I finally snapped a photo of our favorite place for Egyptian street food – Aboo Ahmad’s! For those of you who haven’t eaten here yet, we highly recommend it. The restaurant is located in Asalah Square between 1,000 Items and Ghazala Market.
Not only do they make the tastiest foul and falafel in town, the staff is also willing to put your takeaway sandwiches in your own container or wrapped in paper.
Most people get their food in plastic bags – and Aboo Ahmad gets very busy during the lunch hour – so please remember to be patient with the staff when you request paper or for them to use your own container. They are always happy to do so, but they work on “autopilot” so your request involves a bit of an interruption. But we have now visited there enough times that the staff knows when they see us coming that they won’t be using plastic for our food!
Lately, I’ve been blogging mostly about how to REDUCE plastic when shopping for food at supermarkets and green grocers. Here’s a quick summary of tips:
BRING YOUR OWN CONTAINERS. Use them to buy all sorts of goods in bulk – butter, cheese, flour, rice, nuts, spices, and more.
MAKE IT YOURSELF. Skip the plastic-packaging and make your own! Bread, snacks and sweets, pasta, drinks – you name it and you’ll find a recipe online for it.
BUY THE LARGEST PACKAGE AVAILABLE. Skip the individual size packages. Instead buy the largest box or bottle possible. This cuts down on the amount of plastic needed for each product.
I will continue to share tips and practical advice on shopping for food with less plastic. I will also start to discuss how we can reduce the plastic involved with household cleaning and self-care products so visit again soon!
Looking for a plastic-free lunch to get on-the-go? REFUSE the little plastic bags that most street food stalls offer and ask for PAPER instead. Abu Ahmed’s shop, next to Ghazala market in Asalah Square, has paper and if asked they will put your sandwiches – and even a fresh bunch of arugula – in paper. We have shared the “Basic Concept of Plastics” (in Arabic) with the owner and he has shown interest in learning more about the problems with plastic. If more customers begin to REFUSE the plastic bags, it may help convince them that paper is okay (and that we aren’t the only crazy ones in town!).
When I first posted on Don’t Mess with Dahab’s Facebook page about refusing plastic bags, I was asked for suggestions on what to use as bin bags instead. Many people REUSE the single-use plastic bags as liners for trash cans and believe that reuse justifies taking the bags in the first place. The only trash can in our house that is lined is the large bin in the kitchen. The small bins in my bathroom and other rooms in the house are “naked”; I simply dump the contents into the larger kitchen bin that does have a bag. So finding an alternative to the large plastic bin bags was the next step in my journey to using less plastic. And I’ve been meaning to share this success story for a few months now!
While they are still plastic, the large flour sacks that are used by the government bakeries make excellent bin bags – and are recommended by the local Bedouin as the woven plastic material is not easily ripped open by the various street critters. The empty flour sacks were once available for sale at a shop in Asalah; we visited several but had no luck tracking these bags down in town. So, off we went to the bakery in the city! It took at least four visits to the forn before they had enough time and the bags to sell to us. We were advised beforehand that the bags would cost LE 0.50 or LE 1 each, but in the end we paid LE 2/bag. (A young Bedouin neighbor agrees this is the going rate and that you can also buy the bags from the bakery behind the Mubarak flats.) We purchased 40 bags which should last us a good while. I keep several sacks in the car for spontaneous beach clean-ups, one by my front gate for the trash I collect from the street, and one in my kitchen.
If you’re looking for an alternative to buying new plastic bin bags, consider repurposing these flour sacks!
Looking for an alternative to plastic bags for your smaller trash bins? Do you or someone you know read newspapers? Try this approach. Or ask your local shop for some cardboard boxes to use as garbage cans.
How do you handle the trash in your house? Do you have suggestions for your fellow Dahabians looking to use less plastic?
I love eggs – scrambled, fried, in a quiche – and I use many in baking – waffles, cookies, cakes, and muffins. Needless to say, I buy a lot of eggs! So you may be wondering what those eggs are doing in a plastic bag. Well, it is the same plastic bag I have been REUSING to buy my eggs in for the last few years.
