Anti-plastic bag sites?

[down_to_earth]

It seems to me, a long time ago, there was a thread on plastic bags-- What to do with them, what not to do with them, how to recycle them, etc. It also seems as though there was a site posted that was anti-plastic bag with stats on them and alternative uses for them, including enviromentally friendly bags they had for sale.

Anyway, I'm just curious. Im a member of another board that has a discussion on this and I just thought of the old thread here and of the site. Also, in the March issue of "Body and Soul" (which I'm certain I have in the house somewhere), has stats on plastic bag usage, but it seems to have temporarily disappeared. Eh.

Also, why just not start a new discussion on it?

Thanks,
Laura

[Michael]

We've started using canvas bags. It's surprising how much they can hold. We figure each canvas bag holds what used to be put in 4 plastic bags (not even counting double bagging for heavier items). It's a hard habit to break though, there have been a few times when I've had to run back out to the car to get them. Plus it takes a little getting used to but I'm pretty much over that now.

[harper]

We've started using canvas bags. It's surprising how much they can hold. We figure each canvas bag holds what used to be put in 4 plastic bags (not even counting double bagging for heavier items). It's a hard habit to break though, there have been a few times when I've had to run back out to the car to get them. Plus it takes a little getting used to but I'm pretty much over that now.

:up: I'm always amazed how much I can hold in my canvas bags, which is nice since I often walk to the grocery store.

My biggest downfall is when I stop by the grocery store after work. I often forget to put the bag I keep in my car back in my car after I bring my groceries inside...

[Spidergrrl]

We've used cloth bags for groceries for 3 years now. It will become like second nature after a while. I always bring one in my backpack in case I make an unexpected shopping trip.

Today at the HFS if you bought a natural vagan sunscreen you got some free samples in a goodybag. I had the hardest time explaining "I'll take the samples but not that plastic bag" I won in the end but she was really puzzled.

After looking at the samples when I got home I realised that they are all paper outside and foil inside meaning the packaging can't be recycled. i am feeling really guilty like I should take them back. But if she couldn't understand that I didn't want the bag, how do I explain I don't want the samples because it is creating needless waste that I can't recycle??

[down_to_earth]

When I lived in Columbus, OH, I used to walk to the grocery store. When I realized how inefficient plastic is for walking and fully getting the impact of how enviromentally horrible they are, I had asked my mom to be on the lookout for large canvas bags for me at rummage sales. (Also, the store is next to a creek. i would see stray bags on the creek bed and in the creek and would fear for the wildlife and say a prayer for them.) Well, in the trash can in the laundry section in the basement of our apartment building, I found a large canvas bag. (It had the couple's old wedding bulletins in them, which I dropped in our recyle bin.) Nice and large and sturdy. There were some trips to the grocery store that I told myself that I would only buy what I could fit in the bag. I got real good at fitting stuff in that bag.:rockon: (Then I would implement a dollar limit...)

Unfortunatetly, after moving to Michigan and having to drive to the grocery store, I got out of the habit. I began to realize what I was doing and cut back. After reading the information on plastics in "Body and Soul" it was like I was fully hit in the back of my head.

"Body and Soul", March 2007: "The 100 billion platic bags that Americans use every year require more than 21,000 barrels of oil daily to produce. [I did the calculation: 7,665,000 a year. :eek:] Plastic recycling is expansive and energy intensive, so keep a stach of cloth or once used grocery bags on hand to carry purchases." (I read the quote to my husband and he's been on board with reusing bags and taking the paper to the grocery store, too.)

It does become second nature after awhile. However, a change, like moving can change things.:-/

Thank you,
Laura

[Shantih]

I'm getting my mum some snazzy canvas bags for her birthday off of here - http://www.reusablebags.com/store/happybags-modern-cotton-totes-series-p-760.html. She said she was willing to use canvas bags but not ugly ones, so...:lol:

Right now I make my parents reuse some of the plastic bags they use. I remember we used to save and reuse them all when I was a kid but they stopped for some reason.

[Spidergrrl]

Yeah...Britain can be very wasteful. all those years of rationing (during the war and 7 years after) and all that reusing and make do and mend----pffft. It's like "we'll never go back to that way of life again where we had to be thrifty and grow our own organic food and take care of things" as if it represents a poor time and now that we are an afluent western country we can just throw away everything to make up for all those years of hardship.

I exagerate of course---but there is some truth to that. And Britain is MILES better than Louisiana at recycling and reusing so we count ourselves lucky.

[Aussyj]

Anyone shop at the dreaded Wal-Marts? (Hey - it is where my mom shops, and she refuses to shop else where. Burn me on the cross if you must.)

