Bags Be Gone

Plastic bags are recyclable and leave a smaller carbon footprint than paper bags. Paper bags does not biodegrade in a landfill, unless exposed to direct sunlight. Paper bags are much heavier, take up more space and require much more fuel to transport.

So what you need is a plastic bag that quickly decomposes when it's stuck in a tree because some slob didn't recycle it. That's the problem. People see the bag stuck in a tree or floating in the bay and it's instant legislation that ignores all other facts.

Sound like another PR campaign to me....

The alternative to either plastic or paper bags are reusable tote bags. These eliminate all use of plastic or paper bags.

If something can be carried without a bag, don't take a bag. Carry small items in your hands, instead of using a bag. This is especially true if your only leaving the store to walk to your car, which is about 50 feet away, and then from the car to your house. Do you really need a bag to carry a tube of toothpaste? (Do you really care that other people know what brand you buy!!!?)

I constantly take the milk jug with handle out of the "double" plastic bag and hand the bags back to the store. I usually state, nicely, that I don't need a back to carry something with a built-in handle.

I used to work in a grocery store and I would see these kinds of things all the time. I never understood why people wanted a bag for one small item or items with handles. Often, plastic bags are unreliable as they rip and bottom out.

I am also for the idea of using reusable tote bags. Before I left the grocery business I was starting to see more and more of this trend. It definitely helps from getting a build-up of those pesky plastic bags, as long as you can remember to bring your tote bags with you.

Hooray!! At last a major city that has some sanity. I often work in 3rd world countries and plastic bags are a major source of trash and a real health hazard. If you want to use them, find a way to economically recycle them and make something out of them economically.

I'm glad to see that you included the question concerning the re-use of plastic grocery bags for household trash. That is exactly what I do with them, and there have been many occasions when I have even run out and had to get extra on my next shopping trip (or ask for a bag for only a couple of small items). (This is only one of the reasons that I don't get some reusable grocery bags, the other main reason being that I would definitely forget to bring them when I go shopping.) If they ban plastic grocery bags, I will have to buy bags to line my garbage cans at home, so there will just be twice as many bags going to the landfill from my house - the non-reusable ones with my groceries and the new ones with my trash.

If "Nobody likes them;" , then why do so many people use them? Personally, I prefer the paper bags as they make good fire starter in my fireplace as well as they recycle well with other paper waste. But I also keep a good supply of plastic bags on hand for small trash can liners, bagging messy wastes, carrying small items, etc. One thing nice about the plastic bags is that you can set them on wet ground and the bottoms don't fall out when you pick them up. Ditto for the frozen goods. I can remember the foil lined paper bags they used decades ago for those (few) frozen items. I forego the bag all together when I only purchase a couple of items. Our municipal recycling program doesn't want the plastic bags because their equipment does not handle them. Other posts to this forum have presented other good arguments regarding carbon footprint, costs to transport, manufacture, etc.

How many of you recycle? My household, as well, uses these nifty lil' bags for trash. But also use them for holding our recyclable items - plastics, glass, aluminum. The recycle places will take your bags and make sure that they get the proper treatment. Milk bottles too, get the special treatment.

In addition to all of the wonderful comments already made here, also remember that many of the plastic grocery bags are indeed made of a biodegradable corn stalk cellulose product. They do degrade in landfills, and will also rot away in the tree or the bay when set free by the errant breezes.

I need to reiterate a comment that I'm sure I have made elsewhere in CR4. In a properly managed landfill, nothing biodegrades. Landfills are designed specifically to exclude air, which is a requirement for biodegradation to occur. This is done by daily covering of the discarded material with earth, and in the long run improves the stability of the area so that it can be put to productive use (e.g. parks or golf courses) after the landfill is full. Naturally, it's not perfect, so there is always some degradation (as evidenced by methane production), but there have been core samples of landfills that have pulled up 50-year-old newspaper that is still legible. The bottom line is that a plastic bag made from corn stalks is no more likely to degrade in a landfill than one made with the traditional petrochemical raw material. It will, however, degrade if it is exposed to the elements.

"Landfills are designed specifically to exclude air, which is a requirement for biodegradation to occur."

Actually, I concur, everything you say is true. However, I have learned to think of landfills as long-term anaerobic bacterial cultures. Eventually those Twinkies (google 'garbology') from 1964 will turn into methane and CO₂. "Eventually" may be 1,000 years hence, but 'twill happen. If nothing else, King Earthworm will have them out.

In our country (South Africa), we also had/have a plastic bag problem. You used to get them included when you went to the store. The items you buy were packed by packers and you leave with all your groceries neatly packed. Then the government/retailers said they needed to control the amount of plastic bags being distributed in the country. Not good for the environment. So, it was decided that if you want a bag, you should buy it. Everyone was up in arms. People complained ect, ect... Then some stores started selling material bags (money in the making). Material bags were quickly sold out. More ordered and more sold out. Long story short. If you now go the stores most people just buy plastic bags. You hardly ever see material bags. Store owners are smiling because what was always given for free now are paid for. Government is smiling because they are making more tax money on all the bags bought. They don't really care, it's all about the money.

Yesterday the New York Times published an article saying the that supermarket chain "Whole Foods" is planning to stop offering plastic bags as well. They will only offer recycled paper or reusable bags. The chain plans on instituting this ban on Earth Day, April 22nd.

Check out the article here.