Horticultural

Review: the Onya bag

When I was sent the Onya bag to review for the Old Bag Project, my one-blog mission to find the best alternative to the plastic bag, I was immediately impressed. For a start it comes in its own little storage pouch and is super-light; the mini-carabiner attached to the pouch makes it perfect for hanging off the handle of my handbag or the pushchair - hence you've always got this bag, er, "Onya".

I wasn't disappointed once I'd tried it out, either. It's the only bag I've tried that I actually remembered to carry about with me, and it has a Tardis-like quality of fitting a lot more shopping into it than you'd think. It's made of parachute material so the Onya's really strong, too. At £6.50 it won't break the bank, but this bag is stylish enough to pull out in a clothes shop to put your purchases in and turn down the thick glossy plastic number offered to you by the shop assistant.

My only tiny criticism is that I'd prefer the handles to be longer - but you can get a shoulder bag version so my quibble is a tiny one.

The Old Bag Project rating for the Onya bag:

Verdict: Strong, light and very very green (ok, it actually comes in a range of colours)

(By the way, this doesn't mean my search is over. If you of a bag that you think is even better than the Onya, let me know).

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.   

Review: Natural Collection's String Bag

Here's another review of a reusable bag as the latest addition to The Old Bag Project; this time it's from my colleague Kirsten. She's been trialling a string bag from the eco-friendly shopping site Natural Collection. Without further ado, it's over to Kirsten:

This goes everywhere with me, taking up minimal space in the bottom of the other bag that goes everywhere with me, my rucksack. As a result the string bag has found itself carrying everything from large hardback library books, to spiky pineapples, and buckets and spades. It has proved up to the job every time and my main concern – that the cotton would rip when anything relatively sharp was carried in it – has so far proven unfounded, as the above examples illustrate.

My second concern was that items might fall out of the bag, but when you think about it (and as I found when I tested it), as long as your items are larger than the largest expanded hole of the bag, there’s no reason why this should happen. As such, I even carry my house keys in the bag sometimes and they stay secure. Well, the keys sometimes poke out, but there is no way the ornament on the end of them is going to escape. However, while items may rarely escape, that doesn’t stop other things creeping in. If you don’t like dirt or sand in your sarnies, don’t take this bag to the allotment or the beach. Or at least, don’t carry the sarnies in your string bag – put your buckets or spades in it instead.

My third and final concern – that your bag goodies are always on show. It’s not the best thing to have your keys on show, or your wallet or cellphone. And then, do you really want people to see all the other things you’re carrying? It has made me more aware of what I’m carrying and how other people might view those goodies, but generally I have found it doesn’t bother me. And in fact, the cream cotton stands out enough to distract the eye from the contents.

The one thing that did surprise me was how much the bag can hold. While it’s relatively small when carrying just a few items, its potential for expansion seems endless. The most I’ve got in it so far is my weekly shop of fruit and veg: a lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, apples, oranges, bananas, broccoli, mushrooms and half a dozen eggs. That’s great in terms of the bag’s volume. Not so great in terms of the accompanying weight (although the soft cotton means the handles don’t cut into your fingers). Probably the ideal situation would be to have two string bags to balance the load. And a second bag stuffed in the rucksack would still barely make a difference to that bag’s remaining capacity.

I haven’t measured the bag against Jane’s criteria, but if I did it would get five out of five in terms of scrunchability and washability. But I would give it only two out of five on portability – it definitely doesn’t fit over the shoulder if that’s what you’re after; and while you can carry the bag by your side without it hitting the ground, it does bang into steps when tackling the stairs. While I have highlighted my initial concerns with the bag, most of these have proven unfounded and I am really happy with it (which I must thank Jane for giving me to review). It’s small, but big; soft, yet hardy. Basically it has taken everything I’ve thrown in it so far and I still feel it hasn’t yet shown its full potential.

Review: The Anya Hindmarch 'I'm Not Plastic Bag' bag

So the waiting is finally over. I have my coveted Anya Hindmarch I'm Not a Plastic Bag bag.

Currently selling for oodles of cash on eBay, this bag is the hot plastic bag alternative of the moment. But does it actually work?

What I mean by that is, does it fit the criteria I've already set down for assessing bags I review for the Old Bag Project, namely:

1. The bag must be lightweight and easy to fold (scrunch?) up into my handbag to take along on shopping trips until needed.
2. It must be washable: no point in buying a lovely bag if you can't get that jam stain out.
3. It must have handles long enough to serve as a shoulder bag and short enough that the bag doesn't drag on the floor when I hold it with arms by my side.

On point one, it's not the slimmest of bags, so it won't scrunch up at the bottom of your handbag, but that's not the point with this particular number: it's one to see and be seen with casually draped over your shoulder.  One point two, the jury is still out, but I suspect this bag fails. There appears to be some kind of stitched-in stiffened base, possibly made of cardboard, which would probably make washing a no-no, which is a shame for a pale cream bag that will probably get grubby rather fast. But it scores full marks on point three: the woven string handles are lovely, and exactly the right length.