We are lucky here in Dahab. Eggs arrive here in our supermarkets plastic-free! But then the supermarkets give us small plastic bags for carrying the eggs. This doesn’t protect the eggs as much as a cardboard container would. I’m sure we’ve all ended up with cracked or broken eggs in the process of getting them home from the supermarket. We need to take extra care to get our eggs home in one piece. This usually means carrying them by themselves or carefully placing the bag of eggs on top of the other items in your cotton bag. Since customers are expected to bag their own eggs, it is easy to REFUSE the plastic bags provided and use your own, whether that’s a cotton bag or a plastic bag that you are REUSING.
TIP: Bring a reusable container or cotton bag to carry eggs in. Don’t worry about the size of the bag. If all you have is a large cotton bag, use it. Just tie the bag in a knot so the eggs are snug and don’t roll around.
TIP: Reuse the same plastic bag each time you purchase eggs. When you get home, give the bags a rinse if necessary and put them right back in your cotton bag. That way you’ll always have a small plastic bag to REUSE for eggs whenever you are at the supermarket.
Supermarket ~ Green grocer ~ Pharmacy ~ Bakery ~ Household goods shop ~ Electronics shop ~ Restaurant Take Away ~ Community Markets
Where else can we REFUSE plastic shopping bags here in Dahab?
Besides the typical shopping bags, there are other plastic bags that we can learn to REFUSE – like the small bags that are used at the local fool and tameya shops. If you are anything like my husband and me – lovers of this local traditional street food – REFUSING these smalls bags can save a lot of plastic from ending up in the dumpsters.
Traditional Egyptian food in a reusable plastic container.
Nadim buys his lunch nearly everyday: one fool with egg sandwich and one aubergine sandwich. His favorite place – and one that has learned his plastic-free habit – is Abu Ahmed’s, located in Asala Square between Ghazala Market and 1,000 Items. It has taken some time, but Nadim has developed the habit of bringing his own reusable plastic containers to the shop and asking the servers to use these instead of the plastic bags. This may make you feel silly or embarrassed at first, pushing you out of your comfort zone. Be brave and remember, Egyptians are generally friendly people and a smile goes a long way.
It has taken some time for the shopkeepers to get used to Nadim’s request, but it has happened. In fact, a few weeks ago, he left the house without a container but decided to buy lunch anyway and the shop owner asked Nadim where his box was!
TIP: If you don’t own any lightweight reusable containers, check to see if you have any old food containers that you can REUSE, for example, the plastic boxes that cheese, sour cream, or helawa come in.
Tameya in a paper cone.
My favorite shop is no longer open, but there they would wrap the loose tameya or sandwiches in paper before putting them in a plastic bag, making it easy to refuse the bags and take the yummies away in only paper. Many shops regularly use paper for the loose tameya but not the sandwiches. I wonder why more shops don’t use paper for sandwiches and how we can convince them to do so.
TIP: If you forget your own container, check to see if the shop has paper. If they are not too busy, they should be willing to use that instead of plastic bags for your order of sandwiches.
TIP: If the shop is really busy when you arrive, be prepared to wait. Interrupting the factory-like production of the sandwiches with a request for no plastic bags is sometimes difficult. Hang in there! And don’t be discouraged if your request doesn’t always get fulfilled.
TIP: If you carry a backpack or a large purse, put your reusable food containers in the pack before you leave the house in the morning. That way you’ll always be prepared for a delicious, nutritious, and plastic-free snack!
Do you like to eat the traditional Egyptian street food? Would you be willing to try to bring your own containers? Or do you already use your own food containers? Do you have a favorite shop or can you recommend one that is willing to take the time to fill your containers instead of plastic bags or one that uses paper instead of plastic?
How many of us remembered to carry our reusable bags this past week? It takes practice, doesn’t it? Maybe you still need to find or purchase some bags. Maybe you have bags to use but still need to find a way to remember to bring them with you to the store. Don’t give up! And give yourself a high five if you remembered, even once, to REFUSE a disposable plastic bag. 🙂
We are offered plastic bags at many other places besides the supermarkets, so we have to remember to bring reusable bags not only to the grocery store but also, for example, to the green grocer – where most of us do our shopping for fruits and vegetables. And this is where A LOT of plastic bags are used here in Dahab, especially when customers use a different plastic bag for each veggie.
