This sounds like a great idea, but I was wondering how people react when using reusable bags for bulk items and not just for bagging your groceries. I feel like if I were to go to my local store and bring a bag to get, say, bulk peanuts in, I would be confronted as trying to hide what's really in the bag, or possibly just a weird look or two. Can you elaborate a bit on your experience with them?
Bulk Food Bin Bags: How I Got Mine for Cheap
Photo: Myscha Theriault
You know that final hurdle in plastic bag transition I've been trying to jump? The one I was going to initiate with leftover bread bags? Well, I was able to make the full leap to fabric this weekend with over a fifty percent savings. Turns out the answer was in the children's aisle at Jo Ann Fabrics. Wanna know how I finally got my bulk bin groove on? Keep reading.
I've known for a while now that making the transition to non plastic bulk bin bags was going to sink me a chunk of change. When I pantry shop, I don't screw around. For the people out there who can just walk a half a block and pick up enough for that day, I'm happy for you. I really am. You can probably make the transition with no more than five bags total. Even at three bucks a pop (a killer price, if you've shopped around), you're looking at under twenty dollars for the one time purchase. Shopping little bit by little bit isn't something I've been able to do since I lived in an extremely walkable European community with a weekly market day and a very close Penny Market.
Sure, I go once a week if need be to fill in with produce, dairy and the occasional protein sale. But for the most part, I shop once a month, and I shop big. It's also some distance for me to get to the stores that even have the bulk bins, so I combine errands when I go and get a large number of items while I'm there. For example, Whole Foods is a good forty minutes away from me. There's no way I'm coming home with just a pound of oatmeal. I'm coming home with twelve. I'll also be snagging quinoa, TVP, cashew pieces and a boatload of black beans. Then there's the stop at Al Aqsa for affordable lamb as well as by the scoop bulgur, red lentils, garbanzo beans and pine nuts. I also found another store online this weekend that's on my way to Costco where I can buy package free spices and a large number of other bulk bin items. Needless to say, three – five drawstring bags just won't cut it.
So when I spied the Jo Ann's in the same plaza as the Home Depot my husband needed to go into Friday, I decided to go in and poke around. Here's what I came out with:
One large tote bag with a zippered closure.
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I got a denim one to hide the dirt, but they had different colored ones. They are located by the aprons and smaller totes designed for “decorated it yourself” projects with the children. I've been wanting one bag that seals up to hold all of my larger fabric grocery bags, drawstring mesh produce bags and any fabric bags for bulk bin shopping I was eventually able to find.
Is something like this on your list too? For just under six dollars, this one fits the bill, has a long enough carrying strap, is roomy and even makes a great back drop for pins, baubles and other pieces of flair you generally accumulate as presents from younger family members or classroom students.
Two five-packs of small, multicolored cotton, drawstring bags.
These are the perfect size for spices, pine nuts and other package free dry goods you only need a small amount of. At five dollars a bundle (a buck a bag), they're completely in my price range. I'll bet they fit into the budgets of many other households as well.
Six large cinch-sacks of hot pink rip-stop nylon.
These are the kinds that have the bottom corners stitched off to hold grommets where the extra long cinch strings get threaded through and knotted, forming a sort of impromptu backpack. All I had to do was unknot the strings, pull them out through the bottom grommets, and reknot the ends. Presto! Flat bulk bin bags. These were technically the same price as the other organic cotton ones I'd been looking at, but individually at least twice the size if not larger. This makes for fewer bags needed.
Tax included, I came out just shy of forty bucks. Transition accomplished. I can fill in the gaps with bread bags, twisty ties and rubber bands. My very conservative estimate is that I saved an easy fifty percent, although I think it was a bit more than that. Forty dollars as opposed to eighty - one hundred? I can deal with that. Got another affordable suggestion for making the switch? I'm all ears.
Best of Wise Bread
How do you deal with the fact that your bags weigh more than the store bags, and therefore the preset tare weights are off. This means that the weight of your bag being heavier means you have to pay for your bag with each purchase. What is the weight difference between a store's bag and your bag?
Well, this my first shot at them, but I had the same concerns you both mentioned before I started reading and poking around the net. The weight thing - another great reason for not going with the heavier cotton bags. These are super light and in my mind close enough to not cost more cash (or at least not so much more that it's an issue). The not being transparent issue - from what I've heard, some stores ask you to go to a table where they label what's in it, and some are comfortable letting it ride. Of course, if you sewed your own out of sheer fabric, that would eliminate the issue. But I haven't been able to slow my life down enough to make that happen yet. I am looking into labels to stick on my bags instead of using the plastic tabbed ones.
I'll try to keep you guys posted as to how they work out at different stores.
I like the label idea, and thanks for keeping us posted on how it goes! Is there anyway to subscribe to this post to watch for further comments?
As an example, let's say your bag weighs 1 oz more than a store bag. For a bulk product that costs 1.98 pre pound, you are paying $0.12375 EACH time you use that bag to buy that product since the scale considers the 1 ounce extra of your bag to be product. I'd imagine the weight difference spread is actually a bit higher, but even at this example, expect to pay $1.44 each year for a monthly purchase. And that's PER product that you buy this way at this unit cost.
