Should parents bring infants to fine dining restaurants?
Our kitchen drawers and cupboards are full of them and environmentalists estimate that we go through between 500 billion and a trillion plastic shopping bags every year. Scarier still, it takes an average of 1,000 years for a conventional plastic bag to break down.
And paper isn't much better: although it's biodegradable, it takes more energy and creates more air and water pollution to make a paper bag than a plastic one.
It's no wonder then, that so many stores (and even some cities) are doing away with -- or at least trying to reduce the use of -- disposable bags.
Once associated mostly with radical tree-hugging types, bring-your-own bags have moved into the mainstream.
Every shop, it seems, offers low-cost ones that can be used again and again. Some of them are surprisingly stylish, and most are suddenly trendy. Case in point, the Anya Hindmarch tote featured here: it sold out immediately in Britain and, at about $20, is this season's unlikeliest It bag.
- Lululemon, free with purchase: If you can overlook the hippie-dippie slogans printed all over one side ("Creativity is maximized when you're living in the moment"), you'll love this bag. The price is right too, except when you realize you'll likely spend $80 on a pair of yoga pants to get one.
- MEC bag: $9.
99 Made from organic cotton, this bag, while not very flashy, has a front pocket to keep smaller items.
- Roots Eco Bag, $14.95: Every time you use this cotton bag, adorned with a vintage 1970s Roots logo, you will get 10 per cent off your purchases at any Roots store.
Available in white, black, and green.
- Anya Hindmarch shopping bag, $18: This bag, designed by Anya Hindmarch in collaboration with the We Are What We Do environmental movement, was almost instantly sold out in its native Britain after being seen on celebs like Lily Allen and Keira Knightley. At some Sainsbury's locations, shoppers camped out from 2 a.
m. to get one, and all 450 locations of the store were sold out of the bags by 9 a.m.
the day they were launched. Made of cream-coloured cotton with navy blue piping, the bags will be available starting June 20 at Holt Renfrew.
- Chapters magazine bag, $9.
99: Made of organic cotton, these bags printed with the names of every famous Canadian from Lucy Maud Montgomery to William Shatner are sure to satisfy CanCon regulations. Proceeds from these bags go toward the Indigo Love of Reading Fund.
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