The bag lady
For about six or seven years our local supermarket has had a bags for life system.

We are situated near the sea and off our coast are turtles and dolphins and other lovely vunerable creatures. The little plastic bags provided by supermarkets were finding their way our to sea and killing lots of turtles and dolphins. What happens is that they swallow them and they are full of air and the dolphins or whatever think they have a full stomach and starve to death. The bags also take a long time to disintegrate.

With bags for life you buy a sturdier bag made from recycled plastic. When the bag is no longer usable it is replaced for free. I’ve got a bag that’s 6 years old and I’m still using it. I have about 15 bags and take around 7 with me when I go shopping. Last week the cashier grabbed my bags and said that she would change them all for me. I told her that they were fine and weren’t ripped or anything and the idea was to use them as long as possible. “But they will be recycled!” She told me. I managed to get them all back. Someone needs to explain to the poor girl the economics of recycling.

When I got home I checked that my dear 1998 bag was safe. There is a small tear in it….