A rant about plastic bags

[petep9000]

A quick rant. I mean, are we supposed to carry our European-style mesh bags, or our Land's End canvas bags with us wherever we go regardless if we think we'll be shopping? Carry them 'just in case'?? On the way home from work I had to pick up a prescription for my antibiotic, some toilet paper and some shaving creme before the pharmacy closed. No time to stop home first to get my mesh bag. So, one plastic bag. Next door was the Chinese restaurant, I ordered some veg dumplings. Another bag. Then I had to go to the supermarket and get milk. Another bag.

Three bags total tonight. You just can't win. It's like digging a hole on the shore, no matter how much you scoop out of it the water keeps filling it up. I try to use them for garbage or for lunch, or for throwing out smelly leftovers (if any). But it's a losing battle, I have a HUGE plastic bag from 'Target' stuffed to the top with other plastic bags that I'm too conflicted to throw away.

I can't imagine why 3M or Dow Chemical or whoever makes these things can't also devise a way of recycling them. The raw material for new bags would be the old ones. I mean, who hasn't seen plastic melt in their life? They can't create a huge cauldron of melted plastic bags and make new ones from that? No, of course they can't. The molten bags leach toxins into the air. It's a vicious cycle. This planet is doomed to be engulfed in plastic bags and plastic water bottles...it's already happening.

[Beachwood Mac]

^ they do add up fast. Luckily, many of the grocery stores here now have recycle bins specifically for plastic bags.

[petep9000]

^ they do add up fast. Luckily, many of the grocery stores here now have recycle bins specifically for plastic bags.

Oh? I haven't seen those around NYC- well if they can be recycled (and I thought those kinds of plastics could not because of the toxins they release) then that effort should be made all over the country. It should be promoted from the highest levels down. It's a disaster...plastic everywhere. Oy, when I was in India the last time the mountains of rubbish from plastic bottles and bags is just unreal. Even in our country, who hasn't seen trees and bushes with plastic bags all tangled up in them? Horrible.

I'm obsessing over it, but I feel like in such a short period of time we've caused such a damage to this planet.

[desertangel]

I made a habit of leaving my reusable bags in the car. It wasn't easy. First, they kept getting left at the house. Then I put them by the door so I would remember to take them out to the car. Then they kept getting left in the car. I would be too egotistical to leave a cart full of groceries to go get them. Then I realized that I use them a lot to line the kitchen garbage can. I hate cleaning the inside of garbage cans... eeww! Now, my money doesn't go near as far as it did 6 months ago, so less shopping = less plastic bags and none of it matters to me anymore.

Well, I don't know if that was more of a rant or what, but maybe there's a couple of helpful hints in there somewhere for you. :shrug: :laugh:

[petep9000]

Yes, they are my garbage bags too. I never buy 'Hefty' kitchen bags or whatnot, well I have one box under the sink but I don't use them. I line the bathroom pail with a plastic grocery bag, and I hang one from a knob on one of my kitchen drawers and that's what I use for garbage. If it is a garbage that might attract mice or roaches (this is NYC, after all :-P) then I press the air out of the bag and tie it up and chuck it. But if it's just non-recyclable stuff like the dry cleaning bags or whatever, I wait until the bag is at max capacity and then chuck it.

When my mom came to stay 2 weekends ago, she went to throw something into my kitchen garbage can (I also have the kind everyone has in their kitchen, lined with a bag, but mine never gets used) and I was like "DON'T THROW THAT IN THERE!!!!" She got the hang of how to live in my place quick. :nod:

[rubytuesday]

there's going to be a tax on them in Australia so people are forced to use other bags and the plastic ones are going to be phased out. I know how you feel about them. when I was growing up my dad would make us take used plastic bags on our shopping trips even though it would annoy the check out person a bit. And if we didn't have enough we'd just carry the items in our arms. I used to be embarased by it when I was little but it's a lifestyle that's very achievable and I guess thats what the government is hoping for.

[LukeA]

More & more cities are banning them. San Francisco was the first, and Portland will be soon to follow. I also recall hearing that Boston is considering it too.

[tuigirl]

unfortunately, I work in one of those places that hands out millions of plastic bags a year and to be honest I've seen a real change lately in people using their reusable/ethnic bags (mostly women do it to be fair, and mostly older people). To my of thinking, it only needs to take one industry giant to say no to ALL free bags and the rest will follow, you forget your bag, tough, get your shopping wet etc. As for remembering to bring your own, hey, it's all about training...the little ones from scratch (seeing mum and dad bringing them) and re-training the older ones (you wouldn't forget to put out the rubbish on a weekday, for collection now would you...probably not). I just wish someone would make a major move, forget charging it does b-all. I've quizzed customers as well and theyr'e ALL in favour of something being done.

