Bags

[Chromatix]

Hearing so many tales of double-bagging and separate bags, I thought I'd share how things are done in Finland. Suffice it to say, double-bagging is just not done here, for reasons that will shortly become obvious.

Available at most checkouts are several types of bags. There are very small free bags, which are the same type used in the fruit & veg aisle, on a roll in the bagging area. Meanwhile under the conveyor, there are stacks of much larger and more sturdy bags of several kinds: standard plastic bags, paper bags, and biodegradable plastic bags. Each of these more sturdy types costs between €0.18 and €0.20, depending on precisely which store is involved. There are also even more sturdy types available for €0.90 or more, possibly made of cloth.

Nearly everyone uses the standard plastic bags - I don't think I've ever seen anyone use paper or biodegradable-plastic bags here - and many people re-use them. I don't often see the more expensive bags used either. To explain how this is feasible, here are a couple of illustrations:




That is a single "standard" plastic bag, containing over 7kg (about 15.5 pounds) of shopping - basically as much as I can comfortably carry in one hand for a substantial distance - which I've just carried home. The bag wasn't new that day, did not need to be supported underneath, and can still be used to carry such loads for the foreseeable future. It is, in short, completely awesome.

Rumours that these bags outperform most condoms on the market in bag-stretching competitions (yes, Finland has many very strange national sports) remain unfortunately unsubstantiated - but halfway plausible.

There is one good use for the small free bags in this context - they can be used to separate items that should not be together. Ready meals tend to distort and leak if put under pressure, and the free bags can contain that. This means that the free bags' lack of weight or volume carrying ability is not a problem, since they then go inside the standard bags - and they are only used for the sensitive items, not for everything.

[BeeMused]

It's very similar here in Germany, the standard bags have a different design, but they are strong enough to carry big loads more than once.
I've my backpack for shopping for weekend shopping trips, but I take some extra standard bags, just in case. During the week I have my work backpack and a sturdy nylon bag to do some after work shopping.
The cultural differences as shown by shopping bags...

[dalesys]

...in bag-stretching competitions (yes, Finland has many very strange national sports) ...

No thanks. Sounds painful.

[Chromatix]

No thanks. Sounds painful.

I think you may be misinterpreting which part of the body is used for doing the stretching.

[katzklaw]

to be fair, that bag looks very thick and sturdy compared to the see-thru-thin bags available in the states.

that being said, i rarely ask for anything to be double-bagged unless i think it's likely to burst thru the plastic bag for some reason (odd shape with sharp corners) or i want to hide it (like the shaver set i bought for hubby for Christmas... with him waiting out in the car)


i save and reuse my bags when i can. if not to shop in, i sometimes also use them for doggie pick up bags or garbage bags in the small cans in my house.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I always get plastic bags when grocery shopping.

I then reuse the bags to carry my lunches to work, and then drop the empty bag in the recycling bin at the swamp.

The bags then get baled along with the rest of the plastic waste we generate and sold to a recycling company.

[SongsOfDragons]

We used a carrier bag from the Co of Tes to wrap up a string of Xmas lights last year, plonked in the decorations box.

This year we returned to the box and the bag had disintegrated into little white flakes. XD

Absolute bugger to clean up, but I'm glad they (bio?)degrade now.

[Chromatix]

Yes, I think those biodegradable bags are an absolute menace to people who habitually try to reuse bags. I've ended up with a few of them from the UK, and I still haven't been able to clear up the entire mess. But they are a less enviro-hostile option for people who never reuse bags, or reuse them only as bin bags.

The thick standard bags *do* wear out eventually, or if something particularly sharp-edged manages to poke through them. It usually takes quite a while though, so they are definitely worth the money. My collection of them tends to grow steadily, but mostly because occasionally I need to buy something but don't have a bag already with me. For ordinary shopping runs, I take a rucksack and make sure that has a couple of bags in it.

[Flying Grype]

There are stores here in New York that have those sturdy bags. Typically, the stores that give away free bags will give away useless thin ones that sometimes don't last until I get home with the groceries. The ones that don't give away bags will generally have those sturdy ones for ten or twenty cents, and they're really great. They sometimes get used twice more and then end up as the kitchen garbage bags because they don't leak.

[Food Lady]

I have nylon cloth bags that fit in my purse. I try to use those. If I do get a plastic one, I use it for trash.

[RetailWorkhorse]

I am green with envy over those bags. It seems every time I get a shipment of bags into the store, they're thinner than the last shipment. Which means we use twice the amount of bags. And that doubles our expenses. Even our big 'bulk' bags are getting thinner! I shouldn't be able to friggin READ A BOOK through these bags!

So jelly.

[Chromatix]

Well, you could read a book through the free bags, which would actually be a reasonable use for them in bad weather. But the free bags are explicitly contrasted with the standard ones.