I am a huge advocate for carrying reusable bags. I carry them everywhere — the grocery store, Target, the mall, the outlets – any time I shop I have a shopping bag with me. It is such an easy thing to do, I talk about it all the time in hope that others will adopt the idea too. Trust me, when I first started, it was hard to remember, but now we have tons of bags and it is just habit to grab a few and go. Plus I have others that I keep in the car for shopping “emergencies.”

The one area I still use plastic bags is the produce section. Until now I had not found an adequate solution to replace produce bags. Apparently ChicoBags felt the same way because they have just introduced into the market a line of reusable bags for produces.

The produce bag collection includes three different reusable produce bags. Each produce bag is constructed from a different fabric designed to optimize freshness when paired with the right produce. The Hemp-Cotton blend bag is designed for leafy greens and green beans. The rePETe™ bag is great for squash, broccoli, carrots and celery because it restricts airflow and locks in moisture. The Mesh rePETe™ is ideal for apples, oranges, potatoes, onions and allows ethylene gas, nature’s ripening agent, to escape. Plus the mesh bags are made of 99 percent recycled content, and all three bags are machine washable.

You can buy each of the bags separately or you can get the started kit that includes one of each and a cute little apple bag holder for all of your produce bags, complete with a carabineer to clip to your other bags so you don’t forget it.

I am so excited to try these bags out. I can clip the little apple bag to one of my grocery bags and I’ll be ready to go. We don’t normally store our produce in bags one we get them home, so I am interested to see if the bags also help keep the fruit fresh and healthy. Unfortunately, I haven’t been to the grocery store since the arrival of the bags to try that out. But I am so excited to have reusable bags for my produce, the other would just be an added bonus.

Buy it – You can buy your own produce bags by ChicoBag online.

Win it - One lucky TheSuburbanMom reader will win their own Produce Bag Starter Kit – like the one pictured above.

Mandatory Entry – Head over to ChicoBag and tell me what other ChicoBag you would love to have. (There are some cute bags!)

Additional entries:

• Sign up for my newsletter. (You must confirm your subscription – thanks.)
• Follow TheSuburbanMom on Twitter (@SuburbanMomClub) and tweet about this give away. “Enter to #win resuable produce bags from ChicoBag and TheSuburbanMom @SuburbanMomClub #giveaway at http://wp.me/pQHaE-F9”
• Become a fan of TheSuburbanMom on Facebook. (Already a fan, that counts too, just leave a comment.)
• Subscribe to TheSuburbanMom’s RSS Feed
• Leave a comment on any other post on my blog, including entering another giveaway! (1 entry)

Contest ends June 11, 2010 at 5 pm. Open to U.S. residents in the continental U.S. only. Winning comment will be chosen at random by Random.org and contacted for shipping information. Winner will have 72 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

Discloser – I was provided the ChicoBag Produce Bag Starter Kit mentioned for this post and another one  has been provided to giveaway to TheSuburbanMom readers, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own. No other compensation was received.