Did you know that shopping carts at the grocery store are particularly bad in terms of harboring bacteria? Also, “about half of reusable shopping bags have faecal bacteria in them” according to a recent article on BBC news.

I’m all for using reusable shopping bags when buying groceries. I use my cloth grocery bags for just about everything now, (although I’m going to start purposing some just for groceries and others for non-grocery use after reading the BBC article mentioned above.)

I love how one family can make a difference by using reusable shopping bags. In one year, the average family goes through about 720 plastic grocery bags! So using reusable shopping bags can keep 720 plastic bags out of landfills, which reduces oil consumption and keeps non-biodegradable trash out of the landfill.

However, the majority of reusable shopping bag owners do not wash or disinfect their bags in any way. Thus, a high percentage of not-good bacteria is found in reusable shopping bags.

Here’s a Quick Tip to Disinfect Reusable Shopping Bags

Liberally spray your reusable shopping bags with disinfecting spray with tea tree oil to quickly disinfect between washings after a store trip.

You can throw your reusable shopping bags in the washing machine on cold on a hand wash cycle and hang them to dry as one solution, but in between washings, I like to give mine a quick spritz with my homemade disinfecting spray with tea tree oil. Simply spray disinfecting spray liberally on the bags, inside and out, and let dry before storing and reusing.