There has been some trivial argument about whether one should carry one's
groceries home in "Paper or Plastic" bags, based on the environmental or
resource impact of one or the other. The answer, of course is *neither*.
In societies with less profligate lifestyles, shoppers use neither paper
or plastic bags - they carry their own totes or "string" bags, which are
reused and last a long time. How can we introduce this sensible practice
into our lives?

19 responses total.

I have a canvas bag and second, string (plastic string) which is very compact
and takes up very little space in bottom of bag #1 if only one bag is needed.
Unfortunatel the string bag is a hassle to use: things get snagged will 
being put in or taken out, and it's totally limp.  But the cashier can hook
one handle over her (sexist me) plastic bag dispensor.  Meijers sells canvas
bags with publicity 'bout how enviro-friendly they are printed on one side.
They also give a nickel per bag "customer furnished bag" credit and have
collection barrels for used plastic bags to be recycled.  Lots of organizations
sell canvas bags cheap to get their logo and "enviro-friendly associated
together.

   I usually try to bring my own bags to the store, And I if I do forget
to take my bags, I opt for plastic, because they are reuseable, and I
don`t have to contribute to wasting another tree.

   If I have just a few items, I'll just put them in hand and walk
out the door.  We have a burlap bag that works for up to a dozen or
so small items; I should use that more.

   It occurs to me that how you buy things is more important than
what you put them in when you go home.
   A lot of our shopping is done at the People's Food Coop, where
we bring in our usual containers for spices, rice, cocoa, etc.  By
going there, we've managed to eliminate a LOT of the packaging we'd
otherwise use.
   Most if not all the containers we use were recycled from other
food containers, too.

I was thinking of beginning another item in Environment to flame about
the absolutely wasteful, not to mention ridiculous, overpackaging of
products. This uses resources that *only* go into the waste stream,
and little is recycled (gray cardboard, bubble wraps, plastic kernels,
etc). 

Alot of this is due to the rise of the supermarket, and then the discount 
store.  Bubble packs are an effort to make small items to large to stuff
in your pocket and obtain a "five finger discount."

I understand the motivation, I decry the enormous waste of resources.
There must be better ways - dispensers, for example (*walls* of them,
like the old Automat, in NY). 

I have found many good uses for both paper and plastic bags.  Whenever I 
go shopping, I ask for whichever I happen to need at the time.  

Also, alot of food stores have barrels by the front door for recycling your
excess plastic grocery bags.  Too bad they're so prone to leaks, or they'd
make good waste-basket liners.

plastic bags do make good trash bags for your car, bathrom, bedroom, etc.. Just
remember to put leaky stuff in a regular trash bag.  For those of you who use
reuseable grocery bags, ask the cashier if there is a bag credit.  A lot of
stores give them.

Kroger's has a place to recycle plastic bags.  If you forgot to bring a bag
you can pick one up, used, and even get a bag credit for it.  Bike panniers
work well, as do baskets (lined) or a milk crate in back on the carrier, or
one of the paper boxes from the Farmer's Market with a handle.  Unwanted paper
or plastic bags are welcomed by many of the sellers at Farmer's Market, who
reuse them, as are egg cartons.  Backpacks.  Kiwanis sells a lot of used
backpacks, cloth bags, and other carrying equipment.  Buying used eliminates
the problem of adding more containers to the dump.  Wornout cloth bags can
be put out with recycling, along with wornout clothing, and are made into
chair cushions.  Buying in 50 pound bags via a buying coop eliminates most
packaging, and the brown paper bags are large and useful for putting out
recycled brown paper/cardboard.  If you really like paper bags, you can
collect used ones from the recycling bins on trash day.  Unwanted cardboard
boxes can be donated, as can styrofoam peanuts, to a packaging store (if they
are in good shape).  Shoestores will give you free shoeboxes for mailing or
storing small objects.

        The solution, as Michigan discovered, is to *charge* people for 
using paper or plastic bags.  Just a little, but it'll encourage people
to use reusable bags, or to bring their pastic bags back, as it will change
the situation from being a hassle to reuse, to being a financial advantage
to reuse.

Kroger's no longer recycles plastic bags, I have stopped going there for that
reason.  How much would you have to charge people for plastic bags in order
to get them to bring their own?  Many people cannot be bothered to return
returnable bottles, they put them out with recycling.

My wife made several canvas shopping bags.  I think many people were turned
off to returning returnable containers when they introduced the machines that
take those containers.  There seems to always be a line and one or more
of the machines are down for one reason or another.

We brought in a bunch that we had found and thought the machines were fun,
and Kroger's also promised to recycle the cardboard boxes that we used to
carry them.  They are trying hard, but could not find anyone to do the
plastic.  I never understood why people would walk by a bin full of used
plastic bags and pay for a new one.

I think Busch's quit recycling plastic bags a couple of years ago, also.
Why did Kroger's and Busch's stop? Is there any place in the Arbor/Ypsi
area that recycles plastic bags?

What about Meijer's?  Four years ago they had a fundraiser thing, that
they would pay so much for a large quantity of their bags.  (Seventy pounds
is what sticks in my mind, but I could easily be wrong)  The local preschool
was doing that.

Here in Milan, FoodTown will take any #2 plastic bag -- don't know if you
count that as Arbor/Ypsi or not.

The simplest way to deal with plastic bags is not to acquire them in the first
place, bring your own bags.

 
 I am bad. I ask for plastic and then I use them for disposing of kitty
litter. Ew.

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