[jannieC]

I'm always telling clerks "I don't need a bag" and they act so bothered by it. One cashier started to give me a plastic bag for a small item and when I told her I didn't need one, she threw the bag away- *SOB*!

I always forget my "earth" bag too. I'm going to put it in the car this morning when I go to work so that it will be there, dammit.

[petep9000]

I'm always telling clerks "I don't need a bag" and they act so bothered by it. One cashier started to give me a plastic bag for a small item and when I told her I didn't need one, she threw the bag away- *SOB*!

I always forget my "earth" bag too. I'm going to put it in the car this morning when I go to work so that it will be there, dammit.

OMG. The same exact thing happened to me once. The clerk whipped out a bag for my buttered roll, and I said sunnily "oh, no thanks. I'll just carry it, I'm only going around the block". He made one of those tooth-sucking noises (how do you spell that? "tsk"?) and rolled his eyes and angrily stuffed the bag into the garbage!! I was as horrified as you were. Obviously, me not wanting a bag ruined his day.

The challenge for me and my mesh bag is that I live in a heavily urban area (Brooklyn) and work in an even heavier one (NYC), so I don't drive. If I did drive then sure I'd stash those mesh totes in my car. But as a pedestrian and subway rider, I'm not sure how to integrate a man bag into my life. I love the idea of banning the little beasties altogether, and not only bags but those clear hinged plastic containers they pack food in too! Whatever happened to a nice paper box from the bakery? Whatever happened to picking out a pastry and they wrap it in waxed paper and out it into a little paper bag? Whatever happened to the Chinese joint packing your dinner special into a tin container with a fitted cardboard lid? Those clunky plastic containers are horrible. Paper bags and paper cartons are easily recyclable, and I used those tin containers over and over again.

[GODDESS6]

our local wal mart said they were gonna start giving the customers a choice again of paper or plastic~ i also have a huge bag full of plastic~ it seems that is all they use where i live, i mean everywhere~
i do try to recycle them sorta by reusing them in my daycare~ but other than that i have no idea what to do w/ the excess in my garage~

[DavidMn]

Well, I work as a cashier at Rainbow Foods, a local chain here in Minnesota, and we have a plastic bag recycling bin by the door at all of our stores here. Me personally, when I work late (We close at midnight) and I'm tidying up the register area, I take all the plastic bags that are laying on the floor or arent on the racks and put them in the recycling bin NOT the garbage. :nod:

[Sarah]

I would have bitched if they threw away a bag like that in front of me. Random people are morons and jerks.

[jannieC]

I would have bitched if they threw away a bag like that in front of me. Random people are morons and jerks.

I said something like "Well that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it???" She wasn't very bright.

[strandinthewind]

I recycle the plastic grocery bags I get. I sue them as my trash bags (I live in a condo and trow garbage out daily) - I also use them to pick up the dog poop outside. So, I justify my use of them that way. In other words, that is less actual garbage and poop bags I have to buy as well as one less non-environmentally friendly mesh bag or tree killing paper bag I have to buy/use.

[SuzeQuze]

There's a pile of garbage (mostly plastic) in the Pacific ocean about twice the size of Texas. When I heard this I vowed to stop using the bags. I first switched to paper and then tried to remember the damn mesh bags which I finally have. Stop and Shop here now has a recycle bin for the bags. And petep I can't believe you have to get everything in plastic. We still have those containers you mentioned here in Boston! I think you might want to break down and get that man bag, baby. :)

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/10/19/SS6JS8RH0.DTL

[DavidMn]

sueThat's all you damn lawyers ever think about!:laugh::laugh: God that made me laugh.

[Sahara]

In Ireland there's been a tax on plastic bags since 2003 -- it was 15c and now it's 22c. It's made such a difference, barely any shops even use them any more ... but they've changed to paper bags instead, so we're wrecking the forests now! Agh! How can we win?! >,<

[jannieC]

In Ireland there's been a tax on plastic bags since 2003 -- it was 15c and now it's 22c. It's made such a difference, barely any shops even use them any more ... but they've changed to paper bags instead, so we're wrecking the forests now! Agh! How can we win?! >,<

Cloth!!! :nod:

[desertangel]

Garbage in the oceans is ridiculous. I went to a presentation by http://www.oceanfutures.org/ and consequently became an even more ardent recycler than before. Large waterfowl eat disposable lighters that wash up on remote shorelines. After they die, in the middle of their rotting corpse sits the lighters that stayed in the bottom of their stomaches.

