paper plastic or bring your own?

[beerorkid]

It seems that more and more places are offering the reusable bags for the customers to use.

I just do not buy into the whole it is making much of a difference environment wise, nor do I really care if it makes a difference.
Yeah plastic bags that end up in trees makes me sad, but picking up my dogs poop on walkies is a perfect use for those bags. Keeping my seat dry is another perfect use.

Also what about the environmental impact of the bags you can buy and re use. Dyed, printed, shipped, washed, I just do not buy into it.

And then to be humiliated by the open harvest folks because i do not have my own bag. Ugh...

[Mick Bastard]

I own a reusable bag that I purchased in Norfolk over the holidays, but I usually use it to carry booze in after I purchase it at N Street after work at the end of the week.
I always go with plastic at Russ's since I use the bags for my lunch and to cover left overs.

[ben swift]

saying that reusing the same bag over and over and over again does not make a difference is ridiculous. of course it makes a difference, and if more people did it, it would make a bigger difference. if people just used paper instead of plastic, the world would be better off. there are a bazillion plastic bags out there, and they are eternal. they are never ever ever ever going to go away. they will break down into smaller and smaller bits over time, or join together into giant balls in the middle of the ocean, but they don't break down.

that said- I don't use reusable ones either. but I should. I'm amazed at how much trash I accumulate in a week. it's gross. the good news is that I have all these plastic bags under the sink to hold all my other horrible trash!

[mr 1982]

We use canvas bags that we bought from Price Chopper. We get a 10 cent credit for each bag that we bring in on every grocery trip, I think.

Whenever we bring a plastic bag home, we usually throw it in the drawer and re-use it as a trash bag later on. The small bathroom trashcan is the perfect size for most grocery/Target bags.

[beerorkid]

oh and target bags are the best plastic bags evar. They are thicker and a bit stretchy. I would never use on on dog leavings.
But I use them on dogs.

[super sleuth]

Our household sounds almost exactly like the mr 1982 household. We have some big heavy canvas bags we got from HyVee that we do our best to use all the time, but if we have a giant grocery run there are usually a couple paper bags we end up getting for overflow (which we then re-use or recycle).

The plastic really does add up over time, and it's very likely going to cause some major environmental meltdowns in the near future. There's currently a massive floatilla of plastic in the Pacific Ocean that's about the size of Texas. Plastic doesn't go away, it just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller bits. Once they get small enough, they get ingested by organisms, which often die, but eventually it's going to work its way into the food chain in a serious way.

Soilent people! It's made of plastic!

[beerorkid]

10 cents not too bad. Around these parts I think 5 cents is the standard.

But figure the 40 cents you save.... yadda yadda, long string of negativity. When is fucking spring?

Oh man. What if you brought in like 20 of your own bags and then only bought some gum? They would have to pay you $3.75 for your juicy fruit addiction. I think I just figured out my retirement plan.

[prodigalfriday]

i always get plastic. i have a BIG DOG. if anybody has a more environmental solution to this situation, please let me know.
(talking about the daily walks, not what i could do with poop-in-own-yard)

[Lone Prairie]

We got 3 of the Russ' green bags and I like them pretty well: flat bottom, good capacity. We get at least one plastic bag with each purchase because they bag cleaning, hygiene, and meat items separately so we get enough plastic bags for puppy-poopy-pickup for our 2 dogs. Get with the program, Esteban!

e.

[beerorkid]

well maybe yall are like helping me understand and become willing to join the program.

The plastic in the ocean is horrible, but I can't say any of us land locked folk are the cause of that. I am sure 99% of us are very responsible with out plastic bags. I would think those who dump waste in the ocean are to blame for the plastic islands in them there oceans. The poo and organic bits get grubbed down while the plastic floats.

Does super saver kick down some I brought my own bag in credit?

And will the open harvest hotties still look down at me cuz I have a russes bag and not some trendier open harvest or prada canvas?

[mo_feezy]

I usually use plastic from the store and then re-use them for lots of stuff at home, and then take what's left with me back to the store to re-use. I use them as trash can liners for the bathroom trashcan and to pick up dog shit. It's also an easy way to grab a bunch of shit on your way out the door (beers, books, magazines, or whatever). I would prefer to use paper, but I find that it's much more awkword than plastic. Also, even though paper > plastic, I figure that re-using plastic is better than single use then recycling of paper. Everyone forgets the huge amount of energy that goes into recycling. It's only slightly better than creating new products with virgin materials, but re-using and reducing are way more important. remember the three R's are reduce, reuse, and recycle. Ideally you would do the first two until you couldn't anymore then you would recycle.

[julee]

church of byob (bag)
julee jaeger, presiding minister

[super sleuth]

prodigalfriday, I admit to not even having gotten this far with the picking up of my own dogs' dookie, but some friends of mine have said that Biodegrabable Dog Poop Bags actually work quite well for them.

[julee]

Does super saver kick down some I brought my own bag in credit?

super saver has signs posted saying they'll charge $.05 per bag if you take too many.
russ's gives us a $.05 per bag credit on the number of bags we bring in. (For example, if we don't have our bags, we usually get 6-7 bags of groceries, but if we bring our own, we usually only use 3-4 bags. Still, $.20 credit!)

these places are owned by the same people, but since at super saver, you do your own bagging, i think it is just harder to enforce a credit.

[rokdad]

If the stores would stop giving away bags, people would bring their own.

Even at B&R, when I say, "I don't need a bag" (picture me standing there with a giant messenger bag) the checkers look at me like I'm crazy.

If this is really a priority, stores should automatically put the groceries in the reusable bags and just add the cost to the bill. OR make us pay for plastic/paper bags. Say...a 10 cent per bag fee? Jeez, I've had to stop them from putting one item in a bag. I think they have bag fever or something.

OR, why not try the honor system...Simply place a big bag bin at the front of the store. Customers grab some bags on their way in and are responsible for bringing them back next trip.

Doesn't anybody remember bringing pop bottles back to the grocery store?