We've continued to produce our bags in spite of a challenging 12 months for obvious reasons.
But people have continued to buy, which is great. A lot of people saw the hygiene aspect as being a good thing, making them feel happier about supermarket shopping during the pandemic.
We're now on sale, at 50% off as this is written. It's the first time we have gone on sale, and this is mainly to test the demand for the bags at this time. It will affect our investment decisions in terms of future production.
Thanks everyone!
]]>The outbreak of COVID-19 has meant a spotlight has been cast upon supermarkets and areas of concern in terms of hygiene, until now ignored.
My last purpose as a company is to engage in any sort of profiteering. However, we must also look to our marketing message and how we provide value at all times.
The environmental goal of Postera is a given.
But the social and economic aims of a business change all the time.
At present we are well-stocked and assessing where we fit in the marketplace. Can we help?
Supermarkets not the solution
What is clear throughout this outbreak is that we, ourselves, must take personal responsibility for ourselves.
We should not mistake this for selfishness, but a call to respect the common good.
We should not expect others to do everything for us, when there is so much we can do ourselves.
Expecting supermarkets to provide a solution to germ prevention is correct, but it is not prudent to be over-reliant on them.
Cut to the chase- how can mesh bags help?
It has been customers who have emailed in and commenting which inspires this blog post.
Firstly, from what we understand, plastic bags can be unsanitary. They're being handled in-store, in contact with unsanitary conditions, and then they are having to be handled and binned when home.
This clearly has environmental implications as more plastic has to be on-hand to compensate for the lack of re-using.
Secondly, people are now wary of buying fresh, unpacked produce as it is exposed. However, there remains a risk with packaged produce since germs can linger on the surface.
Thirdly, at checkout, there is an abundance of risks. Readers Digest and author Kim Bussing says;
"Going plastic-free might be environmentally friendly, but grocery stores have a dirty secret. Luckily, the solution is sustainable—and sanitary."
The 'dirty secret', she says, is that,
"grocery stores are not the cleanest places. Tote bag company Reuse This Bag found that a traditional grocery store cart has 73,356 CFU, or colony-forming units, per square inch—that is almost 361 times more bacteria than is present on a bathroom doorknob."
Yikes.
So both your fresh produce and packaged goods go through this process.
Solution?
We can't say - "do this, job done!" We can only encourage as many good practices as possible.
So we'd venture to suggest that using mesh bags is going to be an attractive aid at the moment.
Why?
You can continue to buy fresh, and pack in your own bags you brought from home, for peace of mind.
On the belt, the items have more protection than they would ordinarily.
Once you get home, you can go to whatever extreme you wish- wash your produce in the bags as normal and put away, or as an extra precaution, wash and remove produce, then wash again and store.
You can then wash your Legooms thoroughly, dry, and put back in their handy pouch, ready for next time.
Or, throw Legooms into the wash. Don't forget, they can be used as laundry bags, and to protect delicates in the wash, too!
The uses of Legooms are many- unlike many products people are rushing out to buy at the moment, every purchase of Legooms has a long-term positive impact- both to you (use them for gym clothes, washing, as laundry bags, stowing dirty car cleaning products- you name it) but also for the environment at large as we remove plastic bottles from the eco-system and re-purpose into products which in turn save thousands of plastic bags.
Stay tuned as we share more, and be sure to comment on how you're using Legooms at the moment.
And at the time of writing, we're offering your second set at 50% off; ensuring you have enough bags for all kinds of situations, and so that you can replace your normal shopping bags with these.
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As of January 1 2020 the traditional plastic bag is now banned in Thailand. A great move and perhaps Thailand doesn't immediately spring to mind, especially as western nations and supermarkets lead the news usually in terms of the elimination of plastic waste.
The news coming from Thailand of shoppers taking home their purchases in plastic buckets, baskets, and at the more extreme end, over-turned traffic cones is both inspiring and amusing!
For those of you who are without an adequate means of transporting your purchases home, we do of course have the solution in the form of Legooms Reuseable Produce Bags!
