ok so I just saw an article on how the plastic bag industry is fighting bans on those little plastic bags that grocery stores use so much off.

san francisco put an outright ban on them last year and other cities are do so too.

personally I hate hate plastic bags. the bagging kids puts 2 cans in them and throw 'em in the carriage. you get home with 40 bags for 60 items.


thank you give me paper.

your opinions?

 

A little of both. I agree the plastic ones don't hold enough "stuff", but I do reuse the plastic ones for trash can liners, at work,among other things here and there, and I reuse the paper ones to put out our newspapers on recycle day.

I'm saving the planet. One grocery bag at a time.

 

I use plastic bags to shuttle my trash to a wastebasket at McDonald's, the supermarket, gas station, etc. about once a week. Paper just wouldn't do as good a job at this task.

 

I prefer paper in plastic...makes them easy to carry, strong enough to fill up and I use them together for my trash.

 

if anybody remembers heartland ( ya i know ) they use to have reusable cloth mesh bags that were great.
you could jam 40 lbs of crap in them and they'd never break.
of course at heartland you did you own bagging.

we took them to a grocery store and handed them to the bagger to use.
he put three cans in one and put it in the carriage.

 

I think it is a crap shoot....paper manufacturing is energy intensive, plastic is oil based product......

I use plastic and recycle.

 

I generally use plastic as its easier to carry more as I can take about 10 of those bags at a time. We do reuse them for liners in the trash cans in the bathroom and also for locking away the lovely scent of used diaper.
I can adapt to paper if I have to. The world wont end. Which is worse for the environment is plastic I assume. Paper at least can be recycled multiple times.
Just dont do anything new to add to my grocery bill please. Its skyrocketing on its own thanks.

 

If the grocery store plastic bags are banned, then I will have to start buying plastic bags that size, and I suspect I won't find any with nice handles, and that will be a problem.

I go through all of my plastic bags because I use them to put trash in, I have a metal hanger on the inside of my kitchen cabinet door under the sink that collects most of my garbage and these bags are perfect for the hanger. In addition the bags are how I move used cat litter out of the house and into the trash.

Plus, if they are banned I'll have more challenges when it comes to getting the groceries home because the Titan has these awesome bag clips, so when I load the trucjk up all the bags are held into position so the food does not roll all around the back, and there is no way I could use paper on them.

 

We use neither........we bring our own cloth bags, AND get 5 cents back per bag!!

 

Connecticut is considering some sort of ban on these, and it really gets me riled up. First off, the legislation should find something else to work on... but more importantly, I just don't buy that it's such a nuisance issue or serious environmental issue.
I can speak of my own instance, and say that I re-use every single bag I get. I usually do self-checkout at the supermarket anyways, so I bag them myself in the most efficient means.
The reason most grocery store baggers under-load the bags is because people complain about bag breakage, or too many items per bag. I had several friends in high school who worked as baggers, and they said people often whined that they overloaded bags. So the store, as a service, airs on the side of caution. That's the reason you get underloaded bags.
Like many, if there was a plastic bag ban, I'd have to then BUY plastic garbage bags for my trash receptacles in the bathrooms, bedrooms, and office. Those bags would likely be thicker and sturdier, so there would be just as much plastic ending up in the landfill/incinerator as is currently the case.
I would also have to buy reusable bags, which would require washing, especially if there's nasty salmonella chicken leakage, or any other spilled food. But even routine washing, there's no energy savings. I would also need a compliment of bags to carry in each car I own, just to make sure when I stop by the grocery store on the way home from work, I'm prepared.
To top it off, bags are currently free from the grocery store. Obviously the cost is rolled into the price of the groceries, but if there was a plastic bag ban, or if they started charging for bags, would my food items drop a penny per item? I don't think so.
Basically, my point of this rant is that the bags are cheap and convenient. Banning them would not significantly reduce the plastic being disposed of.

The end result is that I would spend more of my own money for less convenience, with minimal if any improvement at all to the environment.