My tote bag of tote bags stares at me from where it hangs on the back of my bedroom door, and I ask myself: how did I end up with so many? Estimates about how many times a cotton tote bag needs to be reused to be more “sustainable” than a plastic bag varies from 52 to over 7000 uses. Whatever the exact number, I have far too many to get enough uses out of in my lifetime.

The biggest cause of my tote bag hoarding is the free tote bag epidemic. I still have tote bags from universities I didn’t even end up applying to and have not been worn since the train journey back from the open day. How many of us can say we use the copious amounts of free tote bags we accumulated at our freshers fair?

“The tote bag persists as a symbol of sustainability when it is perhaps the best example of greenwashing to date”

Branded tote bags in particular end up being free marketing for companies that have far from environmentally-friendly practices. The deep irony of ultra-fast fashion brands, like Shein, including free branded tote bags means tote bags have become just another facet of fast fashion. They are the perfect corporate solution to the climate crisis: a way of pushing the onus onto individuals whilst still managing to market their brand.

Yet the tote bag persists as a symbol of sustainability when it is perhaps the best example of greenwashing to date. Walking back from Aldi with two tote bags feels like signalling to the world that I care about the environment when they are really a symbol of the fruitless struggle of an individual trying to live a sustainable life in a system that makes that incredibly difficult (and of my fruitless struggle to carry my shopping.)

So, what should we do with all those tote bags? Throwing them away would only make the problem worse, but I’m sure I’m not alone in wanting to put them to good use.

The first step is recognising that the idea that tote bags are an environmentalist signal is a flawed one. However, like all things climate-change related, the environmental impact of tote bags is far too complex to simply brand them ‘good’ or ‘bad’. If enough people used reusable bags instead of buying plastic ones we would begin to reduce plastic pollution. The issue is that the cotton that tends to be used to make tote bags uses far more energy, land, and water to produce, and so as a result creates far more carbon emissions. They help reduce one problem whilst exacerbating another.

“We need to change our conception of tote bags; they have become fast fashion”

The best way of striking the balance between plastic pollution and carbon emissions with your tote bag collection is to try to use the ones you already have, instead of buying any more. And, when free tote bags are on offer, it is important to be honest with yourself about if you are actually going to use them.

We need to change our conception of tote bags; they have become fast fashion, so the same principles apply. Buy less to start with where you can, use the fast fashion pieces - in this case tote bags - that you have for as long as possible, and extend their life cycle with repairs and proper care.

But what about all those free tote bags with logos you don’t really want to wear? The easiest thing to do is save them for those occasions when you need a few extra bags, like moving or for charity shop donations. A far more fun solution, however, is putting a design over the logo you don’t like by using patches of fun fabrics, images from old graphic t-shirts, or even repurposing fabric from another unwanted tote bag.

A key part of the appeal of tote bags is that they are a blank canvas on which you can display your interests. Making your own designs on them makes them even more personal, and far more interesting than the homogeneity of mass-produced ones.

At the end of the day, the overproduction and overconsumption of tote bags is not just an individual problem, and is part of the wider systemic issue that is fast fashion. I am not suggesting that using a tote makes you a bad person; I still love the way tote bags look and will continue to enjoy the ones I have. Instead, we need to come to understand that tote bags are not the symbol of sustainability that they have been greenwashed to become.