They are convenient, easy-to-use, easy to carry and store, and they're especially suitable for fruit and veg purchases.
Of course, the largest bag of your pack can be used for other purchases quite easily.
Interested in joining us? Take a look at the full product spec, here >
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When I was at school many pupils’ thoughts immediately shifted to the legendary eco-warrior Swampy tunnelling under a bypass, referred to jokingly to support their dismissal of a part of life that, lets face it, they just didn’t want to think about.
Just recently Extinction Rebellion made a major impact in London and although some journalists referred to those protesting as mere hippies, I believe far fewer today would dismiss people’s rights to demand their environment and futures are protected.
But there are many much smaller, inconspicuous actions that could make an average life eco-friendly.
Buying energy efficient lightbulbs are one small step towards an eco-home. Compact florescent lights (CFL) have been on market for a long time, are widespread and cheap. These are far more energy efficient than old-school incandescent bulbs, but more efficient still are LED (light emitting diode) bulbs, now also widely available.
These are good for the environment because the less electricity used for lighting homes – the less is taken from the National Grid and the more that carbon free sources can fulfil demand! This is such an easy thing to change!
Also, on the day to day scale, changes in grocery shopping can lead to environmental benefits. It has been widely discussed in the British media recently that many people in the West are taking up vegan, vegetarian or flexitarian eating habits. This is great news for the climate and wildlife, as farming for plant-based diets produces far less in the way of greenhouse gases and lessens the burden put on land to feed and home livestock.
Whatever eating habits a person has; quite often each of us will pick up some fruit and veg! Legooms reusable vegetable bags are a natural progression for those with an increasingly plant-heavy diet and can give eco-credentials to those more traditionally omnivorous!
By replacing single use plastic grocery bags for the collection and storage of fruits and vegetables with Legooms bags – which can be used many times over; a shopper is keeping plastic from landfill and ocean. It does this by cutting the need for disposable bags and, because Legooms are made from recycled plastic bottles, their use is feeding a circular economy that reuses materials otherwise becoming waste and pollution.
Shopping with a preference for plant-based and recycled ingredients can extend for environmental benefits beyond the food shop too. For instance, buying detergents for washing up, laundry or household cleaning need not rely on synthetic chemicals and sources derived from fossil fuels.
There is usually a selection of non-polluting natural alternatives available in supermarkets – so when you need to clear up from whatever makes the mess in your home; be that cooking, kids or partner – your ecological impact can remain as positive as possible!
In fact, cooking itself can also be made green. A simple measure could be using a compostable food caddy where kitchen waste can go to be fed back into the circular economy as fertiliser. Going further, there is also such a thing as an electricity-free cooker! Ideal for cooking that casserole, curry or tagine otherwise taking many oven hours, not to mention kilowatt-hours, to perfect – these are on the market.
Once ingredients are simmering, you can simply wrap pots in specially designed insulated bags which retain heat, continuing to cook food for up to 12 hours without further electricity, gas or fire!
These are just a few ways of making anybody’s lifestyle effortlessly eco. They don’t cost the Earth.
Article by Stuart Ventress
]]>The month-long pilot will be run at two of its Extra stores in Watford and Swindon.
The trial will involve removing plastic packaging from 45 foods, including apples, onions, mushrooms, peppers, bananas and avocados, where loose alternatives are available.
A welcome pledge, considering that chain supermarkets are responsible for producing more than 800,000 tonnes of plastic packaging waste each year.
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Of this huge volume of waste plastic, just 9pc has been recycled, 12pc has been incinerated and the remaining 79pc is either in landfill or in the environment.
Most of this plastic is single use, mainly food packaging and plastic bottles.
We’re doing our bit- encouraging the production of re-useable plastic which can be used in new creations, and then re-used again.
Plus, we’re getting plastic bottles off the shores and turning the into our food bags.
We hope to create a cycle of demand here: more demand for re-purposed plastic products means more people out there picking them up and bringing them to companies who will break them down and spin the fabrics we need for our bags.