I use the bags given at the store for bulk foods. But when I get home I keep them in a drawer and I reuse them in the kitchen. I no longer buy plastic wrap, so I use the bags instead. How? I only use glassware to store things in the fridge, but I find that smells leak out, so I line the glass lid with one of these bags and problem solved. That way I minimize the use of plastic at home, and the cost, but I don't go to extremes either. I think being green is about doing as much as you can within logical limits. Use, reuse, reuse, and reuse -- then recycle. But also, there are stores that will tare off the weight of your own containers, when I do this, I bring my own glass jars, they weight them for me, and then I get what I want in bulk.
Myk, The larger bags might weigh an ounce, but there's no way the tinier bags do. (At least the ones that I bought) You're right that there would be a noticeable cost annually, however some stores (Whole Foods, for example) offer 5-10 cents off per bag when you use your own. So that would help offset things a bit. Also, for many of these items in bulk bins, the price is reduced from what you would pay for the packaged items anyway, so that factors in as well. I also don't drive there all the time and work the savings angles in other ways, so it's a decision I'm comfortable with. Beth over at Fake Plastic fish has covered these issues a time or two as well. You might try poking around her archives to see what you find there. (Doesn't look like we have a comment subscription option for the ongoing conversation, though.)
Guest, I've been trying to reuse those thinner bags as well. It's a bit tough though, on things like bulgur that cling to the inside no matter what. Also, untying the knots sometimes tears the bags. (I'll be the first to admit I'm not very slick at that part.)
Excellent! I'm going to have to check it out next time I'm over that way (Joann's is totally walkable from my house.) If I can only keep them with me :)
I'm too cheap to -buy- special bags for small bulk-bin purchases or -pay- extra on the scales every week because my bag is heavier. However, I stuff bread bags, plastic bulk bin bags from prior weeks (including the holey plastic bags bulk bananas, potatoes and apples come in), the plastic liner from bulk crackers and cereals such as Cheerios, or those skinny little plastic bags the newspaper comes in into the "bag o'bags" I use to stuff all my larger canvas bags into (just wash and dry them first). I get 3-4 uses out of bread/banana bags and 1-2 uses out of the other bags before they develop holes.
I also use them in place of plastic wrap (haven't bought Saran Wrap in over 3 years) or freezer bags. To avoid freezer burn, double-bag things as the plastic is thinner. However, since plastic emits harmful chemicals into your food when microwaved, I don't use them for that. I either use a glass container, or cover the item being microwaved with a square cut from a waxed Dunkin Donuts-type paper bag.
All these little bags come unsolicited with other purchases and they're too small to use for much else (and in the case of the holey banana bags, otherwise useless), so I figure I might as well use them until they're worn out.
Like guest #9, I'm also accumulating a stash of reusable bags for produce and bulk bins, in addition to the cool green mesh bags from the dollar store you recommended. Apples and grapefruits come in a heavy-duty mesh bag that you can cut the top off of with a scissor and reuse for produce. To avoid confusion at the check-out, put something in there that does not look at all like apples or grapefruit (e.g. broccoli) and magic-marker out the bar code to avoid accidental scanning.
In my experience, little health food stores and co-ops are very happy to have you bring your own container and get a Tare weight. Big groceries like Winco are not set up to do that.
Myk, I would be very surprised if these light nylon bags weigh an ounce more than the plastic bags. My estimate is you might pay an extra penny or so per use, depending on what you're buying. The difference will be small.
You can ask for your bags/containers to be weighed and labeled with their tare weights (use permanent marker), but busy cashiers may forget to enter them.
I use glass for wet foods, but have been using the same tough, airtight #5 plastic containers for dry bulk foods for years. They're sized in the quantities we usually use, and I don't need to transfer the food into glass or metal to protect it from flour moths and mice, as with fabric bags.
I'm definitely interested in supplementing with other plastic bags from other products. The thing is though that with the reduced plastic I'm buying overall, this supply is starting to dwindle at my house. Good call on the bulk mesh bag reuse, though. Those things are huge, and way more reusable than the small onion bags. The lighter solid containers for one time transfer is an interesting tip as well.
I also didn't know that "tare" was the name of the weight amount of the bags we used at the store.
Thanks for keeping the conversation going, everyone!
one of my favorite websites seems to have a good solution to this problem as well. http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5504806 they have inexpensive translucent lightweight bags designed with bulk shopping in mind. hope this info helps!
Last night on a grocery run I tried using my own mesh bags for produce rather than plastic ones, and the results were great. No hassle, no significant weight difference, the items were visible through the bags, and much easier to carry when I got home. Definitely going to do this again.
Today I used the small drawstring bags on a recon run we did to the new bulk bin store I found. They had the label sheets with a pen right there, so it worked slick. The cashier was totally fine with using nontransparent bags and didn't bat an eye. So, it looks like it's a good to go approach.
I have a question. I want to use cloth bags rather than plastic at the checkout, but then I don't have any bags to use for trash bags around the house. How are others dealing with this? It seems like if I buy Hefty bags for trash bags, I end up wasting as much plastic as with just getting plastic bags at check out. If I were to use paper bags for trash, I'm still wasting bags, plus they will leak.
Hi Guest.
Well, for starters we compost most of our wet trash and combine that with the trash disposal. Between that and the recycling of cleaned out containers it doesn't matter if it takes us a while to fill up a large kitchen trash bag because the odor doesn't build up. For smaller bags, you could either use the plastic bags that individual items come in (popcorn, bread, etc.) or one of the two options in this article.
