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Comment by barsonme | Hacker News Reader

Growing up, we always had a plastic bag full of plastic bags. They had many uses—garbage bags, lunch bags, carrying dirty soccer cleats, etc. Sometimes they got reused once, other times they got reused a lot. They were surprisingly sturdy.

Cloth might be better, but it depends how much energy is required to make the cloth bags.

One particular benefit of cloth bags is they result in less litter.

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I've seen estimates that cloth bags are like 100x+ more resource intensive. I doubt that most people get 100 uses from cheap cloth bags.

Of course, there's another option. There are cheap durable bags.

IKEA plastic bags are close to literally indestructible and cost $1USD. Although the smaller version ($0.89) is probably better for groceries. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/frakta-shopping-bag-large-blue-...

IKEA might not be great for the environment overall but these bags are an insanely good win. Essentially infinite reuse. Unless you're dragging cinder blocks around in them I'm not sure how they'd ever really wear out.

I've been using the same $5 cloth bag 2-3 times a week for the past 10 years...

Same, one of my cheaper bags started to come apart at the seams. I sewed it together because I liked the print on it.

So far after going to cloth bags in around 2009 or so ive yet to throw one away.

Same, those cloth/linen bags are indestructible. Can’t remember having thrown a single one away yet and the oldest one I can accurately date is from before the 07/08 financial crisis. They’re also much more comfortable to carry than any plastic bag I’ve seen.

> I doubt that most people get 100 uses from cheap cloth bags.

Cloth bags are impossible to destroy, light, easy to repair and easy to clean.

I would be surprised if anyone gets less than 100 uses out of them.

I also have reusable plastic bags but they are a lot more annoying to use and store.

A friend of mine has used an IKEA bag to lug around a dozen or so board games (including some heavy ones) to every game night for years. Those things are incredibly durable.

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