The suckage and the not-so-suckage

[fireheart]

Backstory: my store is playing guinea pig for a state law to be introduced in January, where we no longer give out plastic bags. Basically, we offer green bags. If they don't want green bags, they have to rack off to another lane or we have to call a supervisor down. If we are sworn at, we are to call a sup.

Suckage part:

20 people total today bitched to me about the bags. And yes, I was keeping count. More because I was curious and also because it gave me the opportunity to see that it wasn't as bad as I thought. 20 out of a thousand wasn't so bad (of course my mum didn't see it that way, but that's off topic)

Had several customers gripe about the lack of signage. Yet we had a big fat sign at the entrance, we had signs all around the registers in question and signs on the floor, as well as a big fat sign hanging overhead. HOW CAN YOU NOT NOTICE?!

One woman today was convinced that it was a marketing ploy to get people to buy more green bags. I had to laugh at that one...that was the lamest one I've heard. (at least she didn't treat me like an idiot)

Another woman today bitched and bitched about how she wasn't gonna do it until January 1st and all and that because it wasn't law, she wasn't required to do it. She then proceeded to bitch about bag size and said it was tiny. Well COME ON PEOPLE, they are the express bags. (our express bags are about half the size of a regular bag)

All of us had at least one person who dumped their groceries behind. One of us had two in a row. One guy left his trolley behind, came back, grabbed his bag and flung it upwards. I thought he was going to hit my coworker. We've all been taught the code for security now in the event of violence. (which we think won't happen, but we're a little worried)

Not-so-suckage:

This was funny. Basically, our express checkouts and two of the regular lanes are plastic bag free. What's funny is that people would come to my checkout (express), learn that I had absolutely no bags at all, go to another express checkout, which had signs everywhere and discover no bags, then go to a big lane. The bag-free lane was quiet because people refused to be served there, so all the customers who come from express would go there instead!

And I know this belongs more in general work chat, but my sups were wonderful and offered to take me off when things got rough. I wanted to stick it out (8 hours of suckage today as opposed to 5 because my mum told work that I was coming in)

[friendofjimmyk]

Wow. A law against plastic bags? What about paper?

I have been meaning to buy some of those cloth grocery bags, but the ones I see are always so small. When I grocery shop, I do so for two weeks worth of food. I don't know how many bags I'd have to buy to accomodate that.

I will some day though. In the meantime, even though its an expensive process, I recycle my plastic bags.

[Jack Doe]

I agree, the law is asinine. I mean, seriously, what is the environmental impact of plastic bags? They take up about two cubic inches when compressed, dry-rot in a matter of months, and can be recycled with only about 5% waste. The 'green bags' are low tensile strength cloth, probably takes for-freakin-ever to biodegrade, can't be recycled, and aren't made to last. Real canvas totes and the like (which would make more effective reusable bags) are expensive. Best way to cut down on use? Charge per-bag. Makes it more likely that folks will buy the reusable bags, and cuts down on waste for the regular ones. But that's just me.

[Lachrymose]

I mean, seriously, what is the environmental impact of plastic bags? They take up about two cubic inches when compressed, dry-rot in a matter of months, and can be recycled with only about 5% waste.

Here's a quote from an article I found:

Only 1 percent of plastic bags are recycled worldwide -- about 2 percent in the U.S. -- and the rest, when discarded, can persist for centuries. They can spend eternity in landfills, but that's not always the case. "They're so aerodynamic that even when they're properly disposed of in a trash can they can still blow away and become litter," says Mark Murray, executive director of Californians Against Waste. It's as litter that plastic bags have the most baleful effect. And we're not talking about your everyday eyesore.

Source: http://www.salon.com/news/feature/20.../plastic_bags/

[ArcticChicken]

I have been meaning to buy some of those cloth grocery bags, but the ones I see are always so small. When I grocery shop, I do so for two weeks worth of food. I don't know how many bags I'd have to buy to accommodate that.

Are you in the US? Do you have one of the many, many stores owned be A&P near you? (I can't remember them all right now, but they own a lot.) The reusable bags they sell are pretty sturdy, they hold a bit more than a standard paper bag, and they're only a dollar. If you don't have an A&P store, I like the Whole Foods bags, though I don't know how much they are, and some people bring in Ikea bags.

If you get one about the size of a paper bag, I'd estimated you'll need between 8 and 15, depending on what you get, how many people you're shopping for, and how heavy your willing to have them.

[Chromatix]

Perhaps you should get a Finn to send over some of the extremely sturdy plastic bags used here. If only for comparison purposes. You'll have to get used to the slogans in a weird language on the side though.

[fireheart]

OK, update, I'm actually Australian.
Regarding the paper bag debate, we did use them in the 70's, but then people complained that they were cutting down trees.
Regarding the environmental issues and the charge-per-bag thing, one of the other states is trialling a levy at the moment (which is actually worse IMHO due to customers complaining about jacking up the prices) but since my state government couldn't decide what to do, the ban cropped up.

