

there was an interesting suggestion i saw yesterday, which suggests local community groups should negotiate with their supermarket, telling the supermarket that they would stop asking for plastic bags if the supermarket would send the savings it thus made to a good cause.

admittedly, it would be quite hard to measure and to enforce this kind of deal, but it is a clever idea.

What happened to the old string-net bags of my childhood? They can be kept on ones pocket like a large handkerchief and brought out when required. Anyone fancy resurrecting them with me?