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Every once in awhile, I come across a product that I think everyone needs to know about.  I have to give credit to my good friend Jenn, who discovered these little gems in her local grocery co-op and was generous enough to mail them to me as a birthday gift.  As soon as I laid my eyes upon the set of BYO Bags, I knew that they would be a big hit with my friends. In fact, I loved them so much that I ordered the bags to sell on my website!

BYO Bags are an earth-friendly alternative to plastic produce bags.  They are made from nylon mesh, and are reusable, lightweight, breathable, washable and durable.  Each set contains 3 bags, each a slightly different size.

Even though these bags are nearly weightless, they are strong enough to hold any type of produce I can find at the farmer’s market.  They stretch and can fold up so small that they hardly take up any space – this makes it easy to store them in the car, so I have them handy any time I go shopping.

My only complaint about these bags is that the drawstring tends to fall out when I put the bags into the laundry.  I have discovered that I can work around this problem by tying a better knot in them, pinning the string to the bag, or putting them into a lingerie bag prior to dumping them into the washing machine.

No product would be complete without a slightly embarrassing story… On my way to the farmer’s market, I tossed a few extra sets of BYO Bags into my reusable shopping tote, thinking that I might show them to a few of my favorite vendors.  Several customers saw me using them and asked where they could buy them, too.  Since I had some with me, I simply opened my shopping tote and sold them on the spot.  Much to my horror, the people who ran the market must have noticed, because they pulled me aside and told me that I was not allowed to sell merchandise at the market unless I had a permit. Oops!  Some of the vendors were frustrated to hear about this, especially because I was helping people to ditch plastic produce bags in favor of something reusable.  Still, I left with my tail between my legs.

Then, just last week, I noticed that our farmer’s market is banning plastic produce bags.  All of the vendors have notices up, reminding people to bring their own bags.  The market itself, will be selling reusable mesh bags as an alternative.  Great idea – I wonder where they may have seen it before?

Does your local farmer’s market still provide plastic produce bags?  Make a statement – start bringing your own BYO Bags instead!