earth day every day: plastic bags
It’s a pet peeve of mine how bag-happy the local grocery stores can be. Does the 12-pack of soda–with the handle–really need to be double-plastic-bagged?? I think not. Sheesh. My theory is they use as many bags as possible so you feel like your $80 worth of groceries got you something, but canvas, mesh and reusable plastic bags tell the truth, well, at least, they hold more and don’t require double-bagging.
A few years ago, I was too shy to bust out my own bag at the store. I didn’t want to be that granola chick holding up the line at Long’s offering a funky net bag or tote bag to the cashier. But when I got three of these bags for Christmas, I figured I’d at least use em at Kokua Market where the organic-loving clientele wouldn’t blink. Now I’m so used to carrying them around, I have no shame to bust em out at Safeway or the corner liquor store. Sometimes the clerk even thanks me.
Apparently normal plastic bags take like 1,000 years to degrade (or a few decades, depending on the source) and require obscene quantities of crude oil to make. When you combine that with the huge number we go through and the damage they can do in marine environments, it def becomes a problem–but a solvable one. You can easily find out more, it’s a trendy topic right now. Regarding that last link, I personally don’t see the need to make a fashion statement out of a shopping bag, I think it kind of misses the point that if you only have a few things to carry, any old bag will usually do, messenger, backpack, tote bag, whatever, but yea, whatever.
At the same time, banning plastic bags outright doesn’t seem totally necessary. They’ve recently done this in San Francisco and are discussing it in Hawaii and in a number of cities elsewhere. I think charging for (biodegradable) plastic bags would be fair and offering recycling for plastic bags seems like a great idea.
Of course if a store choses to ban them, more power to to them. But paper isn’t really environmentally that much better and there are a lot of ways to reuse plastic bags, from garbage to lunches, and my lil sis tells me that they’re essential for picking up dog poo. Or even these crazy lil craft projects that I’ll never do.
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Very timely, and I don’t just mean in regards to Earth Day. Here at the library, we are discussing getting rid of our plastic bags that we give out free to going with the “green” bags that we would charge a patron to own. My feelings are that the administration has a middle-class mindset and assumes that everyone will pay a dollar or three to own these bags. They forget that we also serve a lot of young people and lower-income patrons that cannot even afford the low price. I’m all for using the bags, but feel that they need to also offer a free alternative. Your links were really informative - including the crafts link which I may have to try.
I agree with Jill in that it’s possible to go a little overboard on the whole “no plastic bags” tip. One example is that my grandmother works at her local church once a month helping out with a food distribution project to homeless people in the neighborhood (manoa/punahou). To help out in this project, it was her job to collect used plastic bags that she got from the supermarket, and many of which were given to her by friends. Well, in order to be more “environmentally friendly”, her church informed her that they would be buying paper bags, and they no longer needed her to collect what were essentially recycled bags, since they were going to be reused anyway. Oh and btw, the paper bags the church bought didn’t come cheap, either.
I think it’s great that people are using - and most grocery stores are encouraging - the use of reusable bags. I always walk to the supermarket in my neighborhood and I LOVE my deep, long-handled Safeway bags - I can carry what would have taken up about 8-10 plastic bags, and sling them over my shoulders which is saves my fingers getting pinched. But it was kind of funny for couple of months - Safeway cashiers tried to charge me for them about three times because they thought I was trying to buy the bags even though they were already mine. I’ve also had cashiers who had absolutely no idea how to pack groceries in the deep bags, and are unsure of packing them very full, thinking they won’t be able to handle the weight. So I’m sure it’s a learning curve for employees, as much as customers.
Switching off of plastic bags is probably really difficult for the retail industry - bagging something is more than just something you do to help the customer carry the item, it’s also considered “customer service” and probably a form of loss prevention, too. I think banning plastic bags right now would be a little too hasty when customers and stores are already moving in the right direction.
agree 100% that the outright ban on plastic bags doesnt seem like the best move… esp if that forces ppl to buy canvas or go with paper, which I read somewhere, is especially bad in HI b/c it’s heavy and we of course have to import it a long distance, using more fossil fuel in the process.
Jill it seems like there might be a good promotional opportunity there for the library, not just by putting a logo on it but giving some away at special events maybe, or even “customizing” them with some kind of craft decoration? IDK… maybe an incentive if ppl use them? candy or some trinket?
Ms Angel I’ve totally run across those clueless clerks or baggers LOL, I just tell em: Load it in! or else I do it myself if they seem extra bewildered. I’m glad I’m not the only
It’s just satisfying somehow. And yea, being able to put it over your shoulder, makes it so you can carry a lot more quite easily i.e. without cutting off circulation in your fingers!
dorkperson who really gets a kick out of using the cloth bags!I used to be a grocery store bagger lol back in the brown paper bag days
If bags are banned, then what will I use to clean up my dog’s poo? I guess I could buy the biodegradable poop bags they sell at the pet store. If they can make biodegradable bags for poo why can’t they make them for groceries?
they do make the degradable bags, Noov. It’s just if the store choses to go that route…..
M what job haven’t you had?? ^^/