"Why don't you have plastic bags anymore??"

[Raieth]

don't know if this is true or not, but i heard that the environmental impact producing paper bags is similar to the impact plastic bags have on the environment.

Producing them does have roughly the same impact.

However, even if thrown in a landfill paper bags degrade and break down after about a month.

Plastic (as far as the scientists know) NEVER breaks down into base components. It just gets smaller.

[Seenoevil]

Any guesses what store I'm refering to.

I would have guessed Sam's Club. We don't have Costco around here that I know of.

[Kiwi]

our local supermarket now sells cloth bags for 99cents

they will be phasing out plastic bags after a year of having these on sale

YAY for the cloth bag, I have been using 3 of mine (in different sizes) since I was 16 years old and they are still going strong!

[Boozy]

I bought a whole bunch of reusable cloth bags from my grocery store a few months ago. 99 cents each, and really sturdy.

I think people like plastic bags because they reuse them at home for garbage bags, poop scooping, etc. I was forced to buy garbage bags after I started using these cloth ones.

But they say the majority of people throw their plastic bags away, without even recycling them. So I think its a good thing overall.

[Slytovhand]

There are now bio-degradeable plastic bags around.. perhaps management could look into them???

I get the plastics (too many of them, TBH, but then I use them for other stuff anyways, or do a recycle).

Slyt

[booger]

If people are going to bet all bent out of shape about not having plastic bags, I'd send them to Sam's Club, they sell boxes of them there. Otherwise, they should quit their complaining and use reusable bags and be happy about it.

My work still has plastic, but the company has been making them cheaper and thinner lately. We sell canvas bags for $1 but hardly anyone buys them. We have recycling for the plastic bags too, I usually end up bringing the bags I get back to the store for that.

[rerant]

There are now bio-degradeable plastic bags around.. perhaps management could look into them???

There's only one store that I know of that uses these, and that's HMV.
For a store that doesn't get as much business as, for example, mine, or a grocery store, it makes sense, but for high traffic stores I would suspect such things would get far too expensive.
I agree, they're a great idea and WAY better than plastic bags could ever hope to be, but if my store ever switched to them and went back to bags being free we'd be losing an assload of money, since people used to take fist-fulls of bags without even needing them for a purchase (20, 30, 40, 50 at a time).

This reminds me of one woman who threw a fit over the plastic bags.
"Well if you people weren't so stupid you'd get bags made of recyclable materials!"

All I could think was, "Well if you weren't so stupid..." well, you can all fill in the rest.

[gunsage]

"Really now, ma'am, after dealing with SCs like you all day, I kinda wish there WERE plastic bags here..."

[Mark Healey]

We have reusable bags available for purchase, which I've been encouraging customers to buy because they are so versatile and easy to pack.

I hate those things. If a business wants me to walk around displaying their logo they need to pay me for it. I'm sure as hell not going to pay them for the "privelage".

It is also hard to beat the convience of sotre provided bags. I go to the store, buy my stuff, take it home in their bag, and throw away the bag. Frequently the trip to the store is an unplanned side trip. To use those reusables, you have remember to plan to bring them along. I'm not going to go back to the parking lot just to put them in my car so they are there when I make one these unplanned stops or only make dedicated trips to the store. I am not planning my life around shopping bags.

So what if they sit in a landfill forever. That's pretty much what rocks do.

[rerant]

I hate those things. If a business wants me to walk around displaying their logo they need to pay me for it. I'm sure as hell not going to pay them for the "privelage".

It is also hard to beat the convience of sotre provided bags. I go to the store, buy my stuff, take it home in their bag, and throw away the bag. Frequently the trip to the store is an unplanned side trip. To use those reusables, you have remember to plan to bring them along. I'm not going to go back to the parking lot just to put them in my car so they are there when I make one these unplanned stops or only make dedicated trips to the store. I am not planning my life around shopping bags.

So what if they sit in a landfill forever. That's pretty much what rocks do.

