Oh no oh no I hate these bags! Sorry. Anya Hindmarch is obviously well-intentioned, and they are pretty, but I haven't seen a single person using one as a grocery bag. I always see people using them as handbags and carrying a load of plastic bags at the same time. Grrr!

Check out the discussion at Jezebel:

http://jezebel.com/gossip/designer-dispatch/nyc-label-whores-are-suckers-soaked-279707.php

I think the consensus is that although Anya Hindmarch means well, the people who are buying this bag do not care about saving plastic bags or the environmental message it intends, and only want it because they saw some celebrity carrying it.

Also, are these even made from organic or sustainable fibers??

doesn't this coincide with the whole greenwash idea - and that the three steps are REDUCE, REUSE AND RECYCLE - not just recycle so you can buy new things.

$15? That's a little pricey. Plus, I would need like 6 of them! I never go to the store just filling up one bag.

i met someone who owns one and says it is already falling apart after a few weeks. oh well...

And instead of using the thousand bags I have collected in a closet at home, I'm going to buy this extra one just because it's not plastic. :) :)

Following Preston's train-of-thought ...

As we switch over to non-plastic shopping bags, what should we use for throwing out the trash? Are there brands on the market that decompose more quickly than those we use to carry home our groceries?

If so, then maybe we should make our shopping bags out recycled material that breaks down quickly and take the trash bags you purchase off the market. That way people would be forced to recycle/reuse what they have.

Probably not a real solution but a different approach.

I agree with much of the sentiment above. Just like the Harry Potter series didn't increase reading in children I doubt these "trendy" bags will have much of an impact or bring much awareness to the cause. Some may love the bag, but will they use it for it's purpose and when the bag is gone or no longer trendy will they continue the good habit? I am not convinced.

The idea of environmental awareness as trendy scare me, because trends usually end and when they do, no one cares about them much anymore. If you are really concerned about the environment, you have already reconciled to make changes first, aesthetics is secondary.

I think it's all well and good to have something fashionable and green, but if you're not concerned with the latter, it's not going to transfer over much into your future habits.

i've been hauling a plastic rubbermaid container to the farmer's market every Saturday because I already had it and don't want to go buy MORE bags. Yeah, it's plastic, but I intend to use the heck out of it...then maybe I'll switch to using old pillow cases or something I already have....

These are all currently around $150 on eBay. I haven't seen this much eBay action on a bag since the Murakami Louis Vuittons.

I think if fashion forces previously unaware or uncaring people to quit using the plastic bags, who cares? I have shared Gravity's concerns with environmental awareness being trendy, as it could become a pashmina all the sudden (i.e. a passing trend).

I'm really enjoying AT Green, great work!

Becky

cisc...thanks for the link. My first thought was "yeah, how cool is that? An eco bag mfg in a sweatshop in China". Sadly my pessimism was right on.

I never thought I'd prefer San Francisco's approach of just plain banning plastic grocery bags over anything, but this one really strikes me as more a ploy to sell bags than a way of making a different form of grocery shopping trendy. If your "I'm Not a Plastic Bag" bag is a valuable celebrity fashion item, are you going to haul it to the A&P every couple of days, get it grimy, spill things on it, shove it in the car, etc.? Or are you going to use it as a handbag, as tin_angel has seen happen?

If using canvas is going to be trendy, it needs to take the form of cute 99-cent bags where a normal person can own five or six, abuse them mercilessly, and replace them as needed. My new schtick -- since I haven't gone to any conferences with freebies lately -- is to buy 99-cent totes advertising chains that don't have stores in Arizona. This is either a brilliant conversation-starter or incredibly annoying of me.

i got one as a gift a few weeks ago. nice but certainly not practical for groceries although i've been using it for other errands to eliminate the inevitable plastic bag. for groceries i use a string bag or one of those mesh plaid bags from mexico.

I'm with Leslie... I've said this before too -- how will we throw out the trash then? BUY more trash bags? How is that being green? Most of us who are sensible are already re-using and recycling the grocery store plastic bags -- we just don't necessarily bring them back to the supermarket. Make the bags biodegradable, and/or have stricter but more convenient ways of recycling unusable plastic bags so they can be re-born is a better methodology IMHO.

