Are sustainable products cost effective? Part 3: Food Storage Bags

Set the stage, you are packing your lunch the night before work. This lunch consists of the standard PB&J, carrots, and pretzels with a bottle of water on the side. As you pack, you reach in the second drawer and get not one, but three storage bags from the well known brand Ziploc.

This trend continues, packing lunch for one, two, three, or more family members. Each day you use an average of three bags per lunch. Let's say you are only packing lunches for you and your husband. The average box of sandwich size Ziploc bags comes in a pack of 200. Within 30 days that box is dry and you are off to the store to buy some more.

"The average United States family uses 500 Ziploc bags each year (Bennett). With 325,719,178 people living in the United States as of July 2017, and an average family size of 2.8 people (U.S. Census Data), that means that the United States alone uses an average of 58,164,139 Ziploc bags per year."(Nicole Martin) http://www.designlife-cycle.com/ziploc-bags

These bags are generally not recycled and they are not biodegradable. The millions of little plastic bags that end up in the landfill, stay there longer than most of us stay in a career. If that statistic alone doesn't make you question past choices, maybe a financial incentive will.

We spend $6.50 on each box of 200 sandwich size Ziploc bags. Now in our house, we typically spend much more as we need the snack size, sandwich size, quart size, gallon size, all freezer safe. This adds up! Especially if we are packing the lunches mentioned above.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOCIrNW6hRY

Instead, we could spend $25.00 on https://www.netzerocompany.com/ and get a set of four silicone sealer bags, varying in sizes from 500ml to 1.5 liters. These bags are microwavable, freezer safe, dishwasher safe, sit upright, and of course reusable. Understandably, if you are packing lunch for more than one person and you are using on average three bags a day, you may need more than one set.

The graph below displays a new box of Ziploc bags adding up at $6.50 each compared to the reusable sets staying steady at $25 each. Depending on how many sets of bags a family needs, will determine the cost effectiveness. Still, the fact remains that more individuals using the bags will cause the bags to diminish sooner. Therefore, families will go through boxes at a faster rate. Making the cost difference little to none.

Aside from costs, silicone bags have a variety of benefits. One of my favorite being the ability to steam vegetables! Imagine taking your frozen vegetables into the break room and having the ability to steam them on the spot. What about soup? With these sturdy silicone bags, you have the ability to freeze and heat up soup or other liquids. The opportunities are endless.

As a behavior analyst, our ultimate goal is to create behavior change that results in a positive impact on the world. If one small change, such as the bags where I store my food, can have an impact on our world, that's a behavior worth changing. Small changes, great impacts. That's the theme of this cost effectiveness series.

Bennett, Sophia. “How to Recycle Ziploc Bags.”RecycleNation, ERI, 7 Oct. 2014, recyclenation.com/2014/10/recycle-ziploc-bags/.