Hello, I’m Falcon’s mom.

About a year ago two years ago in 2013, I won a free handmade fabric bag on line from Green Bag Lady. When I submitted my entry, I had to explain what I would do if I won. Part of the deal with getting a bag from Green Bag Lady, is that you have to pledge to refuse plastic and paper bags and in place commit to using reusable fabric bags.

I made a second pledge that day; that I would on occasion, when the timing was right, I would give a fabric bag to the person in a grocery check-out who doesn’t have their own bag. So far I have given away two bags.

The bags I give away are made by ChicoBag. I usually keep one or two extras in my purse specifically for this giving away purpose. Sometimes, I am bag short myself and have to use it.

True stories:

#1.  Woman in line behind me piling up her groceries on conveyor belt. Announces that she forgot her bags. She always brings her bag, but as she was driving to the store she remembered that she didn’t have them with her but couldn’t justify driving back home to get them. That seemed like a perfect opportunity to offer to give away my first bag! It was received very well. One less bag goes to landfill or to paper recycling depot.

#2.  Man ahead of me in line at grocery check-out. He was admiring the green produce bags made locally (in Vancouver) by Carebags. I gave him a brief explanation, that by using these bags I don’t need to use any plastic produce bags anymore. When it was his turn to pay, the cashier asked: “Paper or plastic?” To which he replied, “Plastic, but I will use it for garbage.” This was the perfect segue to offer a reusable bag. At first he didn’t want to accept and countered that he really could buy his own. In my head, I thought, ‘but you haven’t bought your own’ so I said, “Please take this, you would be doing me a favour because I’ve made a pledge that I would give a bag away to help keep plastic from going into landfill, besides you can pass if forward.” He took it with a smile and the cashier was thrilled. With a big smile she said how happy she was that this exchange happened at her till!