If you are a bit of a style maven, this bag is a must-have, and all my quibbles about washability will pale into insignificance amid the sheer desirability of the item. If on the other hand you're more worried about sustainability that street cred, I wouldn't worry about hunting down one of these bags: there are dozens of alternatives that are good, if not better, and the likelihood of you being mugged on the street for your old string bag is a lot less than for anyone carrying Anya Hindmarch's creation.

The Old Bag Project rating for the I'm Not a Plastic Bag bag:

Verdict: Chic carry option that puts style above substance

Find out what my Old Bag Project is all about.

The I'm Not a Plastic Bag saga

As I mentioned in my inaugural post for The Old Bag Project, my bid to find the best alternatives to plastic bags, I've been trying to lay my hands on the new Anya Hindmarch-designed bag that's due to go on sale in branches of Sainsbury next month.   

I've had mixed feelings about this bag since I learned more about it, not least because, as a post on Guardian Unlimited's News blog written by one of my colleagues points out today, it's ironic that a product that is meant to reduce plastic bag consumption has instead fostered a celebrity-inspired media frenzy which has culminated in the bags being offered on eBay for far more than their original price.

One has to speculate at how many plastic bags will be saved by the owners of these designer numbers as a result of their purchase: I hope it's many thousands, but then one could have just as easily spent pennies on a cheap cloth bag from a charity shop or made your own chic bag made of recycled plastic bags.

Still, as we all know, it's not easy being green, and I am not alone in being a mass of contradictions when it comes to my purchasing habits. So I've been trying to buy one for review purposes for the Old Bag Project and finally, almost by chance, today, the site was working and I managed to buy one - I think. The order certainly went through anyway. When it turns up I shall, of course, review it here - then it'll be going to Canada into the hands of my sister who is far more stylish than me and will no doubt make good use of it.

Review: Carry-a-Bag's Dig Your Veg bag

So here's my first product review for The Old Bag Project: my personal mission to find the best alternative to a plastic bag.

Dig your veg bag from Carry-a-Bag

Weighing in at £25 a throw plus £2.50 P&P, it's not the cheapest of options, but this bag is one for those of you who want a well-made bag that won't flinch from a heavy load of fresh veg or your week's shopping at the farmer's market, is durable and looks rather stylish too.

This bag also has the bonus of being fully reversible, so if you get fed up of the pattern on the outside you can ring the changes. If you want to use it for work, the dig your veg bag is big enough to fit a newspaper, your lunchbox and some A4 files in, and crucially, the handles are just the right length to wear over your shoulder or carried at arm's length without dragging on the floor.

I suspect the fabric - vintage cotton recycled from curtains or table cloths - will survive lots of washes, which is crucial if, like me, your bag gets trailed along dirty train carriages or even plonked on the bench of your shed.

Sally Walton's Carry-a-Bag site offers cloth shopping bags in a variety of designs: you can also ask her to make a bag specifically for a special occasion.

The Old Bag Project rating for the dig your veg bag:

Verdict: a quality bag that will outlast the most sturdy plastic job, but not a cheap option

Want to read more about The Old Bag Project? It's all explained here.

The Old Bag Project - an introduction

"Just say no".

That's been my policy for some time now on plastic bags handed out with abandon in almost every shop across the land. Despite that, I still seem to have a nest of them in every cupboard and hidey hole - are they breeding, I wonder?

The average household gets through more than 300 annually (that's nearly one for every day!) and that the vast majority end up in landfill, littering the streets or hanging from trees as witches' knickers. Often I end up with plastic bags because I forget to take along any alternative, or because I am simply too lazy to carry a bag around with me. And there's only so many plastic bags you can reuse as bin liners, after all.

Which set me thinking: can I find the ultimate plastic bag alternative - the ultimate reusable bag?

And so the Old Bag Project was born - my hunt for the best reusable bag I can get my hands on. Over the next few weeks I will be trying out various bags made of cloth and other materials, and reviewing them here on Horticultural. I'd like you to help, too - tell me which reusable bags you've tried, which ones work, and which don't, and I'll put your reviews on Horticultural.

I'll be testing bags against my main requirements, which are as follows:

1. The bag must be lightweight and easy to fold (scrunch?) up into my handbag to take along on shopping trips until needed.
2. It must be washable: no point in buying a lovely bag if you can't get that jam stain out.
3. It must have handles long enough to serve as a shoulder bag and short enough that the bag doesn't drag on the floor when I hold it with arms by my side.

I'm currently trying out a "Dig Your Veg" bag sent to me for review by Sally Walton of Carry-a-Bag, which you can see pictured above: a review will follow shortly. Then in the coming weeks I'll be taking a look at Tesco's Bags for Life and trying to get my hands on the super-stylish Anya Hindmarch-designed bag that's to go on sale in Sainsbury this April.

Got a great reusable bag you want to tell me about? Just send me an email.

You'll be able to read all the reviews by clicking here.