Pros Vs Cons: Tote Bags
We all know I am a massive advocate of the tote bag. They are a staple of my life and I'm sure of yours too. They are practical, hardy, and oftentimes pretty! I have covered a few pros and cons to tote bags on my podcast, but I figured I could go a little deeper on here.
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| Crumpled = Well loved |
For my first point: They are reusable.
Seems a little obvious, right? But these bags are designed to be used again and again and again. Think about it. Every food shop, you would have been grabbing 5+ bags every single time. That's twenty plastic bags every month, just going in the drawer or cupboard to be used as bin liners or some other single use. Speaking from experience, I never once reused the plastic bags I'd hoarded for shopping. When I moved out of my flat, I ended up chucking most of them. So much waste!
With totes, however, I am completely bypassing that void of waste and bad habits. Purely because they are advertised as reusable. I'm not buying bags every food shop. Instead, I'm taking my trusty collection of bags which cover all of my food shop needs. And it's not just for the food shop. When I go on a fun shop (pre-lockdown!), I take a selection of my pretty totes to show off while I peruse the shops.
Of course the counter to this is: They have a limited shelf life.
What I mean by this is, over time they are going to suffer from wear and tear until they are eventually rendered useless. Naturally, this is true of nearly everything but in the case of tote bags is does mean you need to spend money on replacing them. While this is not so much of an issue any more, what with all bags costing at least 5p unless they are paper, this would have been an issue prior to this. And some ideals have this nasty little habit of persisting. I can see how having to replace your shopping bags can be somewhat of a deterrent for use.
Having said that, their shelf life is definitely longer than the plastic bags which used to break mid-walk home!
A major plus to using totes is they do not suffocate marine life.
Or end up as litter in general. By using totes you are eliminating the potential for carrier bags to end up in landfill or, worse, littering our beautiful planet. While landfill is not great as they break down into microplastics and enter our environment that way, litter has much more of an immediate effect. Animals (especially marine ones) mistake them for food and eat them, filling their stomachs with plastic and effectively starving themselves to death. Creatures can get stuck in bags or get wrapped up in them, which creates all sorts of problems.
Totes avoid this. You don't bin totes as regularly. Some of the bags for life can be a little difficult to recycle but it's always worth checking with your local recycling centre if they are. Fabric bags which have seen the end of their life as a bag can be added to your fabric box and see new life as something else. One alternative to binning defunct bags is to see if you know anyone artsy enough to turn them into a project. So even when they do become useless, totes have more potential to not enter the waste stream.
The main counter to this, however, is you have to remember to take them.
Taking your bags for life to the supermarket is just habit now, for most. On my weekly shop to Morrisons, I would say the majority of shoppers have some sort of bag hanging from their trolley. But this is not so much the case when it comes to fun shopping. It may have been a lifetime since we were last window shopping and trying on the latest fashions (read: sale rails and drooling over books), but how often did you remember to take your totes with you?
I have tried to make it a habit to keep at least one tote in my handbag. However, if it gets used it often takes a while to find its way back into my handbag. This has not really been much of an issue presently, but that is largely down to lockdown and unemployment. I'm not going for a day at the shops anywhere nearly as regularly as I would before. Don't get me wrong, I did not go shopping often, but it is quite a nice way to spend the day catching up with friends and family while treating yourself to some goodies! If I were in any sort of rush before leaving the house, I definitely would not remember my handbag totes was actually sitting on my study floor because I needed snacks three days prior.
Obviously, this is a reflection on my poor habits and the fact I often wake up late. However, I am sure I am not alone. When I am on top of things, I remember to grab a selection of totes parading a variety of messages and brands. But how often are we on top of things? I don't know about you, but I find the answer to that question is increasingly, "Rarely!"
The major downfall to not remembering your totes is less that you have to buy more or *shudder* get plastic, but that it reduces the effectiveness of your existing totes. Like with reusable cups, you need to use them a certain amount of times for them to offset their production. With totes, it's about 100 uses. I can imagine your bags for life see that and more, easily. But what about your fun totes? And how easy is it to be swayed by something new and cute? Oh so very. Suddenly, those 100 uses become harder to achieve.
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| Food bags ready by the front door |
Now we move onto cost. Totes are very cost effective.
