If it's free, will it be worthwhile?
When something is free, we tend to take it, whether or not we need it. Then it sits in the back of a closet or cabinet, taking up space and contributing to more wasteful consumption. Cheap reusable bags run the risk of becoming glorified one-timer bags. Soon, you could have a cabinet or closet full of cheap reusable bags that aren't being used, which ends up rivaling your former plastic and paper bag collection - and adds more trash to landfills.

Quality, not quantity.
Instead of more bags, our advice is to own a handful of attractive, practical, high-quality bags that you really like, and will really use. Durable bags from a trusted source will minimize waste and minimize headaches. Instead of choosing from a heaping pile of cheap or free reusable bags, you'll have your tried and true favorites and be on your way to reducing consumption. Simple and efficient.

Recycling Can Fix Everything, Right? Wrong

Recycling has its place -- in fact, we offer bags made of recycled fabrics because we support sustainable paths for the world's overabundance of plastic. However, it's not the only solution to the plastic bag problem. Recycling rates for plastic bags are extremely low. Only 1 to 3% of plastic bags end up getting recycled. In addition, economics of recycling plastic bags are not appealing. From the process of sorting, to the contamination of inks and the overall low quality of the plastic used in plastics bags, recyclers would much rather focus on recycling the vast quantities of more viable materials such as soda and milk bottles that can be recycled far more efficiently. If the economics don't work, recycling efforts don't work. For example, it costs $4,000 to process and recycle 1 ton of plastic bags, which can then be sold on the commodities market for $32.

Furthermore many bags collected for recycling never get recycled. A growing trend is to ship them to Third world countries like Pakistan and China which are rapidly becoming the dumping grounds for the Western world's glut of recyclables. Rather than being recycled they are cheaply incinerated under more lax environmental laws. Even if recycling rates of plastic bags increase dramatically, it doesn't solve other significant problems, such as the use of non-renewable resources and toxic chemicals in their original production, or the billions of bags that wind up in our environment each year that eventually breakdown into tiny toxic bits. What to do? Choose to reuse!