1307 Reusable Sickness Bags

My friend Rick told me he’d read an article about those reusable shopping bags. You know the ones; the point of them is to save the environment by using the same cloth bag over and over.
So every business gives them out at festivals and trade fairs. Reusable shopping bags have become the ultimate branding giveaway, replacing bottle openers, tiny flashlights, and even stress balls.
They are great to use. Not least because they are quite roomy and even more sturdy. You hardly ever have a reusable shopping bag blowout and end up with busted eggs on your kitchen floor.
Unfortunately, they’re also loaded with sickness. Yes sickness. A recent study concluded that 90% of reusable shopping bags were loaded with bacteria. It’s mostly from cross contamination, often from one shopping trip to the next.
That leaky chicken package dribbles salmonella juice onto the inside of the bag. That loosely-wrapped fresh hamburger oozes out a little e coli. Mix it with the fresh produce in the bottom of the bag and voila, who needs roughage?
The bottom’s bad too. You set those bags on the pad at the self-checkout area, then on your kitchen counter. I’ve seen some mighty hygiene-challenged people at the self-checkout counter. When they sneeze into their hand and wipe it on their pants, that’s a good clue.
It’s sad that the effort to help the sick environment is making many of us personally sicker. But my friend Rick suggested a good solution.
Disposable plastic liners. They have them at the store in the checkout area on little metal bars. They have handles, so you can hook them to the handles of your own bag.
And talk about convenient, when you get your groceries home, just throw the liner away.
America, ya gotta love it.