Join us and be part of a much healthier plastic lifecycle so we can at least ‘start’ to combat the problem.
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It's no secret that Social Media can be toxic at times, and from time to time we also hear about the dangerous challenges that the youth ends partaking in, some of them with lethal consequences. The ugly side of social media, for sure.
Social Media, the kryptonite of every teenager's parents, the big monster that gets them to spend too much time strapped to the phones, gaining poor posture after the countless hours tilting their chin down to look at a small bright screen and restless nights; oh so many...
Social media platforms are here to stay, though. In fact, they are almost tattoo'ed to everyone's skin. A study conducted this year, 2019, revealed that we have got 3.4 BILLION users all across the globe, with an average daily time spent surfing through the platforms of 116 minutes (near 2 hours ).
Our take on this is simple, if we're spending 2 hours a day exposed to this attractive and dopamine fuelled world that lures us in, we might as well get something positive out of it. No more with the meaningless likes and swipes, let's make a difference in our day-to-day life and think outside the box, creating new trends that benefit humankind.
Take the Trashtag Challenge that recently gained a lot of traction on Instagram as an example. Basically, the participants picked a place filled with litter, clean it up, and post before and after pictures of the location! Volunteers have made beaches, parks, and roads trash-free while also raising awareness of the quantity of plastic litter that we, the humans, produce.
This obviously caught our eye, a company that stands tall as an adamant defender for creating NO more plastic and on top of that, REUSE the plastic that already exists to give it a new purpose. Our youth needs to be monitored and get filtered information via these social media platforms without a doubt, but just know that occasionally a #Challenge like this type pops up which is actually quite beneficial and causes no harm to anyone involved, be sure to turn the children of today to Earth responsible adults of tomorrow
Storing Vegetables
Keep veggies such as potatoes, carrots and onions fresh and dry until you need to use them.
Gym Tote
Need a durable bag for your gym clothes? Grab a Legoom and you’re ready to go.
Perfect for Picnics
A great way to carry snacks and sandwiches on the move, Legooms are the ideal compact food bag for family days out.
Beach Bag
Spending the day by the sea? Carry your sandals, sun cream and beach clothes together in one of your durable Legooms.
Crafts & Knitting
Legooms offer an ideal protective place to keep all your craft odds and ends - especially knitting in progress.
Toys (Lego!)
A no brainer. Really.
These are just a few suggestions for how you can use your Postera Legooms. Versatile and eco-friendly, they’re the ideal addition to any household.
By Hibert Wycliffe, Kenya
My name is Hibert Wycliffe, from Kenya. I am an economics and environmental blog enthusiast. Kenya banned the use of polythene plastic shopping bags on 28th August 2017. The National Environmental Management Authority of Kenya is encouraging Retailers and shoppers to adopt alternative packaging and shopping bags made from paper, bamboo straw, starch or other re-usable or bio-degradable shopping bags.
To ensure effective implementation of the ban, a fine of up to £30,000 or a 4 year jail term is prescribed for violation of the regulation. It’s now one year since the ban took effect and the manufacturers and shoppers have adhered to the regulation. In the course of looking for a durable and reliable shopping bag solution, I got impressed by the Postera shopping bag ’’Postera legooms’’ that are available online through the link http://www.postera.co.
I would recommend this shopping bag solution to any shopper looking for peace of mind in finding a durable, reusable, washable, eco-friendly and affordable shopping bag. The shopping bags are made from readily available Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles. To have an overview of the product creation, below is the story of Postera Product creation journey.
Customer satisfaction is at the heart of every operation undertaken at Postera; we strive to offer the best shopping solution to the customers while at the same inculcating eco-friendly initiatives in the entire value chain. We ensure that consumer shopping needs are met through reliable, efficient, affordable and durable shopping bags.
Our journey begins from the perceived valueless plastic bottles, tossed in the recycling bins after enjoying your favorite soft drink.
