Paul's Internet Landfill/ 2023/ Reusable Bags Are Awful

Reusable Bags Are Awful

This entry is prompted by a Dollarama reusable bag I own. It reads "I'm Reusable and Recyclable"

Dollarama bag claiming to be reusable and recyclable.

The first claim -- that the bag is recyclable -- is almost certainly false. The Region of Waterloo Waste Whiz claims that these reusable bags are garbage. Indeed, Dollarama seems to have recognised its error: newer versions of this bag read "I'm Reusable" and have dropped the part about being recyclable.

In principle, the second claim is true. The bag is kind of reusable, in the sense that if you are a cheapskate idiot you can bring it into the store again and again. But in that sense regular plastic bags are also reusable, until they break.

That, in fact, is the point. These so-called "reusable" bags break readily. Most often they get punctured by something sharp and develop a tear. Unlike a plastic bag the tear can sometimes be repaired by sewing the bag, but few people seem willing to do this for a 33 cent bag. More often, people seem to treat these bags as more expensive plastic bags. I have frequently seen people use these bags as garbage bags. I have to wonder how frequently these bags are actually reused. If the number is not that high then using the equivalent number of plastic bags might actually be better for the environment than these reusable bags. After all, these bags are also plastic bags -- they are made from hydrocarbon fibre. Birds can still swallow fragments. They can still break down into microplastics. Unless these reusable bags actually reduce the impact of plastic waste, I am not seeing the environmental win.

(Let's not forget that these Dollarama bags are often used to transport overpackaged plastic goods in the first place. In that sense they make the plastic problem worse.)

These bags have one unambiguous advantage over regular plastic bags: you can wash them. I do this and am relatively pleased with the results, but I am an outlier freak.

In addition to these thin cheap reusable bags, some places (like grocery stores) offer more robust bags that happen to be more expensive. For some time (maybe a couple of years?) I used one of those more robust bags from Food Basics. Here were the results:

Degraded Food Basics bag, side one. There is a tear at the bottom
and half the bag has worn off.

Degraded Food Basics bag, side two. It is barely legible.

As you can see, the results are horrible. Not only does the bag fade, but it breaks down in a really harmful way. Small bits of plastic flake off the bag, resulting in a lot of microplastic waste.

There is a third category of reusable bags: the sturdy canvas bag made of plant-based cloth. These used to be common twenty years ago, but are hard to find now. I have seen examples of bags that look like they are canvas or cotton, but which were lined inside with plastic.

Canvas/cloth bags are much more expensive to produce (both in cost and environmental impact) than plastic bags. But in my experience they can last quite long before they break down. Usually they break either by getting a puncture, or if a strap breaks. Failing that, a thick sturdy canvas bag can last years. Furthermore, if they are actual plant fiber fabrics, the environment can compost them more effectively than plastic.

There was a famous argument posited in the New York Times that said that reusable cloth bags were so much worse than plastic that you would never be able to make up the difference. But we do not make these kinds of arguments for other cloth items, such as t-shirts. I feel that matters.

These days the best source of fabric bags seems to be thrift stores. I have found several of reasonable quality at Thrift on Kent. Since then I have avoided the thinner bags for carrying heavy loads. I use a few of the thinner bags to carry produce that can get squishy, since I can subsequently wash those bags. But overall I think heavy canvas is the way to go.