One Change in Your Daily Life that can Save Money and The Environment
When we think of making ecofriendly choices, one thought that immediately comes to mind is switching to reusable cloth or canvas bags. But were you aware of the fact that in addition to reducing your carbon footprint and saving the environment, switching to reusable tote bags instead of plastic bags can provide you with plenty of other benefits as well? Not only are you saving the environment and the ecosystem you inhabit, but you are saving on space, and you can save some of your hard earned money simply by using reusable totes.
Free up space in your home
Even if you reuse the plastic bags you accumulate while shopping, I bet there is at least one, if not more, drawer or cabinet in your home stuffed full of this unsightly plastic bad mess. Plastic bags generally take up a lot of space, and it is ironic when you think about how the average actual usage time of a plastic bag is less than 15 minutes! So you can de-clutter your home and save space and free up space in your home, vehicle, office. By getting rid of the plastics, and replacing them with foldable cloth bags, you will probably save space in your home that can be put to better use.
Save money while shopping
It is all about consumerism. More and more retail outlets are catching on to the fact that not only does banning plastic shopping bags from their stores look good for the social responsibility aspect of their business, but they can actually make more money selling recyclable or reusable bags, and charging customers extra if they want a plastic bag to carry their shopping home.
While the extra cost of a plastic bag or two may not seem like a lot for a shopping trip, but if you add up the number of times you go shopping and the number of stores you visit on a yearly average, the amount becomes quite significant. Carrying a tote bag from home allows you to save on these extra charges.
Save resources and the planet
Everyone and their aunt know that plastic shopping bags are non-biodegradable. What you may not know is that a substantial amount of non-renewable resources are consumed in the production of these plastics. When you opt for reusable cloth or canvas bags, you can not only impact the consumption of these non-renewable resources, but also help reduce the amount of money that is spent on disposing off of the used plastic bags filling up our landfills every year.
Approximately 380 billion plastic bags are used in the United States every year, and the costs attributed to the cleanup effort of these comes to around $11 billion. By investing in reusable tote bags one time, you help save billions of dollars in terms of resources and cleanup efforts.
When you make a change in your life and stop using plastics in favour of reusable cloth totes, you can free up valuable storage space within your home, since totes fold neatly and don’t take up too much space. Also, just a few reusable bags can easily fulfill all your requirements and replace hundreds of plastic bags.
If you make your own or buy wholesale tote bags and use them long-term, you can save your own money, your tax dollars that are wasted on cleanup efforts, and save the environment all in one go.