Recycling is an innovative process that always presents the manufacturers with a myriad of options to make comfortable and durable fabrics which serve several functions such as lanyards, durable bags, carpets, and even promotional banners.
It is estimated that over 200 billion water bottles and soft drinks bottles are produced annually most of which, after use, find their way as litter along the highways, waterways, and parks instead of the recycling bins.
The plastic bottles recycling business is a multi-billion-dollar venture that is yet to be harnessed in its full potential.
During rainy seasons, flood water flushes millions of bottles from highways, parks, and streets. These neglected resources eventually find their ways into our rivers, lakes, and oceans.
Once at the unwanted locations, the danger of contamination is experienced in these water bodies. The marine ecosystem faces a serious threat caused by these plastic bottles.
Plastics bottles do not readily dissociate when buried in the landfills or they even find their ways in the water bodies.
Plastic bottles are produced in high volumes per minute, and if not checked, a serious environmental crisis will be experienced as well as climate change.
Most of these bottles (water and soft drinks bottles) are highly recyclable because they are made from Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET). Useful products can be extracted from these bottles after the recycling process. There is still a great gap in capitalizing on this aspect of recyclability.
‘Plastics do not belong in the oceans nor do they belong on the highways, but they belong to the recycling bins.' Sharon Kneiss Vice president, American Chemistry Council. Based on this analogy Postera realized the need to contribute to environmental conservation by finding a solution to the plastic bottle menace while at the same time add value to the customer's daily need of finding a durable and reliable shopping bag solution.
Have you always wondered how plastic bottles are transformed into durable fabrics of amazing qualities? Postera shopping bags are perfect examples of this lifetime breakthrough in the manufacturing field.
We create value out of the single-use bottle plastics while at the same time promoting environmental conservation in the entire process.
How Plastic Bottles are made into something far more useful:
To have a glimpse of this exciting experience let us have a look at the step by step value addition process of creating the eco-friendly Postera shopping bags.
Once the plastic bottles leave the recycling bins in your neighborhood, we carefully transport the bottles to our manufacturing plant where the recycling process kicks off.
The bottles are washed and sorted into different sizes and shapes. They are put into a machine that chops and grinds them into smaller pellets.
The pellets are subjected through the industrial heating process up to melting point to soften the pellets.
The softened plastic is pressed through a plate with numerous tiny holes on the surface. The plastics are emitted out in thin filaments that are spun on large metal rollers to form polyester yarn that is later woven into a recycled fabric.
To get a quality fabric the processing, spinning, and weaving is done vigorously and to precision.
The resulting fabric from the recycling process is the final building block for the Postera shopping bags products. The product is plastic free, sustainable for home and kitchen use.
Postera legooms product. One of the products of postera.
The beauty of our products is that the shopping bags are washable, reusable and durable. They also look great, with a premium look and feel.
We repurpose the single-use plastics bottles to create a durable shopping bag solution.
We conserve the natural resource through recycling the plastics. We free the environment from the chokes of pollution.
The PET plastic bottles ready for recycling at our manufacturing plant.
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Huge thanks to editor Mark Myerson, who awarded Legooms 4.8/5.0 on Gadgetflow.
Our reusable food bags were made a Staff Pick, and you can see the feature, here:
https://thegadgetflow.com/portfolio/reusable-produce-bags/
This has been a wonderful boost to our Kickstarter funding campaign, here.
]]>The law requires large shops in England to charge 5p for all single-use plastic carrier bags. Charging started on 5 October 2015.
All this applies to large carrier bags, not the tear-off bags which are replaced by reusable vegetable and produce bags, such as Legooms.
We draw readers' attention to all this simply to acknowledge that the government has indeed recognised the huge problem of plastic waste, and we're sure there will be similar measures taken against tear-off bags at some point since even the biodegradable carrier bags are affected.
Legooms represents instant re-use after re-use versus even recyclable tear-off bags which go back into the system.
This excerpt taken from Wikipedia, as some useful background to things as they stand in England at the time of writing:
England was the last country in the United Kingdom to adopt the 5 pence charge, with the levy taking effect on 5 October 2015. Prior to the introduction of plastic bag regulations, various retailers participated in voluntary actions to reduce plastic bag consumption.
