Since I began my zero waste journey, I’ve been lusting after some gorgeous produce bags like these. I changed to using brown paper bags for loose fruit and vegetables at the start of my mission to use less plastic. I reuse them as much as possible and then either compost them or put them in the fire basket when they fall apart. However, this also seemed very wasteful and I knew cloth produce bags were the answer. Just as I began to get an itchy eBay finger, I suddenly thought about the oodles of fabric scraps I have stashed away in our guest room along with my sewing machine. My sewing machine is currently out of order, but I got in touch with my lovely, talented friend Katy, who runs her own sewing business Will Sew. She agreed to run up some drawstring produce bags for me from my fabric and I’m so pleased with the results. I have two large, thick, denim bags, which will be great for heavier things like potatoes and onions, and eight thinner cotton bags of varying sizes for other fruit and vegetables. They’re also big enough to be able to use them for dry goods when I eventually find a Weigh & Save store. They will all wash well, I’m sure, seeing as they’re cotton too.

We went to the supermarket on Saturday and I excitedly took my cloth produce bags with me. I merrily filled them up with loose fruit and vegetables. My husband expressed concern that they would add weight when weighed, but I’m not overly bothered about that. It can’t add more than a few pence. He also noticed that it slowed the shopping experience down at the till, because the cashier had to open the bags to see what was in them, but I think a few seconds per bag is nothing to worry about in the grand scheme of things. Overall, I was pretty pleased with my cloth produce bags.