Plastic Bags

L.A. Banning Plastic Grocery Bags; LOS ANGLES (AFP) - The city of Los Angeles announced it will ban all plastic bags from retail stores as of July 1, 2010, following similar anti-pollution regulations already enforced in San Francisco.
The second-largest US city behind New York, Los Angeles, with its four million population, will ban plastic bagging in all supermarkets, grocery and retail stores, the Los Angeles City Council said in its new regulation.
After July 1, 2010, all store customers must provide their own bags or purchase bags made of paper or other biogradable material from the store for 25 cents (0.25 dollar), it added.
The goal is to rid the city of some 2.3 billion non-biodegradable plastic bags that are distributed each year and end up polluting waste dumps for a long time.
San Francisco, 600 kilometers (373 miles) north of here, also in California, in 2007 became the first US city to ban plastic bags from its stores.
Both city regulations are intended to pressure state lawmakers who are considering a bill to eliminate plastic bags across the state by 2012.
Several countries around the world have already adopted laws banning plastic bags, which often end up killing animals that swallow or get caught up in them. End Quote.
Doug

Do you remember the days when plastic bags were promoted as a way to save the trees?

Keith

I agree with all but the 25 cent charge for a bag. That is a pure rip off to the customer.

When I was Young We used to take a cardboard box to the store to pack home groceries in. Paper bags would get wet in the rain then desintigrate spilling the contents. My Mom even melted parrafin and made waxed cardboard boxes that were strong as all get out.

More and more stores in BC are carrying paper bags as an option.

I have at least 10 of those bags they sell for a buck or so but never remember to bring them with me so I wind up buying another one.

When you are out fishing they are good to keep your fish cool in till you get them home. You soak the cloth bag in water which cools by evaporation keeping fish cool. Make sure you get un-dyed bags or they can run and taint the fish. I found that out the hard way.

A good joke to try on the Kid at the check out is when you buy a 4 litre jug of milk. ( a gallon of milk in the states ) they always ask if you’d like your milk in a bag. ( a sack in the states )

You adopt an innocent look and say Oh No ! please leave it in the jug, It will leak out of a bag. Works every time .

Nearly every store in our area is seling sturdy reusable bags for under a dollar each.
Word is, state law will soon mandate the stores no longer use the plastic ones. I hate 'em anyway, nothin stays in 'em unless ya tie the things shut. The paper ones will still be ok , for awhile, but word is they want them to stop too. The wife and I have purchased several reusable bags each, now, all we gotta do is learn to bring 'em whenever we go to the store, or we’ll soon have dozens of 'em. It’s a good idea, i think, just takes a little getting used to. We’ve gotten kinda spoiled, I’d say…ModocDan

Our local store sells those reuseable bags for a buck each. My wife always remembers to take them along, and I always forget.

On the other hand, they do make great bags for transporting my wading boots !! Haven’t forgotten to take one along for that purpose when I go fishing since I first got the idea several months ago.

How often do you guys wash your reusable cloth bags?

Regards,
Keith

Today I saw in the paper we are all getting closer to a 20 cent surcharge / plastic bag …I see folks going through check out lines with shopping carts full of bags…a lot of product… there’s no way we could bring in enough of those cloth bags to cover the amount purchased…What’s a body to do:confused::confused::confused:

Keith,
I would be happy to wash my cloth bags, if i would remember to USE them!
Doug

If you shop at Sam’s Club warehouses, there are no bags of ANY sort to put your purchases in. BUT, there are lots of cardboard boxes free for the taking, or you could bring your own boxes that may fit better in your vehicle. Those who do mega-shopping often will have a vehicle large enough to accommodate several boxes. You couls also take along a cooler to keep cold/frozen items from the heat this time of year. Just a thought…

Joe

Now, some stores in our area are selling special reusable bags (for a little higher price) which are insulated to keep cold things cold, and hot things hot. They are much like the other reusable bags, only quite shiny and nice on the inside…:cool: …ModocDan

Whatever became of the biodegradable bags made from soy beans or corn that was going to take the place of plastic bags? Can it be they are being used to make Bio Fuel : ) !

Have a good’n, Jesse

Costco, (our local one, anyway), now sells the reusable shopping bags, but in a size geared more for “Costco style buying”= in bulk. They’re less than $4.00 for a 3-pack of these bags,(they’re only sold in the 3-pack), but they’re very well made and hold far more than a conventional cardboard box.
They’re about 2.5 feet long X 20" high X 12" wide. They have both, regular handles and also a pair of “shoulder length carrying handles”, made of very strong, woven, canvas. I’ve used, ours, with a case of canned corn in the bottom, then the rest filled with two cartons of milk and assorted misc. grocery items and have had no problems with tearing, and/or, with them coming apart.