If so - do they complain and give people a hard time about reusable bags?

[LeguMan]

Here in Belgium, supermarkets have stopped giving out plastic bags. (Some of them still use old stocks but they should be over by the end of the year) They encourage people to bring their own reusable bags. If you don't have any (can happen), you can buy reusable bag or recycled corn bags. :-)

[Quinoa]

Here in Belgium, supermarkets have stopped giving out plastic bags.
That's cool. Supermarkets in Germany are still selling plastic bags - at least they're not giving them out for free like I think it is (or used to be?) in the U.S. - but most also offer cotton bags and bags similar to this one (which I prefer):
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/shopping-bags-ultra-compact-c-2_6.html
I've been using reusable bags forever. There definitely is a change happening. 15-20 years ago, many would wrinkle their noses at people who were using (esp. cotton) reusable bags, now it is pretty common.

[Quinoa]

Here in Belgium, supermarkets have stopped giving out plastic bags.
That's cool. Supermarkets in Germany are still selling plastic bags - at least they're not giving them out for free like I think it is (or used to be?) in the U.S. - but most also offer cotton bags and bags similar to this one (which I prefer):
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/shopping-bags-ultra-compact-c-2_6.html
I've been using reusable bags forever. There definitely is a change happening. 15-20 years ago, many would wrinkle their noses at people who were using (esp. cotton) reusable bags, now it is pretty mainstream to use them.

[LeguMan]

That's cool. Supermarkets in Germany are still selling plastic bags - at least they're not giving them out for free like I think it is (or used to be?) in the U.S. - but most also offer cotton bags and bags similar to this one (which I prefer):
http://www.reusablebags.com/store/shopping-bags-ultra-compact-c-2_6.html
I've been using reusable bags forever. There definitely is a change happening. 15-20 years ago, many would wrinkle their noses at people who were using (esp. cotton) reusable bags, now it is pretty mainstream to use them.

Yes, I think Germany was the first country in Europe to stop giving out bags. I remember when i was a kid, there were plastic bags everywhere except in the German stores like Aldi and Lidl.

Now, people wrinkle their noses at those who don't use reusable bags, hehe!

[Spidergrrl]

Once in Louisiana I tried to refuse a plastic bag for a small item and the cashier girl was so frantic she wouldn't let go of my hand. She kept saying "They'll fire me if you don't take a bag" and nothing i could say would disuade her. Finally the manager came over and asked what the problem was and I said "there is no problem. I've received excellent service, but I only bought one tiny thing so i don't need a plastic bag.I'm trying not to be wasteful by taking something I don't need" The manager was really polite and let me go but as I was leaving he was shouted at the poor frightened cashier about "Bagging stuff quicker so they don't have time to argue with you"

But then Louisiana still lives in the dark ages. More than once I have been confronted and accused of trying to shoplift in a grocery store because I brought my own bags.

Ireland now charges for bags and that has really cut down on people taking one. they think whether they need one or not. I wish Britain would ban them altogether.

Britain is so far behind other european countries it is sad---but it is so much better than Louisiana that I count myself lucky.

[barefootchick]

I've tried to remember to use canvas bags more frequently. I'm pretty good at bringing them to the grocery store, but not so good at remembering the bags at other stores.

I've never really had a problem in using the canvas bags at stores. I just have to remember to tell the cashier that I need my stuff in the canvas bag instead of the plastic bag that the stuff is almost automatically put into.

Plasic and paper bags are, for the most part, given away in Virginia. I think it's only at Bottom Dollar that you have to pay for the bags. At Bloom, they do have reusable mesh bags for sale, but the bags don't look very sturdy.

[bethanie]

I shopped at walmart the other day, which I seldom do...and haven't done since I started making the move to my 'green bags.' The recycling people came to our school to do a demonstration a few weeks ago and gave all the teachers those natural fiber net bags which hold an amazing amount of stuff. It was the only bag I remembered to bring in, and I asked the checker to put all my food items in there. He said, "I don't think all your food will fit." My daughter said, "Yes, it will. That thing holds a LOT." Anyway, he got it all in there, but was still shaking his head like it was a crazy request. I think it's funny that people act like you really want to know their opinion of you trying to be less wasteful. I've forgotten the bags at other times and had to go back to the car. But I'm finding it's worth it.

B

[bethanie]

Which reminds me, my daughter and I were watching something (can't remember what it was) last week that was filmed in Europe....oh goodness, I think it was an old Benji movie. Anyhoo....It showed, and other actual foreign films she's seen have shown this to, people coming from the outdoor market with totes rather than plastic bags. I pointed this out, and also mentioned the factoid I read a few weeks ago about plastic bags lasting 1000 years in landfills. And since then she's really gotten in to helping with the totes.