Unlike the rest of the UK, the English charge does not apply to paper bags or bags made from other natural materials. As with the other nations, VAT raised on sales will be collected by the Government. Retailers can choose how the money raised from bag sales is used. The Government publishes information yearly on the scheme, encouraging retailers to donate the proceeds to charities.
In the first 6 months, 640 million plastic bags were used in seven major supermarkets in England, raising £29.2 million for good causes.[149] England reported to have distributed 0.6 billion single-use bags during the first half year of the charge, 7 billion fewer than were distributed in 2014.
To promote the growth of new businesses in England, retailers with fewer than 250 employees are exempt from the charge. Opponents to the exemption of small retailers argued that this exemption would diminish the environmental impact of the charge. In response to this criticism, in the UK government has announced plans to extend the charge to all retailers and double the charge to 10p.
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Copyright (c) Karen Talavera
It's a small thing for each of us, but a huge thing when you add us all up. I refer to the impending departure of plastic bags from your local grocery, drug, and/or convenience store. At last, the day has come, and for me that day is today.
I just made my weekly pilgrimage to the local Publix, the dominant grocery chain in my neck of the woods (which happens to be Florida) to be greeted by - at long last - reusable fabric grocery bags for sale at a mere 99 cents each. I selected four bags and put them in my empty cart. They were not only incredibly roomy, but well constructed and even fairly attractive. It was such a small act, but it felt like deliverance.
You see, my husband's been complaining about plastic grocery bags for years now. He's become more vocal about it since the EU and later San Francisco banned them last year. He works for a French company and travels to Europe several times a year. After every trip to the home office I have to hear about our wasteful American ways, and the inevitable commentary on all those plastic grocery bags we use comes up. Despite the fact that most grocery stores offer plastic bag recycling bins, and that we use them, he remains on his soap box. But not for long.
I agree with him, and have long contemplated pulling out the seemingly self-propagating pile of canvas promotional bags and beach tote bags we've accumulated over the years and bringing those with me on my weekly grocery shopping trips. Yet I inevitably forget. Or the bags aren't wide enough. Or some other lame excuse. Unlike fashionable celebrities, we're not in the income bracket to afford $300 Coach or $1,000 Hermes bags (nor are we supportive of raising and killing more cows to produce them). So I've been patiently waiting for someone to corner the market on reusable shopping bags.
Apparently they have. The tiny tags on the bags I purchased from Publix say they're from www.greenbags.info. The Green Bag company is literally in good company, with other firms like Sage Green (www.environmentbags.com) creating mass market solutions for the cost-conscious and lazy of us. I applaud them. Make it effortless and practically free to ditch the petroleum based, sea turtle-suffocating plastic bags we mindlessly use and who wouldn't switch?
Lest you've read this far and are still not convinced to switch, let me share my astonishment at how my four new reusable fabric bags somehow held the same amount of groceries normally contained in nine or ten plastic bags. Even heavy juice bottles, glass wine bottles, cans and cleaning products fit nicely and safely into the new bags. Perhaps the most pleasant surprise came when I quickly realized how much easier it was to carry four - heavy through they were - rather than ten bags from the car into the house. Finally, somehow with fewer bags the groceries seemed to put themselves away faster as well. Who would have guessed?
Last week I was on my way out of a Midwestern city waiting for my flight in a quiet airport terminal when my snack bar neighbor, with whom I enjoyed a meager airport dinner, pointed to the bar TV. The channel was airing a news story about the harm plastic bags do to our oceans and sea creatures. I mentioned most of Europe and now China - yes, even those environmental despoilers - had just banned them. I cited the facts my husband had oft-quoted, that in the United States (which has less than one-quarter of China's 1.3 billion people,) the Sierra Club estimates almost 100 billion plastic bags are thrown out each year. That if just every one of New York City's 8 million people used one less grocery bag per year, it would reduce waste by about 5 million pounds.
