Do your reusable grocery bags give you a license to buy junk food?

When you bring your own reusable grocery bags to the grocery store it actually impacts purchasing patterns. That pat on the back that we give ourselves for reducing our impact has a subconscious effect on what we bring home in those bags, according to Uma Karmarkar, an assistant professor of marketing at Harvard Business School, and her research partner Bryan Bollinger, of Duke’s Fuqua School of Business.

Karmarkar and Bollinger looked at the cash register receipts of those shoppers that brought their own bags. They could easily tell who brought their own reusable grocery bags by the bag discounts on the receipts. They found that these shoppers were more likely to buy organic foods but at the same time, they were also more likely to buy high fat and calorically dense junk food.

And it wasn’t just based on the people. For example, when an individual brought their own bag one week and didn’t the next week, they were more likely to make the organic and junk food purchases on the weeks that they brought their own bags.

“You give yourself a cookie. In this case literally. In consumer psychology the word ‘licensing’ is the key. If I behave well in one situation, I give myself license to misbehave in another, unrelated situation,” said Karmarkar to the Harvard Business Review. “Similar research has also been done on health decisions. I get a Diet Coke; I treat myself to a hamburger. In this case bringing a bag makes you think you’re environmentally friendly, so you get some ice cream. You feel you’ve earned it.”

Researchers think that it’s a subconscious behavior, meaning that they don’t actively think they get a cookie for bringing a bag. When bringing your own bag becomes more common, then the pat on the back behavior will also be less common. For example, in some places, recycling bottles and cans is a requirement, so people are less likely to reward themselves for the behavior.

The effect also disappears when people have kids because the motivations are different. Parents bring their own bags to be role models and they buy healthy foods to feed their families. Karmarkar says that location may also matter, in that store behavior in California may be different than store behavior in South Carolina.

But none of this is to say that bringing your own bags doesn’t make a big difference, because it does. Consider that a plastic bag could take anywhere from 15 to 1,000 years to decompose. And when plastic bags do decompose they dissolve into toxic polymer particles and the majority of that toxic waste ends up in our oceans, maiming and killing marine species. Plus the cost of recycling plastic bags outweighs their value, so many recycling facilities won’t take them.

Related on EcoSalon

Could Your Reusable Shopping Bags Make You Sick?

Combatting Reusable Bag Guilt Syndrome

10 Things to Make From Your Plastic Bags

Image of a reusable bag on a bike from Shuttershock

The post Does Using Reusable Grocery Bags Changes How You Shop for the Worse? A Study Says Yes appeared first on EcoSalon.

Inhale, exhale, because you’ve done the right thing by toting your reusable shopping bags on all of your grocery shopping trips. But if you’re anything like me, or 97 percent of the people who participated in a recent research study conducted by the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University, you’ve never washed your reusable bags, and there’s a good chance they’re contaminated with E. coli or other bacteria.

Before reading about this study’s findings, it hadn’t dawned on me that I needed to launder my reusable bags on a weekly basis, as researchers suggest. In hindsight, it seems obvious. I type this as my reusable sidekicks air dry after their inaugural wash. And I’m sure you’ll want to be near your washing machine after learning the following facts.

Researchers note, “Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from coliform bacteria including E. coli, which were detected in half of the bags sampled, bacteria levels found in reusable bags were significant enough to cause a wide range of serious health problems and even death. They are a particular danger for young children, who are especially vulnerable to food-borne illnesses.”

The good news is, a thorough washing will kill nearly all of the bacteria that accumulates in reusable shopping bags. Other tips that bring-your-own-bags consumers may benefit from in the quest to keep it clean:

• Separate raw foods from other food products when packing bags.
• Specify reusable bags for individual purposes to avoid cross-contamination. I.e: have a set for groceries only, a set for library books, a set for gym gear, etc.
• “Do not store meat or produce in the trunk of your car, because higher temperatures promote the growth of bacteria, which can contaminate reusable bags.”

Image: tyger_lyllie

The post Your Reusable Grocery Bags May be Packed with Bacteria appeared first on EcoSalon.