Most of us select and bag the veggies ourselves so there is no battle involved with the grocer in having to REFUSE the plastic bags. We just have to bring our own and not reach automatically for the plastic bags hanging on the wall.
TIP: If you have plastic bags at home – or acquire new plastic bags – you can REUSE them. Shake or rinse them out and bring them back to the green grocer with you next time.
TIP: If you forget your reusable bags, try to use less plastic bags by using a single bag for as many vegetables as you can. It’s okay to put your tomatoes and cucumbers in the same bag. The eggplant won’t mind riding along with the oranges. If there’s still room in your bag, go ahead and put the next veggie on top. We always put the heavier fruits and veggies in our bag first so they are on the bottom and not squashing anything underneath.
People have asked me how I deal with weighing the fruits and veggies. To be honest, when we first started using our cotton bags, we would put the veggies in the bag before we weighed them and I did not mind the extra weight being added to the total. What’s an extra 50 grams when we’re paying only LE 3 for a kilo of tomatoes? Especially if you’re weighing on a non-digital scale that doesn’t give you an exact weight anyway. Nowadays, more of the green grocers do have digital scales so you can measure a more precise amount. So now, my hubby (who usually selects and weighs our veggies since he’s the one who cooks) carries the produce in his hands to the scale, weighs it, and then puts them in the cotton bag. (My job, if I’m with him, is to stand there with the bag!) If this is too difficult (which it definitely can be if you are buying large quantities or are by yourself), then you have two choices: weigh the veggies with the bag and don’t worry about paying for the added grams OR weigh your bag when it’s empty and then subtract this from the total weight of the bag and veggies. So if your bag weighs 50 grams and you want to purchase a half-kilo of cucumbers, fill the bag with cucumbers until the total weight is 550 grams. Then simply report to the grocer that you have a ½ kilo of cucumbers.
TIP: When reporting to the green grocer what you have bagged, be prepared to show him what is in your cotton bags, especially if you’ve managed to put more than one item in a bag. Since the cotton bags aren’t see-through like the plastic, sometimes the green grocer wants to check that what you are telling him is what is actually in the bag. Don’t be offended. Just open your bag so he can peek inside.
TIP: Take your cotton bags to a green grocer or deli that has digital scales. Ask to weigh your bag and then write – directly on the bag, in permanent marker – how much the bag weighs. That way you won’t forget and you won’t have to weigh it each time. This is especially useful if you have many reusable bags, all of different sizes and weights. And something I need to remember to do with my own variety of cotton bags!
We shop mostly in and around Is-souq it-tujari in Asala and have never encountered a grocer who had problems with us using our own cotton bags. Like with supermarkets, if you visit the same green grocer frequently enough, he’ll get to know you and your plastic-free habits.
Do you already use cotton or reusable bags for your fruits and veggies? If so, have you ever shopped somewhere that had a problem with it? What tips do you have for other Dahabians wanting to switch to cotton bags for produce? Where else do you use your cotton bags for shopping?
Looking for reusable cotton bags to replace those disposable plastic ones? We are lucky here in Dahab to have a great, inexpensive source of cotton bags! Ibrahim on Fanar Street sells the bags pictured here for only LE 5 each. They are about 45 cm x 35 cm in size. I’m not completely convinced by the strength of the handles but Ibrahim is. I have one of his bags and the handle is still intact, but I’m always wary about how many heavy items I put inside. I’ve just purchased a handful of extra bags to carry around with me so if I see you stuck without a reusable bag, I’ll be able to pass one on to you!
Have you used these bags from Ibrahim? Have you had any problems with the handles? Are there other options for cotton or reusable bags available here in Dahab that you would recommend?
Once, I asked a student to make a list of things that fly. The #1 item on his list? Plastic bags. Not exactly the answer I was expecting, but taking a look around us in the city of Cairo, how could I argue? Plastic bags are so often seen flying through the air that they are, sadly, referred to as the “National Bird of Egypt”.