"What the hell is our problem then?" she asked. I had no answer, but she had a great idea. To all of you sales and marketing types out there like me, stop ordering your usual imprinted trade show tote bags and order re-usable grocery bags as promotional give-aways instead. Then we'll really be making some progress.
Like I said, I bought four re-usable fabric shopping bags today for a grand total of $3.96 plus tax. It was a pittance to pay for an earth-conscious decision that will reap dividends for years to come and furthermore had me thinking about bringing my own shopping bags with me anywhere I go. It was a small thing, in so many ways, but it felt amazingly grand. It was something anyone could do, anywhere in this country, right now. It was something that very soon, we can ALL do. And that we all should.
Tomorrow when I take my morning walk on the beach maybe I'll see one less plastic bag sailing in the wind. At least I'll know now that day is a realistic possibility. Won't you join me?
]]>Many of us always make use of plastic bags in spite of being aware of the hazards induced by them. We are actually encouraged to act so because of the delusion which was spread a while back concerning plastic bags. The spread rumour was that the plastic material bags were not so harmful to the surroundings. Nevertheless, many reviews have uncovered that plastic bags are very hazardous and roughly only 1 % may be reprocessed. Could we count on such a minimal fraction and utilize the throw-away plastic bags that finally end in lowland. We ought to be really careful about the practice of the shopping bags that contain harmful effects to the ecosystem.
You can find a few bags that happen to be both advantageous to the end users and undamaging to the surroundings. These bags are named pp shopping totes. Reusable polypropylene grocery bags are produced of polypropylene. This content is manufactured in a way that is definitely favourable to the ecosystem and that doesn't add much pollution, particularly compared to plastic bags. The NC State University analysis facility recently published articles that explains that standard plastic bags are consisting of many toxic polymer particles. When they eventually do break down, they discharge harmful toxins out into the atmosphere! Those manufactured by reusable shopping bag manufacturers, however, tend not to have this problem. Polypropylene is regarded safe and is not vulnerable for this kind of hazard.
PP shopping bags are extremely useful in comparison to paper or plastic bags. The positive aspects of Reusable polypropylene grocery bags are:
1. The PP woven shopping bags are tougher than paper or plastic bags. Even though plastic and paper bags can keep only modest weight, the PP shopping bags can carry above one hundred kg. Moreover, the PP woven shopping bags do not cost a lot. Hence they aren't hefty on the pockets of the customers.
2. Moreover is the fact these reusable polypropylene grocery bags are more durable. To be exact, a PP woven shopping bag, though, can be utilized in well over 100s or even thousands of times before it will begin to wear out. This is because polypropylene is intrinsically wear and tear immune. You can most likely employ the plastic or paper bags a couple of occasions and when you discard them they get added to trash. However, PP woven shopping bags are incredibly strong and could be utilized for transporting stuff for many times before they wear. This is possible because the materials employed to create these Reusable polypropylene shopping bags i.e. polypropylene is extremely sturdy and endures a bit longer.
3. Utilizing reusable shopping bags such as pp shopping bag is a great way to help the surroundings. Here, you can oppose me by stating paper bags could be employed too why only Reusable polypropylene grocery bags! But, this is a very strong point to think about that on one hand paper bags are reckoned to be eco-friendly but in contrast lots of woods ought to be hacked to produce these paper bags in that case how can they be truly ecological friendly. Reusable polypropylene grocery bags are very useful for the environment because they are created harmlessly. If you take a step ahead and utilize PP woven shopping bags then you may actually lend to the safety of ecosystem.
Many shoppers are gaining awareness about the advantages of these reusable polypropylene grocery bags to them in person and to the ecosystem globally.
More than likely after understanding about the above mentioned unpleasant details about plastic and paper bags plus the advantages of utilizing PP woven shopping bags, you will prefer PP woven shopping bags that happen to be absolutely risk-free to use. You can be assured that these are the bags that might be reprocessed and will not pose any risk to the surroundings.
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