Additionally, don’t just take them when you know you’ll need them, do it before. Next time you need to leave your house to go somewhere, grab some and put them in your car. Done. Go put some right now next to your wallet or keys or literally on the handle of your house’s door.

Or just use the cardboard box approach I mentioned. You can’t forget to bring what’s already inside the store.

Cardboard not so much, but where I live one can just take how many boxes one can haul off various shops and they will just thank you.

It's a very solved problem, has been for centuries probably. You can even get some with little wheels! If you absolutely can't handle the looseness of the fruits amongst your shopping, you could use string nets.

For sure. But reusing the plastic bag you already have is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than buying a new cloth bag, yet many people never even think of using the same plastic bag twice. Even if some food juice spills inside, you can quickly rinse it off, hang it, and it’s good as new.

In my original reply I was trying to convey that you can be the laziest, most forgetful person, and still have an easy solution.

75% of the time I forget to take a bag to my car.

As well as all the single use bags (paper and plastic) I bought, I also have jute bags that I got years ago and are still holding up. I like them better as they are bigger and stronger.

Even if I managed to get a bag, the other 75% of the time I forget to take it into the shop and leave it in my car.

Even if I manage all of that, 25% of the time I will end up not having enough bags.

What I would like to see is some kind of deposit system with stronger bags (like my jute bags). Then when I actually remember I can bring them back to the store for someone else to use.

Plastic for the most part is basically garbage, there are so many types that it’s hard to recycle it. PET and HDPE can be recycled fairly easily if they’re sorted, the rest aren’t really worth it (polypropylene, low density polyethylene, PVC).

The only thing that is almost always economically worth recycling is metal, which is separated from the paper/glass/plastic if you have single stream recycling. Plastic should be burned in a cement kiln or buried in a modern landfill, unless it’s well sorted HDPE or PET.

Then take a bunch in the other 25%. You can just leave them in the car.

Grab a bundle right now, or whenever you’re at home and remember, and put them next to your keys, your wallet, or hang them on the handle of your door.

> I like them better as they are bigger and stronger.

Sure, use whatever you like. Just don’t let perfect be in the way of good.

> Even if I managed to get a bag, the other 75% of the time I forget to take it into the shop and leave it in my car.

Then go back to your car! It will be mildly annoying the first two times, and the third time it won’t happen. I mentioned exactly that in my comment.

> Even if I manage all of that, 25% of the time I will end up not having enough bags.

Then start bringing more. This isn’t hard. Leave the extras in your car.

Or just use the cardboard box approach I mentioned.

None of your mentioned obstacles is insurmountable. On the contrary, they are all exceedingly trivial to overcome with the tiniest amount of will to do so.

I put our reusable ones on the floor in the entrance to the garage and then that reminds me to put them back in the trunk whenever I go to the car for whatever reason. Then I always have them while out.

I've sometimes left them in the car but just excuse myself at the checkout and go fetch them while the groceries are being rung up.

If you go this route, keep onions and garlic separate. They last longer if they stay dry.