I’ll definitely look back on 2008 as the year the plastic bag died… and the year re-usable tote bags exploded on the scene.

It all started with that silly cloth bag:

And then the retail sector caught onto the hotness and started churning out their own versions. The first one I got was from Lululemon and I thought, wow, this is really cool.

Then Jacob had them and I thought, awesome, this is the perfect size to bring my lunch to work every day. But now EVERY store is handing them out like crazy–I have a Capers one and a Bay one and a TELUS one and probably more but I can’t remember. Everyone’s doing it. It’s not so neat anymore.

But I have to say, these new Commercial Drive banner bags bring the funky back to non-plastic bags.

Almost every year the Commercial Drive Business Society prints 256 32″ x 60″ nylon street banners which help create a festive, colourful atmosphere for this unique shopping neighbourhood. Eventually each edition of these unique designs must be retired, so rather than sending them to the landfill they’ve come up with a very green idea — transform them into reusable nylon shopping bags!

Now that is clever.

The banner bags are are available in 2 sizes ($9.95 & $14.95) and 10 different colours. Info on where you can get your hot little hands on one of these babies here.

This brought to mind those iconic banners that Calgary splashes all over the city each year for the Stampede–you know the ones…

Wouldn’t I love to get my hands on a bag made of one of those! (Yes I am both cheesy and nostalgic. As if you didn’t already know that.)