Onya Bag - Reusable Bag

Have you ever made an impromptu stop at your local supermarket and realized that you didn't have your reusable grocery bag with you? For me, that happens almost all the time and I resort to carrying the bought items in my hands or resentfully use plastic bags. Those times I wished I had a bag small enough that I could carry with me at all times.

Well, a B.C.-based company believes it has found a great solution for all those unplanned 'spur of the moment' trips; yet it's another way to protect the environment and reduce the number of plastic bags used by consumers.

In November 2007, Onya Innovations began selling an Australian-designed reusable bag made of parachute-grade material here in Canada. The bag stuffs into a key-ring sized pouch, weighs only 50 grams and attaches to purses, key rings, belts and belt buckles by a convenient carabiner.

"Consumer's will find it harder to forget our reusable bag because it's always Onya," said owner, Willi Drews. "This is an affordable solution that will reduce the number of plastic bags going into our landfills." According to the company, each Onya bag has the potential to reduce 1,000 plastic bags from the environment. To date, 750,000 bags have been sold around the world.

The 'Original Onya Bag' has come in handy since I bought it a few months ago, however, the one downside is that it's small (14.7 litre capacity). It's perfect for impromptu visits to the supermarket, to pick up some fruits and other small items, however, if you're buying groceries for the week, you're better off with the 'Big Onya Bag' (at the time of purchase this option wasn't available), or just make sure you have your bigger reusable bags with you.

Onya products can be purchased online or in stores.