UMBRELLA TOTE BAG Make your own reusable shopping bag out of a broken umbrella.

[Sherman A1]

I thought I was pretty good at minimizing my use of plastic. I wrap sandwiches in compostable baggies, grind fresh peanut butter into a glass jar, and buy a bunch of stuff in bulk.

Then I decided to follow the advice of blogger Beth Terry of myplasticfreelife.com and collected all my plastic waste (recyclable and not) for a week. It’s one thing to know theoretically that all those random scraps add up, another to watch the pile growing under the kitchen sink and imagine it floating forever in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Achieving a plastic-free life feels like a Sisyphean task. But it cheers me up to hear about how cities from Austin to Mumbai to Mexico City are banning single-use plastic bags—a global trend that will surely make a dent in the mountains of plastic trash overtaking the planet.

With that in mind, I made my own reusable shopping bag out of a broken umbrella. I snipped the fabric loose from the umbrella spine, folded it, cut out two squares, and then sewed them together along the sides and bottom. I made handles with the leftover material.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/201305/repurpose-umbrella-tote-bag/default.aspx

[Tanuki]

1. What a great idea! I would never have thought of this. n/t

[Curmudgeoness]

2. This is a good idea.

Although....gasp....I like the grocery plastic bags. I reuse them whenever I do to Aldi's or other stores that are "bring your own bag". And I use them for my trash bags. I use one a week and have a trash cans that fit them. I don't want to have to go to buying plastic bags just for my trash. I assume that there are options to plastic bags for the trash, but I cannot think of any that would work.