[mharbourgirl]

The grocery stores around here have been offering 'green' bags for a while. Sobeys has the best ones. They're REALLY sturdy, and large enough to hold 3-4 of the jumbo-sized boxes of cereal, to give you an idea of their capacity. I have a dozen in the trunk of the car now, and I love them. But I still occasionally get a few plastic bags because I use them to pack recycling in and to line my indoor trash cans, and so my father-in-law doesn't bring his fish and bait home in his pockets . I do enough laundry as it is.

I haven't used paper bags in ages, because of my fondness for trees, and the fact that they're bloody awkward to carry when they're packed full. I'd rather get all my groceries in the house in one trip if possible.

[Gawdzillers]

I'm wary about green bags. If you've only got one or two, and you're buying both food and non-food (most likely toxic products), you're putting them right with each other, not to mention raw meat with produce.

[protege]

Let's not forget about the plastic bags that get into our rivers...and eaten by various marine critters... Also, even the "biodegradable" ones don't rot as quickly as people think. It takes longer, once they've been compacted in a garbage truck and dumped in a landfill.

Instead, I reuse mine. They get used as garbage bin liners, cheap "gloves" when working on messy things (oily, nasty engines), liners for the kitty litter box, etc. What I don't reuse, eventually gets taken over to the box at Giant Eagle for recycling.

[simpleyme]

I am a little daft but in January the store will no longer offer free bags of any kind?

I feel sorry for the cashiers having to touch all the used icky bags people will bring in
I had a gal bring a bunch of used bags in and they stunk of cigarettes and god only knows what else

a gal gave me a huge bag of paper bags hoping we could reuse them , they were full of spiders! egg sacks all over them

[ebonyknight]

Let's not forget about the plastic bags that get into our rivers...and eaten by various marine critters... Also, even the "biodegradable" ones don't rot as quickly as people think. It takes longer, once they've been compacted in a garbage truck and dumped in a landfill.

Instead, I reuse mine. They get used as garbage bin liners, cheap "gloves" when working on messy things (oily, nasty engines), liners for the kitty litter box, etc. What I don't reuse, eventually gets taken over to the box at Giant Eagle for recycling.

Hardly an "instead". So you give them two uses instead of one. THEN they get into the rivers and eaten by various marine critters.

Plastic bags are more eco-friendly than paper. Paper can be recycled, but paper is lost in the process and has to be replenished. So every time a bag is recycled, more trees go into the same recycled bag. Plastic, melt it, blow it and you have a bag. Uses far less energy to recycle.

Where plastic gets the bad rap is that it's so light. So it's more likely to get "caught in the wind" and blow around. Paper is too heavy to do that. So when people look at trash in the streets, they see a lot of plastic bags.

Best thing for people to do is to let them be recycled (at your supermarket bin) instead of "reusing" them.

[wanderingjoe72]

So when can we have the big quake? Let CA drop into the ocean so they can stop coming up with laws like this. That way we'll have beach front property.

I'm tired of groups trying to impose the "green" movement through law. Recycling is fine, but I don't buy the rest. Let us choose and don't try to force things. Otherwise you get resentment and people will do the opposite as a form of protest.

I think the best point made in this post is the question of cleanliness. Cloth bags are going to hold all kinds of nastiness. I'm sure most people here are the type to wash their bags, a majority of the population don't. So unless disposable gloves become standard for cashiers at check out, then you are exposing them uneccessarily.

[fireheart]

I am a little daft but in January the store will no longer offer free bags of any kind?

I feel sorry for the cashiers having to touch all the used icky bags people will bring in
I had a gal bring a bunch of used bags in and they stunk of cigarettes and god only knows what else

a gal gave me a huge bag of paper bags hoping we could reuse them , they were full of spiders! egg sacks all over them

I get green bags that we sell, green bags from our competitors (which look exactly the same as ours, but are different colours and sometimes have the tag to attach them to the racks), green bags from various other stores (Supre, Cotton On etc.) as well as a few people who give me used plastic bags.

Most of the bags I get are in a fairly reasonable condition, but I do get the odd one that smells gross or is covered in mud. I'm glad that we keep hand sanitizer behind the checkouts. If people have bags that are covered in blood, other various bodily fluids, insect or animal stuff or are just plain gross, I refuse to touch them and will just pack it in plastic regardless of whether they complain or not. If my manager gets annoyed at me, it is unsanitary.

Fortunately, most people are a little understanding now. I've been trying to encourage people with green bags to use the bag-free lanes. Mostly to raise awareness, but also because whoever is on the bag-free lane gets bored.

And finally, I'm AUSTRALIAN, not American.

[donruss]

I'm SOOOO freaking tired of these groups trying to tell us that we are bad if we dont recycle or do this or that thing of the moment that they want us to do. I recycle and generally try to do things to help out but c'mon, its just a bag. Or like I like to tell green whackos: "The planet isn't going anywhere, WE ARE"!!!