In some states, plastic grocery bags are no longer offered. If you buy enough groceries, you pretty much have to bring your own bags.
Some RVers say reusable bags are essential because they don’t want to accumulate waste or deal with a bunch of loose plastic bags cluttering up their limited storage space. Others keep a stash of reusable bags in the RV’s front seat or storage bin so they’re always on hand for a grocery run or a quick stop at the farmers market.
Some even use collapsible bins or laundry baskets to bring their groceries from the store to the rig.
Still, it’s easy to forget them. You walk into the store for “just a few things” and end up with an armful of groceries—and no bag to carry them in. And depending on where you’re camping, not every store offers paper or reusable bags for purchase. Some RVers even resort to repurposing cardboard boxes or stuffing everything into a backpack.
Others don’t mind the change and say it’s a small but meaningful way to reduce waste and do something good for the environment while on the road. But we’re curious: What’s your take on reusable bags while RVing? Do you always bring them or do you not bother at all?
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RVDT2662
Do you bring your own reusable bags to carry out groceries at supermarkets? Yes, we do. We live in California. The powers that be have decided to charge 10 cents per bag.
We live in Colorado. Same thing. We always carry our reusable bags.
In CA the 10 cent bag charge is a tax! This money goes the to the state rather than to the stores. I use a couple of small apple cartons in lieu of bags. The bags offered in stores make bagging groceries difficult because they can’t stand upright on their own making bagging slow & the wait at the cash register slower.
In new yawk it twenty five sense🤔🙂
In NJ, retail stores can no longer provide single use plastic film bags. Customers are required to bring their own reusable bags or buy reusable bags in the store. Stores can provide recyclable paper bags, but most don’t or they charge for them.
Pretty dumb on NJ’s part concerning plastic bags. Of course NJ is no different than a lot of other places.
Can’t use a plastic bag to put your groceries in HOWEVER out of all the food you buy way more than half of your grocery purchase is packaged in some type of PLASTIC!
Makes a lot “CENTS”!
Only at Aldi’s and sometimes Wegman’s. Wegman’s is a scam. They claim it’s for the environment and make you pay for paper bags. But most everything in the store is in plastic. Shop very little at Wegman’s because of it.
It’s ironic that today, the switch to paper grocery bags is to save the environment from plastic bags when in the past, the switch from paper bags to plastic bags was to save the trees/forests.
When on the road, we will use re-usable bags as we only shop in small quantities. At home, we don’t own enough bags to hold the shopping carts of food.
We always use reusable bags for groceries, even though nearly everything we put in the bag is in single use plastic. I guess we do our small part.
If only I could remember to bring them. We live in Indiana and disposable plastic bags are still used in every grocery store (except Aldi and Trader Joe’s).
We have reusable bags, mostly use them for things other than groceries. I don’t feel bad about using store paper or plastic bags. Rarely are they single use items. Paper bags are used to transport recyclable items – the bags themselves are recyclable. And if we get too many (rare) most pre-schools will gladly accept them for art projects. We reuse plastic bags for pet waste (mostly) or sticky, greasy waste from RV maintenance. Any excess can be returned to Walmarts or most major grocery chains for recycling.
Shop a lot for groceries for my 99 year old mother and my wife and I at the local Aldi.
I always grab a heavy duty produce box to load groceries in. Easy to carry out and load in the car. Plus I get a good box to use at home!
Plastic bags are frequently 8 cents, sometimes 10 cents. But at WINCO, they are 16 cents!! I always bring my own, or if I forget, take all my loose items out to my car and then put them in the bags that I keep in my car.
We mostly carry our own bags, in part because of some bans. We have lightweight bags from Amazon, and mesh bags for most produce. We wash them after every use. Beats the plastic bags we’ve gotten over the years that break before we get them home. We’re not opposed to plastic bags, so don’t always use fabric. We reuse the ones we do get, if we can. I actually buy t-shirt bags by the case, we use them for garbage in the TT and for litter at home, and whatever else is needed.
We only use our own bags, and have a stash in each vehicle. If we forget to bring them in, we simply roll our cart to the vehicle and load the bags right there. Insulated bags are invaluable when traveling, and the Trader Joe’s bags are the best!! Plastic bags are not allowed!!
In our area, we have to bring bags. Stores don’t sell the cheap bags at checkout. We often bring a collapsible laundry basket instead of bags. The basket fits in the cart nicely and is faster to load and move. When we travel we stock up on the store-supplied bags since we have found so many uses for them.
So do we!
For years now I have used the grocery bags as garbage bags. Every bag recycled. They make them so thin now that they almost always rip. So now I throw out grocery bags and have to buy garbage bags. That’s a big help to the environment. Even if I use my own containers I still now have to buy larger thicker plastic bags. Hmmm…
We started using collapsible shopping boxes a dozen or more years ago. They store flat, are instantly opened, and durable. Most grocery stores have put out their own ‘branded’ ones, so they can advertise your store preference(s) too.
You missed an option above. Some states do not allow stores to provide bags. In that case we bring them in. Our state gives out bags so we do not.
Thank you for the question, RV Travel! We bring reusable shopping bags when shopping Canada. If shopping in the U.S., we never do. We use the plastic bags that have no holes (beyond the big ones they are designed to have) that we get in the U.S. as doggie poop-collection bags or as garbage bags by inserting them into the small waste baskets in the RV. We also use the reusable shopping bags we have acquired during travel to carry food from the house to the RV or the reverse. Have a great day and safe travels!
I have great cooler bags with zippers, they were sent when I renewed my WWF membership, they have lasted years! I love them and while they save some bags from the dumps, it’s also a good cause. I use the bags I get with vegetables from the store for grease, and dog do or cat litter.
I do wish the food packing would use less waste. I have noticed some are using heavy paper instead of plastic, it can be rinsed , dried and recycled.
A single plastic soda bottle uses 4 times the amount of plastic than a grocery bag.
A 2 Liter bottle uses 10 times more the plastic. Ditto with ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, and relish bottles. The plastic jugs from your last oil change are equivalent to an average of six months worth of grocery bags.
Look at all the single use items in our daily lives that take far longer to break down while producing tons more microplastics and it becomes painfully obvious who has the better lobbyists.
Plastic bags ARE reusable, Dog poop for one, packing shoes for another, …
STORE ; “Paper or Plastic?” ME : “It doesn’t matter, I’m bagsacksual.”
Yes, always carry my own bags for grocery shopping. I started doing this 16 years ago when I retired. I dislike the plastic bags in general, but the ones I do get are used in small waste cans, mostly in the trailer, and for when I scoop the kitty’s litter box.
Collapsible bank boxes are easier. But in some cases I carry a few single use bags around and a couple of times a month shop without the boxes to collect plastic bags like others have stated for cat litter clean up, trash baskets in the bathrooms and other small projects so the get reused and off to recycle. Probably the one plastic item that gets recycled at homes across the country.
NY state has helped us to decide to use reusable bags by passing a law outlawing them…Nanny state. Moving to South Carolina soon and freedom to decide what my grocery bag option will be will once again be mine. I like having the plastic disposable bags as an option for other uses but will still mainly use the reusable option 90+% of the time to reduce plastic trash.
I only do it when required. I keep my reusable bags under the rear seats in the truck. I like the store shopping bags as they become my trash bags.