This is a joke, right?

So whenever you drive your car you're giving the car company free advertising you're not being paid for.
Whenever you wear a name brand article of clothing, or use a recognizable name brand item in public.
Do you own an iPod? You're advertising for Apple. A Zune? Microsoft.
Got a cell phone? Crap, you're advertising for them if anyone notices the brand you own!
Seriously, get over it.

As for the whole, "So what if they sit in a landfill forever. That's pretty much what rocks do," comment I'll just hope that was a joke, too.
It's so foolish and ignorant I don't even know where to start.

[MadMike]

Let's keep the personal attacks out of this, people!

[Andara Bledin]

I think reuseable shopping bags are a great idea.

But I do agree it would be awfully nice if the stores would sell a version that didn't have their store logo plastered all over both sides. I've actually refrained from using the one I bought for other purposes because I didn't like the logo. I ended up using a plastic bag that just said "thank you" on it, instead.

^-.-^

[Boozy]

I don't see the what the big deal is here. You can buy cloth bags without store logos on them all over the place...at least, you can in my area. I have some.

But - the non-logo bags are about five times the price of the store bags. So the way I see it, my store is giving me a substantial discount on the cost of the bag for doing some advertising for them.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

[BookstoreEscapee]

I'm not going to go back to the parking lot just to put them in my car so they are there when I make one these unplanned stops or only make dedicated trips to the store. I am not planning my life around shopping bags.

I have 5 bags from Wegmans. I unpack my things, put the bags back in their bag (yeah, I have a bag for my bags...) and stash them with my work bag. When I leave in the morning, I toss them back in the car. No biggie. (Which is not to say I always remember to use them. I have quite the stash of plastic bags in my apartment, too, unfortunately.)

I do save plastic bags and when I start to drown in them I toss them in my trunk and throw them in the recycling bin next time I'm at the grocery store.

Producing them does have roughly the same impact.

However, even if thrown in a landfill paper bags degrade and break down after about a month.

Not necessarily. When they get buried in the landfill and aren't exposed to air and water, they don't break down. There have been perfectly readable newspapers dug out of landfills after years and years.

Plastic (as far as the scientists know) NEVER breaks down into base components. It just gets smaller.

This is true. I was reading The World Without Us recently (good book; I recommend) and there was a section on the amount of miniscule bits of plastic found in the water, versus the amount found 20-30 years ago. The plastic breaks down into smaller and smaller bits to be eaten by smaller and smaller beings. It really makes ya think... even things like face scrubs and stuff contain bits of plastics (which I didn't realize; after I read that I went and read the ingredients. I think I'm gonna switch to a different face wash once I run out...).

Here's an article on the paper vs plastic vs possible alternatives: http://www.slate.com/id/2177490/

B&N is working on putting out an inexpensive reusable bag. I don't know when they are planning to roll it out to the stores, though. They posted the designs they are considering on the intranet site at work; they're actually kinda nice-looking (green, of course) and I don't recall a huge B&N logo on them (though I'm sure it's there somewhere...).

[PepperElf]

personally i like plastic bags over paper.

1) try biking while holding a paper bag. pretty sucky. the plastic is easier to use.

2) my bf & i save them and use them as trash bags.

3) and... although i'm not sure what they do with the bags we use for paper and food trash, the ones we use for plastics get recycled here.

I think reuseable shopping bags are a great idea.

you can buy them here in japan but they're pretty small... just big enough for a day or two of groceries and that's about it. and they come with ... interesting... things on the side. sometimes store logos, and sometimes it's just one of those crazy phrases in English that someone tosses together.

and there's a good point... sometimes some shopping trips aren't planned out.

and another part of me wonders... just how much a "no plastic bag" rule will change the environment, when we have so many other things that come in plastic & are made of plastic. drink bottles, product wrapping, computer items. ... then again i've been living for almost a year in a country that recycles...but even with those reusable bags, japan uses a *lot* of plastic.