The Environmental Protection Agency has been collecting data on plastic bags for over a decade. They've found that only about 2% of plastic bags are ever recycled in the United States. This number is appallingly low and certainly explains a portion of the incredibly high plastic pollution levels our oceans face today. Getting people to switch to reusable bags, however, isn't as easy as one would hope.
Though this likely has less to do with a malicious contempt for nature and more to do with an ingrained behavioral pattern, consumers are still slow on adopting reusable bags. Here are some ways to persuade people to make a change in their habits.
1. Food Preservation
For people who care a little about the environment, but are more focused on not wasting any of the food they bought, there's an option in insulated bags. Keep your hot food toasty and your cold food chilled in insulated bags. Very few things are as gross and disappointing as curdled milk that you wanted to drink after a long shopping trip. Insulated bags ensure you won't need to cope with this problem anymore.
2. Custom Designs
For fashion-forward folks focused on aesthetic flair, custom insulated bags idiomatically kill two birds with one stone. Custom insulated bags do everything that regular insulated bags are perfect for, but also look great. Whatever you want your bag to reflect about your personality, you can design it to do so. You can't get that with plastic grocery bags.
3. Strength
Now here's where reusable bags really shine (other than being an environmentally preferable option). Your bags will never rip or break open on the way back from the store. This makes milk, watermelon, and big bags of rice much easier to carry from the car to the kitchen.
Outside of the many important ethical environmental concerns reusable bags aim to tackle, they also solve practical issues. Keeping your food fresh, your image fresher, and your heavier groceries safe from falling is just the beginning of the benefits of reusable bags. Once consumers open up to these ideas, they should start appreciating the environmental impact as well.