Somehow the thought of saving the retailer tons of money by forcing people to buy plastic bags or reusable shopping bags sounds like a rip-off to me. My grocery store offers me the option of paper or plastic. If I choose paper I can reuse my paper bag and they will give me $.03 per bag; I guess 'cause it saves them money. :cool: The reusable bags should be furnished FREE by the stores for a limited time. In return they get free advertising and reduced costs by not having to have thousands of paper & plastic bags manufactured and custom printed with their name & logo.

Besides, most of the reusable grocery bags I’ve seen have considerably less capacity than a plastic bag so you would have to buy way more at a buck a pop to carry the same load. What are you supposed to do if you need a really big bag like some retailers offer for large items? Are you supposed to carry around the smaller reusable bags for groceries and bigger reusable bags for the bulky items with you at all times, just in case you go shopping? Or are you just expected to fork out the couple of extra bucks every time you shop sans-bags so you end up with a giant pile of reusable bags at home in the name of saving the planet. Sounds like a windfall for the bag makers to me.

And while we’re at it; how about those jiffy plastic bags the grocery store has for my produce, meat or bakery items. Are they staying or are LA residents expected to carry around a zillion additional reusable bags for the peaches, plums, grapes, celery, broccoli, hamburger and other goodies they buy. Sometimes I have more of those bags than shopping bags! I sure hope they ban those too 'cause it sure will make the checkout clerk’s job a whole lot easier trying to sort and count items or see the UPC code through that cloth bag. Those checkout lines ought to be slow as molasses; that should make the shopping experience a whole lot more fun too! If they don’t ban those bags as well I sure hope the planet police are standing by in case some despicable Earth hater decides to use them for grocery bags!! :rolleyes:

As far as the folks who reuse their plastic shopping bags for trash bags; I guess now they’ll have to buy $1 feel good shopping bags to carry their groceries which will now include boxes of small trash can liners which ALSO clog up the landfills! At the same time, they will be filling up that reusable bag with disposable diapers, plastic water bottles, paper towels, cups, plates and plastic utensils; throw away disinfecting wipes, toilet bowl brushes and dust mop heads; tin cans, juice boxes, salad bar and take away food containers; not to mention all of the IDENTICAL products packaged in varied portion controlled sizes for babies, kids, women, men, senior women and senior men.

Sounds a little hypocritical to me…

And what about banning plastic trash bags? Some people take their old shopping bags back to the store to be recycled but NOBODY recycles trash bags. They go straight to the dump without passing GO and are usually thicker and bigger than shopping bags. Jeez I hope they don’t ban those next! All the conscientious fly fisherman will have to have special fishing vests made with extra pockets, just to carry reusable trash bags streamside so they can pick-up all of the discarded disposable diapers, plastic water bottles, paper towels, cups, plates and plastic utensils; throw away disinfecting wipes, toilet bowl brushes and dust mop heads; tin cans, juice boxes, salad bar and take away food containers; not to mention all of the portion controlled and varied packaging for the SAME item for babies, kids, women, men, senior women and senior men:wink:

If you want to ban something worthwhile ban disposable diapers which probably do more to clog up the landfills and aren’t as easily tossed into a recycling bin at the market. :shock: But then you would hear all of the justification for sparing throw away poop collectors by those who want the rest of the world to save the planet for their kids.

Alas, poor plastic shopping bag, I knew him well; another hapless victim in the feel good green movement!

Plastic bags, otherwise known as Florida Tumbleweeds

RHenn,
That is exactly what the plastic bags do here, tumble with the wind into bushes.
Doug

Just returned from a recent trip to Maui, There is a problem
with fish declining in local snorkeling spots due to chemicals
in the water from boat trips and sun tan lotions. The decline
has been really noticeable over the last twenty years from what the locals
tell me.

[b]Don’t even get me started on plastic trash bags what I saw with them
flying all over the island from the landfill makes me very sad…

A public comment from one of the biggest suppliers to us of these plastic bags
“Safeway” stated they will not stop using them at this time, because they
want to give their customers a choice. Yea, a choice weather to allow us
to trash our precious earth or not… Geeze! [/b]

It is time to wake up and help solve this mess…

We can do it!

I am not done in fact I am just getting started!