Mini Challenge Week One: BYOBag

Did you know:
. Americans use about 100 billion plastic bags per year
. You can drive one mile with the oil required to make just 14 plastic bags
. It’s estimated to take 500+ years for a plastic bag to break down in a landfill.

So, stock up on some truly reusable shopping bags. Keep some in your car or purse so you will always have them on hand.  Post your challenge wins and fails with #HOKplasticfreechallenge for a chance to win each week.

Here are a few of the reusable bags from my collection!  These are the ones we keep in the house.  I keep one in my purse and try to keep a few in the car at all times too.  Having them in so many places really does make it easier to stick with the habit of not using plastic bags.

HOK Staff Story...

​Sunday is grocery day at my house, and it’s kind of a family affair. Not only do we like to do the grocery shopping together, but we also take time to plan our menu (so we know exactly what to buy) and prep lunches and snacks for the week. We have been in this routine for quite a few years now and it definitely helps keep us on track with healthy meals and snacks but it took time make it an easy routine.
 
It also took time to make bringing our own bags part of the routine. In the beginning, even if I remembered to bring bags sometimes I’d forget them in the car. Countless times I’ve stepped up to the register, reusable bag on my arm (or in my purse), watched my groceries be bagged and THEN remembered that I had my own bag. Then along came my husband, I had to buy some ‘manly’ reusable bags to get him onboard and now he even uses the bags to pack his daily lunch. WIN!
 
So yesterday, as we were in the checkout line, I ran outside to grab a box of cookies from the hypnotizingly cute little Girl Scouts, and then met my husband at the car. As we were loading the groceries I noticed it...a plastic bag, GASP! There it was mixed in with 4 of our 5 reusable bags, and all it had in it was the 2 packs of ground turkey. I held up the bag towards my husband with a questioning look (he knows about the month of mini challenges) and he said it was for the meat with an apologetic look. I’ll blame the bagger ;) because I would have chose to use our own bag to separate meat rather than use a plastic bag. So there we have it, challenge FAIL. 
 
Next time I’ll try not to get distracted by the Girl Scout cookies!