Choose reusable bags
Make the right statement
Your Challenge
When shopping, choose a reusable bag to carry your items, instead of disposable bags. This includes avoiding paper and plastic carrier bags, both of which have limited use before needing to be thrown away.
There are lots of options for reusable bags. Some pack small enough to fit into your pocket or handbag, and many options are made from stronger materials such as jute, hemp and thicker cotton, so they last longer and can carry heavier contents.
For small trips to the local shop (rather than your big weekly shop), try lighter bags such as recycled plastic or thin cotton.
The WWF online shop has some options you can explore, and as a My Footprint App user, you can receive an exclusive 10% discount on all merchandise by using the code APP10.
Why you're doing this
Plastic carrier bags are made from fossil fuels. We need to keep these in the ground and reduce the environmental harm done by extracting them.
Plastic carrier bags are also a burden on the natural environment. If they enter the sea and ocean, they harm marine life including whales and turtles which can mistake them for jellyfish, with fatal results.
If a carrier bag degrades on land, it will break down into microplastics that remain in the environment, resulting in plastic pollution.
The solution is not just to swap to paper bags – these require more energy to produce [1] and, unless sourced from FSC-certified or 100% recycled paper, they may be connected to deforestation.
By refusing any bag that you don’t need, and choosing a better quality bag for life that will last longer, you’ll be helping to protect the planet’s resources, reduce emissions and pollution, and slow climate change.
How you'll make a difference
Carrier bags are often only used a handful of times before being thrown away, and for many of us they can’t be recycled at home. A more sustainable alternative is to bring a reusable bag from home with you.
Although reusable bags have a larger footprint during production compared with a plastic carrier bag, the more you reuse them the lower this footprint becomes. For example, you need to reuse a cotton bag 131-400 times [2] (depending on how many times a carrier bag would be reused), for it to be lower than the plastic version. This sounds like a lot, but if we take our reusable bags everywhere with us, we can easily achieve it.
Take a stand against unnecessary plastic production, and illegal deforestation, by choosing a reusable bag.
Track your progress
in the My Footprint App
Track your progress and discover many more challenges in the My Footprint app. Available for iOS and Android devices.