If plastic shopping bags went away, I would be okay, I would adopt other methods of dealing with my garbage can. For a guy who doesn't have a car and wants to use reusables, you would almost have to put them in a backpack or manbag. Maybe the mesh ones that look like a fishing net might roll up small enough to stuff in a pocket... ?

Why can't they make these things out of biodegradeable products? And why can't the metal recyclers stop paying cash to meth addicts for roadway railings?

And if I were elected President... :lol:

[strandinthewind]

Why don't they burn them (and all grabage)?

[petep9000]

Well, I made up my mind. I'm to take one of my mesh bags and roll it into a tight ball and tuck it into my knapsack that I carry to and from work. I'll just need to remember it's there LOL. I carry so much other junk anyway, I probably won't notice the extra bulk.

Hey, this sounds like the makings of a good 'getting to know you' type of thread. To be continued...

[SuzeQuze]

Well, I made up my mind. I'm to take one of my mesh bags and roll it into a tight ball and tuck it into my knapsack that I carry to and from work. I'll just need to remember it's there LOL. I carry so much other junk anyway, I probably won't notice the extra bulk.

Hey, this sounds like the makings of a good 'getting to know you' type of thread. To be continued...

That sounds like a good idea. I'm pissed because the building my condo is in does not recycle so I will have to drop off or something. I guess they tried it and tenants would just throw all kinds of crap in the chute and then the recyclers wouldn't take it. Why are people so dumb? Ugh.

[rubytuesday]

Cloth!!! :nod:

These are like the ones they sell at the supermarkets. They cost about $1 and you only need a few and just keep them in your car.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9648/globalwarminggreenbagav7.jpg

When I go to the stores it seems like nearly 50% of people seem to use them. They're great though, the perfect solution 'cause they're so easy to carry and fit a lot of items in them too.

[jannieC]

These are like the ones they sell at the supermarkets. They cost about $1 and you only need a few and just keep them in your car.

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/9648/globalwarminggreenbagav7.jpg

When I go to the stores it seems like nearly 50% of people seem to use them. They're great though, the perfect solution 'cause they're so easy to carry and fit a lot of items in them too.

Right- I have two very similar to this one. They cost .99 each. :thumbsup:

[desertangel]

Why don't they burn them (and all grabage)?

Despite the claim that a high tech garbage burner in Marion County Oregon has scrubbers that clean the air before it goes up the stack and into the atmosphere, there is concern over what the residue from burning plastic (dioxin) is doing to the surrounding environment.

http://www.alternativesmagazine.com/02/twist1.html

I love the story about the Sheriff's department sending confiscated illegal fireworks to the burner. When they blew up and damaged the burner the company wanted to sue the Sheriff's department. :sorry: I find that :laugh:

When it comes to plastic, I feel the only answers are to recycle and/or make it biodegradeable in an eco-friendly way.

[DavidMn]

I love the story about the Sheriff's department sending confiscated illegal fireworks to the burner. When they blew up and damaged the burner the company wanted to sue the Sheriff's department. :sorry: I find that :laugh:

Now if that isnt a story right out of Deliverance, I dont know what is!:lol:

[desertangel]

Oh gawd, David, there's a million of those stories...

Tonya Harding
The Rajneesh who poisoned the salad bar at Wendy's and other fun stuff
Gov. McCall's motto: Welcome to Oregon, but don't stay
Blowing up the beached whale with TNT
Portland Shanghai tunnels
Diane Downs
First state to decriminalize marijuana
Legalized assisted suicide
The New Carrissa beached barge that still sits in the sand
and now the pregnant man...

From what I learned about the type of people who settled Oregon, it's no wonder.

There are a few nice stories too; the bottle bill, the public beach clean up event and beaches that continue to be public land.

[Lee]

Our grocery store recycles them, so I usually take all my plastic bags there.

And sometimes I put garbage in them.

I also have some grocery bags (not plastic) that the store sells that you can use over & over. I had a coupon to get them free, so I use them every week. They aren't insulated yet the clerks always put the cold stuff in there for some reason & they really load them up.

Lee :)