B

[gaya]

What do you guys use for garbage bags? Is there a type of bag we can use that is biodegradable? sorry if this question has been asked already.

[down_to_earth]

Reusable bags. I thought it was something that simple. :D

Awhile ago, there was a question in Yahoo! Answers (I spend too much time there) on the bags that Sainsbury's is now selling while phasing out the plastic. At least, that's what I understood it to be. I think the gist of it was something to the effect of that people were using the bags because they were trendy, not environmentally freindly and because some celebrities were using them and supposedly people were buying them for the fashion statement.

I also try to avoid Wal-Mart. I thought it was funny and disgusting that the week of Earth Week (which was technically the week before) they ran commercials saying how green they've become. I went to the page: www.walmart.com/green Yeah. Yet they still seem to be plastic bag happy. I wonder if they still tear into virgin land and forest and flatten hills to build their stores. Twice they did that in Aurora, IN. When they tore into the hill with the forest (I think the first land was a bit swampy, but still virgin) I was aware enough to think of the wildlife, down to the worms, that were being disrupted, but not aware enough to try and do something about it. Eh. At least when they built in a first ring suburb of Columbus, OH last year, they tore down a near delapidated (sp?) shopping center. Making use of what was already there.

I digress.

This is a good thread. Too bad it didn't quite go this far on the other board, which (almost ironicly) is a Christian board. Go figure.

Laura

[aggiecorgi]

Gaya - to your plastic trash bag question....In the US landfills are constructed so that things don't biodegrade, they actually preserve the trash. I try to minimize the amount of trash that I create, and compost/recycle all that I can (which is pretty hard in my part of Texas). Seventh Generation and a few other companies make biodegradable trash bags, but since landfills preserve trash I believe these bags are unnecessary.

http://people.howstuffworks.com/landfill7.htm

I know in Texas plastic bags in the landfills is a major problem because it is difficult to keep them from flying away and they don't compact well.

I also heard that in San Francisco a law was passed that prevented most businesses from using plastic bags. I think they are allowing small businesses to still use plastic though.

[down_to_earth]

First, here is the link for the BBC article:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6570699.stm

I half saw the thing on San Fransisco on Glenn Beck. My husband said that government shouldn't be getting involved with business or people or something. He was going to say more, but I jumped in too quickly. He got miffed with me and wouldn't finish. I said it was the government's business when taxpayer's dollars are being used to clean up the litter that is produced by the plastic bags and saving the wildlife who has been injured from them. He didn't say anything.

I can't compalin though. I've done a good job in converting him to green overall. Especialy since he comes from a family that uses foam or paper plates for almost all of their at home meals (but they eat out several times a week), don't recycle and are big on meat and processed foods. Yeah, I was raised on meat, but we saw more potatoes than potato chips (the opposite at the in-laws') and I was raised recycling as much as possible.

I digress.

[Spidergrrl]

Funny you should mention that--we looked at 2 stores at their "biodegradable bin bags" today. They were made from between 80% and 98% recycled materials depending on teh brand. They all said "degrades 30% faster than regular bags"---so what is that in years?????

But as you said----if landfill conditions are as you say then it would be pointless. But we will still probably buy them as they are made from recycled material.

[jojob1969]

Reusable bags are becoming more common in NY state. One grocery store sells nice canvas bags right in the store. Another locally owned grocery chain gives a three cent discount on your purchase for every reusable bag you bring in.

[Spidergrrl]

Yeah, most major chain stores here in the UK sell a reusable "Bag for life" which is a heavy duty plastic one. But still plastic...sigh.

I wish I could get a discount for bringing canvas bags!

[isowish]

Spidergrrl...I don't have a clubcard so I've never actually tried this, but I believe at Tesco you can get "green clubcard points" every time you take your shopping away in something other than a new plastic bag...it could be just a plastic bag you're re-using, or a canvas bag, or...on the adverts they have things like Alan Titchmarsh taking his shopping away in a wheelbarrow. Presumably these points get you money off something but I'm not sure exactly what :lol:

[Spidergrrl]

Thanks Isowish--but we don't have a Tesco (our town voted NO because of pressure from townspeople)

and Spiderman won't let us get clubcards because he feels they just store information about you and what you purchase and track you too closely. Big Brother is watching you......

I know at Boots you have to have earn like a bazillion points to get a free lipstick or something so I don't think they are worth it.

But thanks anyway!