Woman creates reusable grocery cart covers to keep food, items sanitary

PHOENIX - When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, germs were top of mind for many, especially for a local woman who wanted to protect herself and everyone else at the grocery store.

Andi Barness created a cart liner once the pandemic began but now says after realizing how dirty grocery carts can be, she thinks it's a tool people will use from now on.

"What are the dirtiest things in a grocery store? The number one thing is the floor and number two is the grocery cart," she said.

Barness created recyclable elastic cart safe liners through her new business, Cart Safe.

"It covers the entire cart and it has elastic on it so it can go over the larger Costco carts, the Target carts and it secures with the elastic to protect the food and everything that you might touch on the shopping cart," she explained.

Initially, many people were afraid to touch just the handle of a cart.  After doing research, Barness discovered many other sources of germs and bacteria lingering in many other places.

This is when she decided to cover the whole cart. The liners can be washed and reused several times or recycled after a single use.

"What I do is, I crumble it up and put it in a bag in my car. When I get home, I spray it with Lysol on all sides or I can put a couple at a time in the sink with some disinfectant and air dry it outside," Barness said.

Cloth style cart lines will be released soon and could be cleaned in washer and dryer machines. You can find her products to buy here.