1y ago

What shopping bags do you use now?

So, with the demise of the 15c heavy-duty plastic bags, what's a good replacement?

I've been using them since they were introduced - the best thing about them is that if you carefully fold then roll them, they're amazingly compact, and you can fit like three in your back pocket, which is perfect when you don't have a car and want to grocery shop on your commute.

The cotton and paper ones are just too bulky to carry around with you like this. I've found some thin nylon-type ones, but they're pretty sad and small - has anyone found something that's thin, large and sturdy?

19 comments

thin, large and sturdy?
Sounds like: garbage bags!
You'd have to buy them too.
I've a nylon bag that I found. Packs small, is strong and sturdy. Idk where you buy them though.

I don't know but here is a tip: I have something called The Bag Of Shame which is a floral print bag. It looks awful and I hate it with passion. It lives in my car boot as a spare, if I ever bring it inside my wife shames me for forgetting the usual bags at home.
This way it is always in my car as a backup.

We have a couple of Spotlight bags (they’re a bit older; not sure they’re still making the same ones) that are about 50x50cm with a width of 20cm, made of nylon and quite sturdy. I always take one of these shopping for bulky but light items.

I still have a good dozen or so of the heavy duty plastic bags. Looked after they will probably last a few years.
By the time I need to buy new ones, who knows, biodegradable plastic bags might become the new hotness, and only cost $4.20 per bag given the way inflation is going. I might report back in a few years/days when that happens.

I have a bunch of old polyester ones like the green ones that Woolies used to have. They're great because they can be machine washed
Another related question - what do you people do for garbage bags now that we don't get free plastic bags? I've got a stash of old plastic bags but it's running low now
- We get woolies deliveries every now and then, and they come with those inbetween bags - and when we're out of those (and random others), we fall back on bought ones.
- We use rolls of (allegedly) biodegradable bin bags bought from Woollies.
- I buy these which are landfill biodegradable which is important because conditions in landfill under layers aren't conducive to things breaking down.
- I still get lots of plastic bags from my butcher so I use those if I need a durable bin liner. Otherwise, I just use the plastic bags colesworths provides for fruit n veg. Just grab more than you need off the roll.

We got some Envirosax about 15 yrs ago from a company making them on the Gold Coast, we used them heaps when we moved to Sydney and walked everywhere, they roll up small and can carry a reasonable amount of items.

Because I shop at ALDI where you pack your own bags I use the Frakta blue tarp carrier bags from IKEA. One bag fills the whole trolley so you can just hurl the goods in there and it catches them all. They're really strong and when you get home you can do the one trip wonder and carry everything at once. When I last bought them they were $1 each
- If you're Aldi shopping try these bad boys out.
  The air on the trolley handle while you shop, once everything is on the belt roll 'em out in the trolley and then lob everything in faster than the person can scan them.
- Definitely don't go in a back pocket, though.
  
  Maybe not. Here's my usual one folded up along the folds it came with. You could fold it again and it would fit in a pair of jeans
- I bought a fabric shopping bag from Ikea a couple of years ago, and have had good use from it.
  Until last month, when I used it to make up for the lack of lumbar support on a Jetstar flight and left it behind.
  So yesterday we bought some fabric and my wife whipped up new ones.

I just use a couple of nylon ones or just cram everything into my backpack and put anything likely to leak into a fruit and vegetables bag. I noticed that Westfield is opening some kind of bag exchange point, but I'm not sure how it's going to work.

No idea sorry. We use a couple of totes. One is small and fits in my back pocket and I take that when I know I'm only picking up a few items. The other is large and doesn't fit in any pockets when folded. Occasionally I might pass by the only grocery store we really shop at without a bag and we end up with a paper bag which gets used to hold our recyclables until we take them to the communal bins (block of flats).

19 comments