Ok we all have to buy food and we do it to stay alive. If you have not heard the story yet, there are many grocery stores that are charging you five cents per plastic bag that you use to carry your goodies out of the store. Maybe that doesn’t bother you, maybe it does. Here is something you also may not know. The same stores that charge you five cents per plastic bag will also pay you five cents for each bag you bring in and reuse! The downside of this, the plastic bags are not that sturdy and rip easily. You should be switching to cloth totes and the grocery pays you! They are much sturdier and by doing this you are helping keep the earth clean and you are getting paid for it.
Does this sound a bit daunting, too? It really is a matter of changing your behavior and the way you do things. Most people ‘hate’ change with a passion that they cannot see the benefits of why change can be good. Some people may be selfish and think ‘What can I get out of it?’, while others may think, ‘If I do this, how can it help someone else?’ If you are on the selfish end of the scale, you get paid for shopping. If you are on the ‘how can this help’ side of the scale, you get paid AND you are helping the earth by reducing the amount of plastic going to landfills.
I started using the cloth bags two months ago. I use about 6 bags twice a month. That works out to be about 60 cents per month. If I continue this pattern then I can safely say that by the end of the year the grocery store has now paid me $7.20! Ok, that doesn’t sound like a whole lot of money, but it is money in my pocket and not the grocery stores! View this like it is a free coupon or rebate.
There are lots of companies out there slapping their logos on these bags and giving them out for free. They want you to use it because it gives them free advertising. No harm done in that! Some stores sell these bags when you check out and have their name on it. If someone wants to give you a cloth bag and it is free, take it. You save some money by switching to cloth totes and grocery pays you. It’s a win for you and a win for the earth.
