Plastic Bag Bans

[SixFoot]

Paper bags would definitely be optimal, both for the environment and for people.

[Camp]

Until it rains and you have glass containers of pasta sauce in them.

I am good with both.

We used to have the choice…paper or plastic…paper is good for starting fires too.

[SixFoot]

A little beeswax will water-resistant that right up, and it will support the bees. We love bees.

[Camp]

Bees are good.

[Nemesis]

I have always fancied keeping bees.

Do you have beehives?

[SixFoot]

I bought into one of the original auto flow beehives a few years back. I would have bought more, but they were damn near a grand at the time. Needless to say, times were plentiful, and the raw honey was top shelf, but one day my beautiful bees caught a pestilence that wiped out their population. Other than that, it was a breeze, and I didn’t even have to knock them out with smoke to get to the prize.

I don’t even eat honey these days, so it’s not a huge loss anymore. There is a colony of carpenter bees behind one of my sheds and a bumble bee colony near my garage. I make sure to plant extra flowers for them during the spring.

[Samm]

@Nemesis

Again I can only make a difference in my small corner of the world.

Correction … All you can make is a small … infinitesimally small actually … difference in your corner of the world. Eliminating plastic bags and straws from general use may help a little to reduce litter trash, but it has no measurable effect on the need for petroleum or to reduce carbon output. Like most “green” fads, it’s nothing more than a feel-good response.

[Samm]

@Camp

I am looking at scale.

Now say we go to glass over plastic. Will we accept all the cuts and injury and mess with a vessel prone to breaking with the understanding the environment is safer?

Would the environment be safer if we are getting cut and spilled and spoiled more often by glass. It also takes considerable energy to melt and mold and transport glass over plastic.

This is why the paper vs plastic bag is so interesting. IMO it is six of one and half a dozen of the other.

We HAVE done this before.

The increased use of energy to transport the heavy glass will probably exceed the amount of petroleum product currently used to make the plastic.

[Samm]

@SixFoot

A little beeswax will water-resistant that right up, and it will support the bees. We love bees.

Or coat them with plastic.

Actually, all sorts of paper containers today are coated with plastic to make them moisture resistant.

[Camp]

Exactly. Not to mention the cuts and loss.

Can we get a HOORAY for plastics!

[Toll_Collector]

@Camp

Exactly. Not to mention the cuts and loss.

Can we get a HOORAY for plastics!

Yay plastics!!!

I like plastic, I just don’t like drinking out of plastic containers. Everything tastes like crap.

[Cratic3947]

We are forced to buy bags in my county and at first they were large nice bags that could be reused, then they began to get smaller and latest batch is smaller than one we didn’t pay for. The smaller they make them the more you have to buy, right?. That’s how stupid the greens are…

And during Covid they were not allowed fill reusable bags for people because they pass on disease.

[FloridaYankee]

@hwyflier

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.

90% of plastic does not get recycled and ends up in landfills. Plastic can only be recycled once or twice. It’s all a big fat scam.

[FloridaYankee]

@Guvnah

@Samm

I have never used one less than twice unless it ripped open on the way home. There are all sorts of reuses for those bags.

Right.

If they do away with these bags, I’m going to have to go out and actually buy bags to pick up my dog’s poops. WalMart bags were great for that. Ditto Lowes bags. (But the ones from Safeway and Kroegers almost always have holes in the bottom, which make them very non-utilitarian for that task.)

Just ask any parent with a kid in diapers how handy those bags are.

A box of 350 of them is about eight bucks on Amazon LOL… I buy them.

[Toll_Collector]

@Cratic3947

We are forced to buy bags in my county and at first they were large nice bags that could be reused, then they began to get smaller and latest batch is smaller than one we didn’t pay for. The smaller they make them the more you have to buy, right?. That’s how stupid the greens are…

And during Covid they were not allowed fill reusable bags for people because they pass on disease.

I bought like 1500 single use plastic bags on Amazon for under 20 bucks.

[Cratic3947]

@FloridaYankee

@hwyflier

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.

90% of plastic does not get recycled and ends up in landfills. Plastic can only be recycled once or twice. It’s all a big fat scam.

yes, that’s another perfect example of how silly the eco kooks are. Driving three times the trucks needed to collect trash in towns all over America pretending the recycling system works. It’s another form of fake news.

[Publius]

@Toll_Collector

@Nemesis

@Toll_Collector

Along with the plastic bag bans in NJ, you also have to ask for a straw at restaurants. So waiters now ask you if you want a straw when ordering drinks. But most places that I go to, if not a chain restaurant, completely ignore that detail and give you a straw anyway.

In the UK plastic straws have been banned. This among other measures has decreased dramatically the amount of plastic waste in the UK as well as plastic in rivers and surrounding seas.

Again its not an all encompassing solution but steps in the right direction.

Do they have an alternative? I really don’t mind paper straws. I just sometimes want a straw. It doesn’t have to be plastic.

Bring your own?
[Reusable Stainless Steel Straws -(10 Pack) with Silicone Tips, Cleaning Brushes and Storage Pouch - 8.5 inch Reuse Fits Yeti Straws of 30 oz 24 oz 20 oz https://a.co/d/fYp9ils](Reusable Stainless Steel Straws -(10 Pack) with Silicone Tips, Cleaning Brushes and Storage Pouch - 8.5 inch Reuse Fits Yeti Straws of 30 oz 24 oz 20 oz https://a.co/d/fYp9ils)

[Nemesis]

@Publius

@Toll_Collector

@Nemesis

@Toll_Collector

Along with the plastic bag bans in NJ, you also have to ask for a straw at restaurants. So waiters now ask you if you want a straw when ordering drinks. But most places that I go to, if not a chain restaurant, completely ignore that detail and give you a straw anyway.

In the UK plastic straws have been banned. This among other measures has decreased dramatically the amount of plastic waste in the UK as well as plastic in rivers and surrounding seas.

Again its not an all encompassing solution but steps in the right direction.

Do they have an alternative? I really don’t mind paper straws. I just sometimes want a straw. It doesn’t have to be plastic.

Bring your own?
[Reusable Stainless Steel Straws -(10 Pack) with Silicone Tips, Cleaning Brushes and Storage Pouch - 8.5 inch Reuse Fits Yeti Straws of 30 oz 24 oz 20 oz https://a.co/d/fYp9ils](Reusable Stainless Steel Straws -(10 Pack) with Silicone Tips, Cleaning Brushes and Storage Pouch - 8.5 inch Reuse Fits Yeti Straws of 30 oz 24 oz 20 oz https://a.co/d/fYp9ils)

Reusable are popular. I have one for home. Plus in the UK a lot of restaurants provide biodegradable straws

[floydefisher]

Maybe you should make them into blankets, and sell them?

Not only could you save the environment, but you can line your pockets with some extra green, so to speak.