Eco Hack#1: I shop at Co-op just for the carrier bags

I have to admit that it's only in the last few years that I've found myself popping into Co-op.

You know how it is, the realisation at 8pm on a Sunday evening that you're almost out of milk / bread / supplies for school lunch boxes. We've got a couple close by and they tend to be really well stocked with everything you could need that you might run out of last minute.

But. I've found another fab new reason to shop at the Co-op. They do the BEST green compostable carrier bags. The council recycling scheme we have must be one of the best in the country. It's certainly much better than Brighton just down the road. We've got two 'wheely' sized bins, one for non recyclable rubbish and one for everything that can be recycled which can be mixed. This includes cardboard, glass, some plastics and paper. The recyclable one gets picked up every fortnight (by which stage mine is full to the point of getting the teenager to stand on it to squash everything down).

The only thing we don't get collected is garden waste which I know other councils offer as standard. In addition, food composting forms part of our recycling service. I've tried composting myself but it all just ended up as a stinking mess and there was no way I could actually use it. My dreams of lovely brown mulch to spread on the garden (that I'm absolutely dreadful at looking after) came to an end in a pile of stinking mush which may or may not have involved rats. frown Which is why I'm SO glad that we have food waste recycling.

All our food waste goes into a smaller caddy in the kitchen, which then gets decanted into a slightly larger bin outside. The smaller caddy is lined with a compostable food bag. Which is GREAT in theory but in practice the bags we have bought tend to not be robust enough and if it splits on the way to the bin, it's a huge smelly mess to clear up.

This is the reason that I was SO excited to find that Co-op offered the option of purchasing a compostable food bag to carry your shopping home. Now, I usually have got reusable bags on my person at all times. But I'm actually REALLY happy to pay 10p for one of their compostable bags. They're a really decent 'shopping bag' size which means they fit into my caddy with lots of room to spare. They are also strong - I haven't had any split on me yet. And even at 10p a bag, they offer good value for money too, cheaper than buying from the supermarket.

I love these bags so much that I choose to shop at the Co-op over other supermarkets, purely to get the bags! We don't have an Aldi nearby, but I understand that Aldi offers something similar. What's recycling like in your part of the country? Have you seen these bags? Do they excite you in the same way? (Probably not, I appreciate that I'm a little bit weird getting excited by shopping bags). Do any other shops that you know provide these sort of bags? Would love to hear your thoughts, or any other eco-hacks that you can share with the Team Cheeky community....