I read yesterday that NY state began their plastic bag ban on Sunday. So no grocery stores, pharmacies, merchants will give you your purchase in a plastic bag - you either bring your own, or some will sell you a paper bag for 5 cents.
The town next to mine initiated a similar ban, except they will still sell you a plastic bag for 10 cents and are moving toward a no-plastic rule. Now what we’re talking about here are those checkout line bags, referred to as “single use” bags. Ironically, these are the bags that most people (not the Bloomberg, Cuomo, Beto class, but the rest of us) tend to re-use. They’re the bags we use to clean up after our dogs, line cat litter pans and wastebaskets, keep in our cars as trash containers, or to cover wet umbrellas or muddy sports shoes. We carry them to yard/garage sales in case the seller doesn’t have a supply. Use them to separate items being packed in a picnic basket or cooler. Cover garden tools.
On the other hand, those rolls and rolls of thin plastic bags you see in grocery stores to bag produce, bulk nuts and candy, bakery items, or to twist-tie around deli containers that might leak, the ones most likely to be used once and tossed are still available, not to mention the high volume of food, beverages, toiletries, cleaning products, paper products packaged in plastic are not being discontinued, nor are consumers being charged extra for them. (My grocery store experimented with carrying glass bottled milk and cream from a small dairy that required the purchaser to return the glass bottles to the store - it didn’t sell and has been discontinued.)
So IMHO, singling out “single use” is a meaningless gesture, one that cost the grocery store branch where I used to shop the $800+ a month I had spent there. I now shop at another branch of the same chain that still packs in plastic bags, no charge, for which I am grateful every time I walk my 110 pounds of dog.
If it’s a state law (I assume you are correct haven’t checked) then that means you are now driving to another state to do your shopping. So how much in gas?
Just checked Amazon, those roles of dog waste bags? About 1.5 cents each $14.95 per thousand). Which means of course you could keep a role in the car for muddy shoes, use them for cat litter, or line waste baskets. Since you can have role in you car then they would even be available at a yard sale.
We used to use the plastic bags from the store and I ended up with 50 gallon trash bags full of them in the garage. Now I keep a dozen canvas ones in the trunk and in reality it’s much easier. We bring home on average about 1/2 dozen Trader Joe’s bags a shopping trip instead of 20-30 of those “single use” bags because the store basically packs everything separate.
Meat still goes into a meet department bag to prevent leakage, but the rest just goes in the canvas bag. I like Trader Joe’s because they hold up so well and longer straps to go over the shoulder.
(Public Safety Tip: If you like canvas bags, be sure to run them through the washer/drier about every 3 months or immediately if you do have leakage.)
As a New York resident this worries me very little. My daughter buys waste bags for her dog. Otherwise we just kept a large bag full of bags until we brought them to our local grocery to have them recycled. I have 8 canvas bags in my car that handle everything well. As an already-frequent shopper at Aldi I am quite used to reusable bags and bagging my own stuff. So I’m not really concerned. There will be a transition period. But in a few months there won’t be many people left who care.
Plastic bags were a response to tree-huggers worried about “killing trees”.
Just another example of tail-wagging-dog in response to enviro-warriers.
Now that the “solution” (to a non-problem) has become its own problem, we can re-wag that dog.
The next generation of eco-warriors are going to discover that the reusable shopping bags are a perfect breeding ground for bacteria.
Paper bags are made from a renewable resource. They’d be even better if we used hemp fiber in them. They’re compostable, recyclable, and even reusable.
The whole “bag regulation” effort is just a single star in a universe of regulations that makes business in the USA more cumbersome (and expensive) than elsewhere. (Applies to the “Manufacturing and National Security” thread.)
I keep a couple of bankers boxes in my car. I bring them into the store, go through the self-checkout, and stack everything in the boxes. No problem.
On occasion I forget to put the boxes back in the car. I still dont’ use bags, just take everything out to the car and toss it in the trunk. When I get home I go get my boxes and carry everything into the house.
I don’t know how easy carrying a shopping box would be for people who have to take the bus. I would think it’d be easier to carry a box except if they needed to walk with a cane or something.
I’m constantly amazed by the amount of humans walking about in the world without the ability to support themselves in the activity they’ve set out to do.
I want to teach a class called “How to leave your house like an adult”.
I get most of my groceries delivered via Amazon Freshly and Wholefoods so lately my biggest gripe is the insulated bubble wrap that can’t be recycled. The first couple orders I found a use for it all but now I have a mega bag forming in the garage that I don’t see ever shrinking unless half the town goes up in flames and I fashion them into emergency blankets.
I mean really though, why aren’t you willing to make a simple change in your behavior that costs nothing but the time it takes to have a thought, to live better?
Why not just use a box. No need for bags at all? Nice handles to carry it, and all the stuff in one spot so easy to unpack. Makes more sense than messing with fiddly little bags.