These plastic bags are everywhere in Dahab, being blown by the wind into our neighborhoods, deserts and seas. But the problem is not just one of aesthetics. According to Greenpeace, “267 species are known to have suffered from entanglement or ingestion of ocean plastic debris including seabirds, turtles, seals, sea lions, whales, and fish” (2006). Research from the UAE shows that it’s not just marine animals suffering from plastic pollution. Camels, sheep, goats, and gazelles are just some of the desert animals dying each year from ingesting plastic.
The first steps in cutting back on the number of plastic bags in the environment is to REFUSE the bags when they are offered to you at shops, and, of course, bring your own REUSABLE bags instead.
Easier said than done, especially here in Egypt, where providing plastic bags to customers is seen as a necessity, as something store owners must do to show their appreciation. There also seems to be a mindset here that you can’t possibly NOT have a bag for your goods, you can’t possibly walk down the street with your purchases in your hands for all the world to see. That would be uncouth, uncivilized. And so refusing plastic bags can actually become a battle of wills. Yours – to not accept the bag – and theirs – to provide a service to the customers. My husband and I have been refusing plastic bags for several years now and have fought – and won! – most of these battles. It’s not uncommon to have to say, “No, thank you, I don’t want the bag” many, many times before the clerks will give up trying to force one on you. While in the process of refusing bags, my husband often takes the time to explain why we are refusing the bags – and some clerks listen with interest and even ask questions to enhance their own understanding of environmental issues. These are the good days! And then there are days like the one when the clerk ripped the plastic bag off its hook before I could say no and then when I managed to tell them that I didn’t need a bag, he proceeded to throw the never-used plastic bag into the rubbish bin. When I stared at him in disbelief, my husband calmly explained the reason for our refusal, while the clerk calmly explained that he had to throw the bag away because he had already ripped it off! Why he couldn’t have simply placed the bag on the counter for the next customer, I will never know. But I have not been back to his shop since.
It takes some time for the store clerks to get used to not giving customers bags, but if you revisit the same shop enough times and “stick to your guns” as we say in English, the clerks will recognize you and accept what they may see as a quirky habit. This has certainly been the case with our favorite food shop – 1000 Items (Alf Sunf). The clerks see us coming and they know! They may double-check, “No plastic bag, sah?” Sah. And we smile at each other as I point to the reusable bag in my hand.
So, don’t give up! Always refuse with a smile on your face and be persistent.
But REFUSING is only half the battle. We also need to be ready with own REUSABLE bags. This takes practice to remember, a lot of repetition before it becomes a habit. We don’t remember to bring our own bags 100% of the time, but we definitely remember them a great deal more now than we did two or three years ago.
You don’t have to buy new bags; use the bags you already have – backpacks, rucksacks, purses, the baskets on your bicycles. We have one old backpack dedicated to shopping. I also use my purse if I’m only buying a few small items.
Reuse the plastic bags you already have. Give them a rinse if needed between uses.
If you need to buy shopping bags, try to buy used bags. There are a few second-hand shops in Dahab, like The Pink Elephant, as well as plenty of Facebook groups where you can buy and sell used goods. (See links at the end of this post.)
If you can’t buy used bags, try your hand at making your own out of old t-shirts. Read instructions here.
If you need to buy new bags, buy ones made from cotton. Remember to wash your cloth bags. Avoid the polypropylene bags that look like fabric; they are actually made from plastic. They are not washable and they fall apart quickly.
Put some reusable bags in places that help you remember them. Keep some next to your wallet or keys. Stuff some in your purse. Tie some to your bike handles.
If you forget your own bags and you aren’t purchasing too many items, be like the local kids and use your shirt! Or just carry it in your hands. My husband has, on more than one occasion, taken the cap off his head and filled it with eggs when we have forgotten our bags!
Do you carry your own reusable bags? What’s your favorite type to use? How do you help yourself remember your bags? Have any tips of your own to share?
Don't Mess with Dahab 