So long as you remember them, of course. Carrier bags cost anything upwards of 5p and for all the sturdier plastic bags claim to have some reusability, it is nowhere near as much as a canvas tote or bag for life. They add at least 5p to every shop you do which doesn't sound like much but if you add it up over the year, 5p turns into £2.60. (Based on one bag per shop per week.) Again, does not sound like much but that £2.60 could have been £1 on a bag for life and seen you through for more than the year. Bags for life last, let's say, five years: £2.60 on plastic bags over five years becomes £13 while the bag for lifer is still only down that initial £1. Starts to become a bit more of a significant difference. £13 is a DVD or a crate of beer. £13 is a good portion of your weekly shop.
£13 for a pair of trousers seems like a really good deal. £13 for carrier bags does not.
Of course, the counter to this is the initial cost of a tote bag is greater than a carrier bag.
When not considering the long term, 5p is more inviting than £1. Say you've forgotten your bag and you're weighing up buying the cheaper option because it's only this one time and not making it doubly difficult to offset production. That makes buying the carrier bag seem like a more viable option, sure. But how many times can you get away with that thinking? Once or twice? Then suddenly, you never remember your totes and you have a cupboard full of bags again.
Even this argument against totes does not really have a leg to stand on.
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| In your best Spongebob voice now: I'm ready! |
My last point is the sheer variety of totes available.
I have mentioned in this post bags for life and canvas tote bags, but there are also: IKEA blue bags, upcycled t-shirt bags, foldable totes, ones that come in little bags, ones for carrying bottles, small ones, big ones, and so much more. There is a tote for every occasion. Now, sure, owning one of each is going to render the 100 uses near on impossible to achieve but that is the other great thing about totes. They are versatile. The foldable and packed totes are great for keeping in your handbag because they take up less space, making them ideal for food shopping, recreational shopping, transporting that book you're loaning to your friend, transporting gifts - anything where on one leg of the journey you need them to be tucked up and small.
I used to use an IKEA bag for my laundry at university and I now use them for storage. I also reckon they'd make a great bag for holding rubbish on a litter pick. Canvas bags are used to hold shopping and as handbags. (Honestly, I just like to show off that my patronous is a shark!) Any spares that are acquired on shops where you forget your usual bags can be repurposed for storage and keeping spaces like attics and garages tidy(er). I keep the board games I play regularly with other people in a Harry Potter bag for life. It hasn't seen much movement during lockdown, but it was great for carting my small collection of games to and from the pub!
There are so many more uses I could spend hundred of words boring you to death with them all, but I won't. Because I like you all alive. If you have any interesting tote uses, please do share them below!
The major downfall with having a variety of uses is cross contamination and dirt in general.
Thanks to COVID-19 everyone is hyper aware of how easy it is for germs to spread across surfaces. Your tote bags are no different. Tesco bags for life even have a label inside of them, for you to mark what sort of shopping goes within; dairy, poultry, veg, etc. There is a risk of cross contamination between your foodstuffs, especially with the raw meats. Hopefully, the packaging or reusable tub surrounding your food is enough to keep juices where they should be, but there is always that chance.
The thing I am terrible for is stuffing receipts and shopping lists in my bags, only to leave them there. Occasionally, I will remove them all only to find all sorts of random bits of yucky have ended up in there too. Save for the few times where there have been visible stains, I have not cleaned my bags for life. The canvas bags are a little easier to tell when they need a wash, but again how often do you do that? It's not really high on the list of priorities when you've got a mountain of washing to do and no pants for tomorrow.
Of course, this point is rendered moot if you do keep your bags clean and in good nick. If you have any tips on how to keep on top of that, my god please share! I do tend to find most of the cons I find with reusable products mainly fall down to the inherent laziness of people (I am no exception) and how we don't like to change unless it's easy.
In a way, I am trying to help make changes seem easy with this blog but even I struggle from time to time. Hence why I encourage you all to share ideas and tips! Together, we can render most if not all the counter points to reusable invalid!
What do you love about totes? What do you *gasp* hate about totes? Are you like me and have a favourite one? Please suggest any other reusable product to get the pro/con treatment! As always, lemme know, below!
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