Plastic bags no mo'?

I think it's Whole Foods that's phasing out plastic bags in their stores and it will probably spread to other stores. Unfortunately, I usually either forget bags or unexpectedly drop in a grocery store sans bags.

I think it's too bad there's not much recycling of bags because they don't decompose and are virtually everywhere in the landscape. And too bad there's not more recycling of plastic bags, but it's difficult to find any place to take the hundreds that accumulate (abt 1500 per family/year).

That said, it's probably a good idea. Your thoughts?

In the grocery stores here, you have three options. Most folks bring their own bags when they go grocery shopping - that's what you're supposed to do. (And no one bags your groceries for you - that's up to you to do.) As well, you can buy plastic bags in the check-out line, but these are so expensive (minimum 50 US cents per bag) that you are bound to remember your own bags after the first time you forget to bring some along. Last, the grocery stores put all the used cardboard boxes in a big container at the front of the store, and you can just grab boxes as you go in and use those for packing your groceries. So, I don't see why there's a need to outlaw plastic bags, really -- just make them super-expensive so folks don't want to buy them. cheers, Bonnie

I have about 7 of those canvas-like bags they sell--they are very strong, very square and each bag holds a lot (I didn't buy the WF bags; Publix sells them for 99 cents instead of 2.99)...but I DO forget them a lot...what I have started to do when I forget to bring them into the store is to ask the bagger simply to load the items without bags into the cart. I pay, wheel the cart to my car, set up however many bags I think I need for unloading and I load them from the cart straight into the bags in the car.

I can't believe I didn't switch to these bags earlier...everything about them is better than the plastic bags...

b

The plastic bags that I don't re-use go to a recycling bin at the store (#4). I try not to use paper because of the very negative ecological impact compared to plastic, and I tend to lose nice canvas re-usables.

I will resist commenting on the intelligence of the politicians who have guaranteed more pollution by instituting plastic bag bans. But hey, it FEELS better, and how you FEEL is much more important.

Great idea Barb, I must remember that one, because I, too, leave my canvas Raley's bags in my car, most times. I even leave the nice sturdy wine bottle carriers in there, too. They give you money back for those, you know. If I tell myself I will just drive the loose groceries to the car and pack them, I'm sure I will remember my canvas bags.
At Safeway, I take in a large woven basket. I buy smaller loads there, usually no more than what will fit into my basket. I dislike unloading my groceries at Safeway, which is what one must do there. So by using the basket and loading it up with my groceries, the clerk lifts it out for me, rings the stuff up and reloads my basket. If I do get home with some of the plastic bags, we put them into the sink while cooking and put all our scraps into them. I use the handles to tie them tightly and throw them into the waste wheeler.

They've banned plastic bags in San Francisco. I wonder what the blood banks, hopsitals, and home meal replacement providers are going to do? Saline solution out of a jar?

I have a couple of Trader Joe bags. One is a lined cooler bag and the others are sturdy, reinforced plastic. The latter I've had for well over a year so I have no qualms. By the way, TJ's gives you a raffle ticket every time you use one. Haven't won yet, but hope springs eternal. When I walk to the store, I just use one of the many JanSport rucksacks my kids rejected out of fashion concerns after a school year of use.

I suppose after they've chopped down the Muir Woods to fill in the gap left by banning plastic bags in San Francisco they'll ban paper bags, too. Conservation education ... and then maybe in a few generations we'll have it all sorted out.

Perhaps I'm a bit more militant on the issue than others, but personally, I think this one is a no-brainer. Ban them. If shops keep providing plastic bags, people will keep using them. I know I do, because I'll forget sometimes as well, even though I have 30 of the polypropylene ones at home. Also, you can buy the polyprop bags at most supermarkets now for about $1, so it wouldn't be worthwhile to sell plastic bags for 50c. Recyclable plastic bags are nice, but they still take energy to recycle, WHEN people remember to put them into the recycling bins (with respect, Stuart, I think you're more diligent than the general public!). I also think there is a danger that people can salve their conscience by using recyclable bags, and then not recycle them...

