Why I chose NOT to use Cotton Totes for this store
The weekend's weather was perfect for our brief escape from lockdown in Yass, I was so grateful for the opportunity to open the doors and welcome many of our beautiful hearted regulars into store.
I hope you too enjoyed magical moments in the small windows of opportunity to get out.
Today's focus is not going to be lockdown though, instead I want share why I chose to use brown kraft paper bags instead of cotton tote bags in store.
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Recently the New York Times shared the stats on 'The Cotton Tote Crisis', and the fact that...
"An organic cotton tote needs to be used 20,000 times to offset its overall impact of production. That equates to daily use for 54 years - for just one bag."
There were many more facts shared that were equally as alarming.
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When I first opened Creators Nest I did consider using cotton tote bags but decided (for many reasons) to use brown kraft paper bags with a postcard tied to it, instead of printing or stamping our branding on the bag.
This way once you've carted your goods home you can choose to do one of the following:
- Reuse it to gift something else to someone
- Fill it with your abundance of garden produce to share with others
- Tear it up and add it to your compost heap so it can become soil
- Use it to start your fire
- And of course you can place it in your recycling bin
But, if you don't have a reusable bag on you at the time of your visit, at least you know your brown paper bag can be reused in other ways and not add to the ever growing collection of 'unused reusable' store bags.
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Until we meet again in person, take care of yourself, your loved ones, our community & our world, do what inspires and uplifts you... we will get through this.
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