Cotton Muslin Produce Bags

The clique zero waste produce muslin bags. That save turtles, whales and other marine animals and birds from another mistaken jelly fish plastic bag that might end up in the oceans and seas and subsequent digestive death. Or from land animals and birds the same fate.   

I don’t know why I didn’t order these as the beginning of my recycle less journey. The main reason I didn’t think to. Some in a local organic shop caught my eye, however they were polyester or nylon. A lady using them in another local organic supermarket chain spurred me on. I knew the organic produce shops would accept them, I was unsure if my local big chain supermarket would. After asking 3 different members of staff on different days with the same answer, yes, iherb.com was the most convenient place to order them from. I was quite surprised how inexpensive they are, €2 for 1 organic Fair Wage/Fair Labour cotton medium size bag by Eco Bags.

I’ve experienced zero issues in shops using them. Honestly nobody has batted an eyelid, which is a little disappointing. I want to be a champion for others to start or at least acknowledgment, for others to see and think if she’s using them, so can I!! Insert crying face emoji. You’re not that special Nat! That’s a lie, one person has but it was so brief and being British, I didn’t want to make a big deal about it, even though inside I was YES! I wonder if others will start now? We get it Nat! It’s not about you, it’s about the planet. Saving marine chicks to reach adulthood by not being fed diet of plastic waste and having humans flush out plastic pegs, toothbrushes giving them a chance to live. Every little helps, no matter how small it seems.

How practical are they?

Each bag comes with a label stating it’s weight which is handy should any issues arise although the shop wins every time. One member of staff at my local supermarket if I use the heavier weave bag, takes out the produce, weighs it separately, then puts in back in the bag saying it weighs more than the plastic bags. This had briefly crossed my mind when first started using them. I didn’t want to make a fuss as I don’t want to switch back to the plastic produce bags, so kept quiet. It’s only a few cents, however I was surprised he did this! I was concerned there’d be an issue at the self checkout scales/bagging area due to weight discrepancy. The scales didn’t notice 🙂

The bags are feather lightweight, fold up small but don’t expect them to stay flat or folded up. You’ll need another bag to store them in (yep in a small plastic bag so they keep clean and away from a nasties in my rucksack. I get the irony. I’m not 100% anti plastic. It’s unavoidable. I try to go for the less plastic, plastic free option and try to avoid one use throwaway plastic). They’re machine washable and dry quickly. They expand so you can fit quite at lot in. The only plastic involved depending on the store’s, the price label. That doesn’t always adhere. A quick hunt checking other items for it in the basket, holding up the queue sorts that out. The bags packaging’s simple. They come as they are with a cardboard tag and natural fibre string tag. Only plastic iherb.com’s packing shipping plastic.

Please excuse the difference in image tones and colours. Some photos were taken on different days.

Do you try to avoid plastic grocery shopping? I try to however so much produce is pre packaged in plastic it’s unavoidable. The time I shop, I’ll never make the markets and I can’t get bio produce all the time which has less plastic as it costs a fortune. Instead I try to stick to avoiding the dirty dozen she says buying peaches.