Too Many Reusable Bags?

Racked is no longer publishing. Thank you to everyone who read our work over the years. The archives will remain available here; for new stories, head over to Vox.com, where our staff is covering consumer culture for The Goods by Vox. You can also see what we’re up to by signing up here.

One person reusing cloth bags instead of getting plastic ones can save 25,000 plastic bags in his lifetime. But if you're like us — and lots of other people who've bought into the "I'm not a plastic bag" trend — you probably have a mountain of reusable eco-sacks skulking around in a corner of your kitchen floor. And while 45% of shoppers have purchased reusable bags, only 12% actually reuse them. Across the pond, London's trying to go plastic-bag-free by 2012, in time for the Olympics. [The Guardian]