The boys bought me a cool granny trolley a couple of years ago, which I use when I go down the road for groceries.

Plastics recycling is incredibly easy to encourage. For example, we hardly see any PET bottles in trash heaps or on the side of the road. Know why?

Plastics recycling is incredibly easy to encourage. For example, we hardly see any PET bottles in trash heaps or on the side of the road. Know why?

Uuuhhhhhhh, maybe the CRV has something to do with it?

Bingo.

Ah ok, two things. To recycle plastic bags here, you have to take them with you to the supermarket and put them in the bins there. You can't just put them in your normal garbage recycling bin.

Secondly, and this is my big point, it still requires energy to recycle. The best way is still to reuse as a first option, recycle if you can't reuse.

Have no idea what a CRV is, other than a car made by Honda ?

On the issue of bottles, the big environmental thing here at the moment is the damage being done by bottled water...

Have no idea what a CRV is, other than a car made by Honda ?

The CRV is the Cash Refund Value, i.e. a deposit on containers, here in California. It is also ex-wife #2's favorite vehicle.

To recycle plastic bags here, you have to take them with you to the supermarket and put them in the bins there. You can't just put them in your normal garbage recycling bin.

It's the same here. But put a CRV on the bags and hully-gee, people will go out of their way to recycle them, just as they do now with PET bottles.

Re-use is nice, I certainly put my plastic bags to good re-use, but it's not practical for all. Paper bags are an ecological disaster.

When I used to shop at Wholefoods they offered a choice of paper and plastc. Do they still offer paper bags?

But plastic-type bags can be bio-degradable. The UK Co-Op chain has been usingthem since 2002 and Tescos followed suit.

Supermarket giant Tesco has said all its carrier bags will be degradable from September.

The bags break down in as little as 60 days into materials such as carbon dioxide and water with no harmful residue, unlike plastic bags.

The firm hopes a billion fewer plastic bags a year will be used in a bid for it to be more environmentally-friendly.

The Co-op first introduced degradable bags in 2002 and Sainsbury's have trialled compostable bags. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4758419.stm


I get the feeling a lot of 'green' initiatives, such as not offering plastic bags, are undertaken because its more profitable for the company.

Re-use is nice, I certainly put my plastic bags to good re-use, but it's not practical for all. Paper bags are an ecological disaster.

Stuart, do you get the polyprop bags like we do here ? They're in every supermarket and many speciality stores now. They can be reused hundreds of times. Very few people offer paper bags, except the occasional misinformed deli.

We don't have the degradable bags here yet, but they sound like a good option. Having said that, I wonder what would happen if the retailer doesn't get through his stock of bags in 60 days ?

[Jenise]

I'm all for charging for plastic bags to reduce their use and encourage people bringing their own--as Bonnie says, Europe's been doing it for years. (I lived there 30 years ago, and it was true even that long ago.) People will get used to it.

I've started carrying my own bags to the store, too. Bought some nice padded/insulated ones at Trader Joe's last week for $3 each that will come in even more handy on warm days when I'm not heading straight home.

Back in the late 80s sometime I made a set of 6 large shopping bags from salvaged wide wale corduroy, in very bright colors.... magenta, purple, royal blue. I cut up a paper grocery bag to make a pattern, reinforced the bottoms with interfacing sandwiched in between 2 layers of corduroy, and added cotton webbing for handles. I still have one of them, although it's a little worse for wear after 20 years. The others went who-knows-where after my last divorce.

I also have many canvas shopping bags. I have some hand problems and the handles are much easier for me to manage than the plastic bags, or the paper bags without any handles. The paper bags with handles from places like Trader Joe's and Wild Oats are just not very sturdy... I don't trust the handles not to separate from the bag, since they have done that to me in the past.

My shopping bags live in my car. After I put the groceries away in the house, I hang the bags on the inside door knob of the door I use most so I can't get out of the house without taking them back to the car.

I shop at a store that deducts .05 from the total grocery bill for each bag returned for reuse.
So if I return ten bags a week, that's about, what, $26 a year?
I guess it's better than a sharp stick in the eye.