“Shall I Put your Groceries into Your Reusable Shopping Bag?”

Friday, 9th March 2018 at 02:10:51

Constantly worried about the use of single-use plastic whenever you go out grocery shopping? Here’s one chic solution for a plastic-free earth.

So here’s what usually happens when  you’re out shopping for fresh fruits and vegetables in a traditional market:

“Oh, it’ll get dirty,” one vendor would say when you politely suggest that you’d  just put your purchase in your bag.

Or, “Oh, it’ll break—let me double the plastic,” another vendor would say after calculating the weight of your purchases.

Or, sometimes, the response would simply be, “No, it’s okay,” as if alleviating our guilt for exhausting their supply of plastic bags. You might feel guilty, yes, but more because of the number of plastic bags you bring home.

Plastic, if you haven’t heard already, is hazardous to the environment. And somehow, we are still using them despite plastic pollution being one of the major environmental problems that the earth is currently burdened with. Case in point: from a major beach clean-up that took place in Bali, around 30 percent of the collected waste were plastic bags. No surprise considering the ubiquitous usage of plastic in our daily lives: from simple grocery shopping at the nearest mini-mart to having takeaways from  restaurants (or as is more often these days, practical app-based food delivery), plastic is a constant and at times inescapable presence everywhere we go.

According to a study, Indonesia ranks 2nd—after China—in terms of the country that produces the biggest plastic-based waste out into the ocean, and it is estimated that in Indonesia alone a single person would use in average 700 plastics per year!

Now, imagine if all those plastic bags are replaced with a reusable shopping bag—are you seeing cleaner beaches and oceans now?

Refuse & Reuse

So, what’s the solution? Well, to eradicate plastic completely from our lives we need a bigger collective effort that ideally translates to government-mandate regulation that bans – or at least, applies a price tag to – the use of plastic bags. On a smaller scale, there’s definitely a lot that we can do, from refusing to having your own reusable shopping bag.

Yes, we can always recycle and breathe new life into these plastics but unfortunately the quantity of plastic bags far outweigh the effort, causing these plastics to end up in landfills or nature where it would take hundreds of years for it to degrade. To help tackle the issue, ecoBali introduces the Netbag—an eco-friendly substitute for plastic bags. Its 4-in-1 bag options certainly makes it convenient for you to bring it anywhere, and  to carry your fresh produce at the traditional market or supermarket where, instead of plastic, you can use any of the bags to weigh your purchase.

Protecting our environment from the dangers of plastic bags is not easy, but we can start with something simple: using Netbag will help cut the plastic-based waste that goes into your bin. The Netbag promotes a zero-waste lifestyle, and by carrying one not only would you contribute to the reduce, refuse,  and reuse solution part of waste management but it will also make you rethink what you actually need.

Such as, do you really need that single-use plastic? The definitive answer is NO.

Where to Net Your Own Netbags

–          Drifter Surf Shop (Seminyak & Uluwatu

–          Bintang Supermarket (Seminyak & Ubud)

–          Puravida (Seminyak & Ubud)

–          Press Ban (Seminyak & Ubud)

–          Bali Buda (all outlets)

–          Warung- Warung (Jimbaran)

–          Tiara Gatsu Supermarket

–          ecoBali Office or website

–         Welcome Alternative Bags website.