Maybe it's all a conspiracy -- people who are against plastic bags simply think they're ugly and want them banned. ;-)

BTW, "I'm Not A Plastic Bag"?! Irony is so 2006. I can't believe there are so many trendoids out there.

Hee hee "so 2006"! I was wondering about biodgradable bin liners tho (as you do...!) cos i've run out of plastic bags now. Ecover makes them and so does a Scottish company called Biobags but I've only seen them online, in the uk anyway. Think i'll have to investigate!

These bags caused quite a bit of controversy in the UK due to all the issues you mention above - they instantly became cult items because of the designer name attached and people were simply buying them for handbags not using them to replace plastic supermarket bags - it was certainly good publicity for Anya Hindmarch...

Well, with grocery stores putting maybe two items in each plastic bag, we're stocked up for kitchen garbage and litter-box cleaning through about 2010. If we only acquire plastic grocery bags when I forget to bring canvas, we should be able to keep well-stocked. (That's why I don't like outright bans, though.)

THAT's what I meant to say -- we started using canvas NOT for environmental reasons but because it seemed wasteful and cluttered to have quite such an excess of plastic bags stored under the sink.

I'm a fan of the 99 cent Trader Joe reusable bags for my groceries. I bought four of them for less than $4 and I use them all the time -- plus they are sturdy as heck.

Sexy reusable bags that everyone covets when I go to Trader Joes or Whole Foods http://usa.envirosax.com/index.php. They are not green in their making but they reduce my consumption of plastic bags so I dont add to the pile under the sink.

The guy at the Bowery Whole Foods said that these sold out in two hours yesterday.

All I really want is one of those string bags and I can't seem to find one.

Cassie, here is a link to a site that sells string bags. http://www.reusablebags.com/store/shopping-bags-string-bags-c-2_8.html

We just switched exclusively to canvas bags (a combo of Trader Joe's bags and string bags with extra long handles) about a year ago. We have saved every plastic bag for years and use them as garbage and kitty litter disposal bags, but we've started running out. We bought small bio bags for daily kitty litter tossing (http://www.biobagusa.com/index.htm) and use about one grocery store plastic bag a week for trash.

As our plastic bag supply dwindled to almost nothing we were trying to figure out what to do about garbage bags. My husband noticed that one of his friends brought her lunch to work in a plastic bag every day and tossed it when she was done. He started bringing her lunch bag home, someone else noticed and gave him a bunch of plastic bags, too, and now we have a lot of them again. I don't think this is the best answer, but we've decided using them for our garbage is better then them getting tossed like they would have.

I find string bags a little awkward, but I'll definitely check the Trader Joe's bags. I use those cloth bags one receives at conferences to hold your "goodies" - the two I have are six years old and still going strong.

Has anyone seen the pages and pages of Hindmarch bags on craigslist?! Crazy.

ooop realized the link i posted is dead. its www.envirosax.com .

I actually like this bag. I would not use it for my grocery store trips, but for the drugstore or for other small stores where I do not buy much at one time. Also, as for what the bag is made of, all of the other 99 cent bags I have are made in China and I am pretty sure are not made out of anything special. The point is that you are buying them one time and them reusing them for a long time instead of getting new plastic bags every time. I am all for sustainable things and fair trade certified goods, but I feel that I am making at least some difference by using about 30 less plastic bags a week. Also, the plastic bags I have saved for over a year since I have felt too guilty to throw them out are now the only trash bags we use. We go through about a full one a day, and that is with two small children. I think I have enough for about 6 months, and then I am not sure what we will use.

I have one of these Anya Hindmarch bags and I love it. I think a lot of Americans (those not in large cities) are forgetting that these originally were created for a European audience who go to the market once a day or so and usually only buy the things they need for the next 2 days so that type of quantity can easily fit in this bag. I choose to keep it in my car and use it for when I run into a corner store or a place where I know I'll only be buying a few items. The other day I was able to put about $30 worth of grocery items in it with no problem (including a loaf of bread).

And yes...I like that not everyone has one. I think it draws attention to it and makes people think "maybe I shouldn't be carrying these 6 plastic bags". Which I think is the entire point of the bag. Thus the very large writing on the side. So what if people are using them as a purse instead? At least the idea is out there for the people that see it. JMO.