Review: Natural Collection's Little Green Bag

My colleague Sarah has reviewed another plastic bag alternative for the Old Bag Project, my bid to find the best alternatives to the distinctly non-eco-friendly plastic bags handed out willy nilly in shops across the land. Here are Sarah's thoughts on the Little Green Bag, available from the shopping site Natural Collection:

The Greenpeace offering for a plastic bag alternative draws inspiration from various much loved historical bags. It is not particularly little or green (it's cream), so why call it so? The "Little Green Bag" logo pays homage to the classic Manhattan department store Bloomingdales' "Little/Medium/Big Brown Bag", which became an iconic carrier of the nineties after being sported by members of the cast of Friends, and was as essential a souvenir of a visit to the Big Apple as an "I heart New York" T-shirt.

In size and shape it resembles the classic canvas book bag. Originally brought on to the market as a hipper way of transporting literary material between the library and study hall, it drove the Victorian satchel to near extinction. The trend was quickly seized upon by companies who cunningly exploited it for advertising purposes, cheaply printing and giving away bags plastered with their details. These ad bags recently experienced a resurgence in popularity, when they were discovered by a generation of charity shop and jumble sale fashionistas, the out-of-date slogans proudly worn with a certain irony.

Of course Little Green Bag is very green, in the other sense. It is 100% organic cotton and was made at a fair trade project in South India. And it can be little, reducing to a fraction of its original size to carry in your pocket or handbag. What a joy it is to politely decline a supermarket bag and smugly unfold this far superior model.   

Comments

[Frankie]

I've been to 2 academic meetings this year and where the organisers would traditionally give out something like a courier bag, they've been giving out these unbleached cotton bags with their logo printed on instead. Perfect I think. You can certainly have enough cheap courier bags but never enough of these. One is now my seeds bag and other goes with my bags for life to the supermarket.

[Layanee A. DeMerchant]

I have the recycled grocery bags...now if I can only remember to bring them into the store! On more than one occasion I have had to run back to the car. It is hard to break habits!

[Matron]

I agree with the above comment. I have loads of re-usable cotton, jute, hessian shopping bags - I just forget to take them to the store!

[Angela]

In comparison to the newest post on the Onya bag, I do prefer the longer handles but I think both are great finds.

[Graham]

For natural fibre bags check the selection at www.alburyenvirobags.com.au