My addiction for reuseable bags
December 18, 2011 By: Amruta Kshemkalyani

Recently while walking past a shop in a mall, one cotton bag caught my attention. So I decided to buy that bag though I have a huge collection of eco-friendly bags at home. The instant response from my husband on it was, ” You have some magnetic attraction towards the sustainable bags, you track them from anywhere in the World!” My husband’s this reaction made me realize that I have an addiction to eco-friendly bags! LOL…Yes, you may find it funny, but there is a psychology behind it.

Click here to order these Tribe Jute Bags

Honestly speaking I don’t look for those bags, but I stumble upon them. I am always interested in environmental news, campaigns & awareness and this leads to a collection of eco-friendly bags. Because I believe in “Say no to only Plastic Bags but not to Eco-friendly Bag though!”

To get an overview of my addiction I checked out the place of these Eco-friendly bags in my life. I have around 20-25 eco-friendly bags at home!!! A very few of them I bought & other I collected from wherever I get them! The regular places of collecting these bags are sustainability/ environmental conferences or shopping from environmentally aware shops/brands.

My everyday tiffin bag to office is a cute tiny cotton bag by Environment & Protected areas of authority, Sharjah. This is such a convenient & good looking bag with logo in English & Arabic. The added advantage is the bag is well suited to my job profile. Some of my office colleagues always enquire about it or appreciate it.

Reusable Bags for Shopping & Going Out

I always keep one cotton bag in each of my purse and few in my car boot. Whenever I buy something, I say no to plastic bags & use these reusable bags. I sort of feel proud, when I hang the eco-friendly bag on my shoulder on any dress. I use the jute bags when going outdoors or for bulk shopping. Nowadays when my son comes along with me for grocery shopping, I ask him to carry his cute little reusable shopping bag. He helps me in grocery shopping and even carries a few things in his bag. I believe we need to teach our children from a young age about using reusable bags and saying no to plastic

I have specially dedicated some jute bags for camping, beach & outdoor fun. I like the bags, on which some awareness message is printed instead of brand names. Some of the bags are a souvenir of some trip or some event. The green bag from Paddy’s market in Sydney is just one example.

My most favorite eco-friendly bag is from Beeah, Sharjah on which message is printed, “I care Do you?” (read here about Beeah, a recycling champion in UAE)

Every Day Is Plastic Bag Free Day

I like to involve everyone around me in my plastic bag free lifestyle. I love to give away the eco-friendly bags from my collection to friends, family, and fellow bloggers. Many of my friends even know that I am the right person to ask for cotton bags. I have gifted these bags to my office colleagues as well. These eco-friendly jute bags I gifted to attendees of my #ZeroWAsteUAE initiative launch event, read more about it here. I love to take this bag to the beach. The story behind these bags is equally interesting. Read here how special needs students made these bags in UAE.

So much is my love for these reusable bags that now I know almost all types of reusable bags. Tote bags can be used instead of a handbag or you can keep a foldable tote in your handbag for easy access to reusable bag on the go. Drawstring bags have become my favorite these days since I started my zero waste lifestyle. They are so useful for vegetable or grocery shopping or for storing so many things. You can read here about our #ZeroWasteUAE initiative. So it was natural for me to get my own Tribe Jute Bags at some point. Recently when I went to India, I sourced these natural jute thread bags with a traditional twist and got them printed with Sustainability Tribe logo, especially for our Tribe here in UAE. So if you like these bags, just contact me here or go to our FB page to order these limited edition Tribe Jute Bags!