Reusable Bulk Bags

I have been reading through the book Zero Waste Home by Bea Johnson.  It has given me so much information regarding how to cut back and live a more simplified life and reduce my negative impact on the environment. We have all heard the idea of "recycle, reduce, reuse," and growing up in the San Francisco bay area ingrained the need in me to be nice to the environment.  Remember those t-shirt companies that did fundraisers at the school and sold shirts with the earth and animals and stuff on them?  I'm pretty sure I bought new shirts every time.  I was also known to wear a shirt with a giant buffalo on it for colorguard practice in high school. Yeah...

Anyway, in her book Bea Johnson lists her five most important R's for cutting down on waste.  Here they are:

1. Refuse: Stop accepting stuff you do not need, such as single-use plastics, freebies from parties/conferences/business/etc..., junk mail, and products with excessive packaging.
2. Reduce: Declutter! Donate or sell excess stuff in your home.  And stop buying stuff you don't need!  Shop less but shop with a purpose.
3. Reuse: Try to use more reusables instead of single-use products.  Be creative with what you have in your home.  Don't be scared of second-hand things.  Extend the life of things you do own - this also ties in with being a smart buyer.  Look for good-quality, long-lasting things for your home and avoid cheap materials and manufacturing.
4. Recycle: Know what can be recycled and what cannot.  Buy recycled goods and purchase things that you know can be recycled, in turn.  I recently discovered that our local waste management company has some great practices that I can participate in, such as a reuse shed to drop off and pick up leftover paint/household cleaners/etc... and additional recycling for materials that cannot be thrown in a curbside recycling bin (such as glass).
5. Rot: This means composting food waste and other biodegradable goods.  I had no idea how much household waste can actually be composted! I have definitely gone down the internet rabbit hole a time or two reading about different composting options while we are still living in an apartment.

It's a great book, and although I don't think I will ever be at the level of zero waste that her family is, I have more knowledge and ideas of how I can contribute to a zero-waste society.  One idea that I loved is the idea of reusable bulk bags.  I've become a big fan of shopping in bulk bins, but I hate how many little plastic bags are used in the process.  Bea Johnson suggests making small bags for this purpose and how to do this at the store, but there was no tutorial.  Thankfully, I found this tutorial online and it gave me a better idea of how to make them.  My bags actually had fewer steps, so I'll show you what I did.

First, I gathered my supplies, using only things I had at home:
1. An old, fitted crib sheet
2. Some cording
3. A small amount of thick plastic (I used the bag our bed sheets came in, but a plastic shower curtain works, too)
4. Sewing supplies (white thread, pins, a safety pin, scissors)

I had a moment of genius and decided to use the elastic casing around the edge of the sheet as the casing for my draw string, so that knocked out a big part of the sewing!  I cut the sheet down at the corners, pulled out the elastic, and then cut 6 lengths of various sizes.  Nothing was measured. I just eyeballed what the bags would look like when done and compared it to a plastic bulk bag I had. After they were cut out, I folded them in half and put the "right" sides together (so the nice part of the casing stitching is on the INSIDE). The casing is already sewn on top, and folding it in half cuts out another side stitch. So...you only have to sew 2 sides.  Seriously.

I took some pins and lined up those two rough edges to sew.  If you don't sew much, it's a good idea to place the pins facing out.  That way, you can sew right over the top of it and remove them all at the end.  You don't have to pull the pins out as you go. I cut out a small rectangle of that thick plastic, then inserted it between the two pieces of fabric and pinned it there.  This will be the little plastic tag you use to write the bin number on.

The pinned bag.  We're really roughing it with this tutorial, but I think anyone can do this.

Another shot of the plastic piece pinned between the fabrics.

Starting at the edge by the already-sewn casing, place your fabric and set up your machine.  It doesn't really matter how far into the fabric you sew, just as long as you go in a (somewhat) straight line. With my first bag I used a zigzag stitch, but then I switched to a straight stitch on the rest of them.  Just because.  I just figured if I put bulk sugar or something in there I wouldn't want it getting in the creases of the zigzag stitch. Is that a thing? I don't know.

Sew straight down that side, turn, and sew across the bottom, making sure to reverse stitch at the beginning and end to make sure it is closed up.

Yep.

I like to take scissors and trim off some of the excess fabric around the stitch. It looks a little more cleaned up.

Flip that bag inside out!  The bag is sewed, the casing is already done, and there is that plastic on the right side to write the bin number on!

I took my cord, eyeballed the size I would need, and used a safety pin to guide one end through the casing. After it was threaded through, I took off the safety pin, double-knotted each end, and burned the ends to stop them from fraying.

 And that is it, my friends. Reusable bulk bags made from stuff I had around the house.

My six bags of various sizes.

My reusable bulk bags next to the plastic bags I used to use.

And then came the moment of truth.  I took my bags into the store today, along with an erasable crayon and a laundry marker.  I headed straight to customer service and asked if I could get my bags pre-weighed so that cashiers could deduct the bag weight from the stuff I was trying to buy.  I'm pretty sure I'm the first to ever ask that question at that particular store, so after some thinking and chatting with a manager the poor worker took me to a cashier stand and weighed each bag for me.  I wrote the weight straight onto each bag, next to the plastic tags, with my laundry marker.  When checking out, I had to explain to the cashier what I wanted.  She was a good sport, and after fumbling around for a minute she got the system down by typing in the bin number first, weighing the bag, and then manually typing in the weight minus the weight of the bag.

I did it! I'm so happy it worked out!  Here are the different types of bags I take grocery shopping: Be Earthwise grocery bags and produce bags (both machine washable, as well), and my new bulk bags.  See the weight written on the bag and the bin number on the tag?  I even used one of my bigger bulk bags to grab a fresh loaf of sourdough bread.

Definitely a successful venture.