Thursday, July 9, 2009

Reusable Cloth Bags To Replace Polythene Bags


The credit for this post goes solely to my good friend Nandini Paniker. She wrote to me about the reusable cloth bags in response to an earlier post of mine titled "Multi-compartment Shopping Bags". Her idea is as follows:

Observation:

Vegetables and fruits when bought from the daily vegetable market, or even the supermarket, need to sorted later. This not only is an added burden on time and energy, but is also quite a monotonous task. The other alternative is to use 'Plastic / Nylon Covers' which again is not advisable from an environmental point of view.

Suggestion:

Nandini suggested carrying cloth bags to the markets, which would be extremely helpful in segregating the groceries right from the point they are picked up. The cloth for these bags need to be really thin, so that they can be directly put into the refrigerator, and the vegetables can have ample ventilation to breath.

Citing example of her mother, Nandini also suggested that these cloth bags can be readily made at home from old saris. My mother, too, on hearing this idea has made many such bags, and is having a much simpler time sorting vegetables every week. (A photograph of the bags that she stitched is uploaded above) A sample bag can be given to the local tailor, who can then churn out such small bags out of the surplus cloth left after stitching. It would not only lead to an increase in his revenue, but will also help people become more aware of the environmental issues related to use of plastic.

Thanks Nandini for a brilliant idea!

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