Is The End of Plastic Shopping Bags a Reality?

I'm just sick of getting my groceries in 20 plastic bags when everything can fit them into 3 reusable bags. Sure, you can use plastic bags around the house - but I could never use as many as I receive at the store in my lifetime.

I try to remember to use reusable bags at the grocery store to cut down on how much I have to carry home. I still get plastic bags at the pharmacy, Target, etc. and reuse those around the house.

It also seems that some of the people that pack these plastic bags are not very conservative. Once I had too much stuff for the one reusable bag I had brought. I refused to use a plastic bag and just simply placed the extra two items in my cart. They seemed perplexed and asked, "Is it worth not using a plastic bag?" Honestly, I couldn't care less. It isn't like I had to carry the extra items from the store to my humble abode.

I also like to reuse those plastic bags given in shopping centers as garbage bags. Now I am starting to reconsider. Perhaps they would be better off recycled? I wish that the recycling of these bags were more accepted and had more information to make sure these bags get into the right receptacle and not in the roadway.

Nice article, Jaxy. I'd like to see more supermarkets follow the lead of "warehouse stores" such as Sam's Club. There, you bag your groceries in cardboard boxes that the store would otherwise discard. Granted, such an approach works best if the consumer actually recycles the boxes after unloading groceries at home.

Incidentally, I shopped at a grocery store this weekend where you have to pay for the plastic bags (which are larger and not as flimsy as ones you get for free elsewhere). When people have to pay for something, they're less likely to take more than they need.

Started shopping at Aldi's where youhave to bag groceries youself in bags you provide yourself.Inconvenient initially, but it solves the issue.

Sadly another case where legislation will be required to get us to do something sensible. Humans are so dumb in some ways.

Here in Austin, the California of Texas, it is pretty normal to see reusable bags for sale at the grocery stores. We have 6 or 7 now, which is plenty but we still forget them sometimes, not very smart huh? The bags here are at least partially made of plastic, not just straight canvas.

Most people are too lazy (look at me in the paragraph above) to see plastic bags disappear entirely, plus they have their uses around the house so we save them when we get them.

Nice to see who funded the "deadly canvas bag" study too. Thanks for an interesting article.

While I agree that the funding for this study may have been biased, some parts of the conclusions of the study makes sense. These canvas/reusable bags are just like clothes or bed sheets, they need to be cleaned and dried properly in order to ensure quality. Whether it is a serious as they say, is a completely different matter.

I had an email conversation a while ago. This is more or less what I had to say about PE bag use. With regards to my take on plastic bags, I can give you the pro's and con's, with the con's already being known. Industry is always trying to reduce usage of one material over another, or watch expenses through various cost reduction programs. Through this venue only and "without government forces," industry as an aggregate group of 1000s of independent companies will need to be approached to reduce or eliminate the plastic bags "as they currently exist." Basically, show the manufacturing community a cheeper and or better way to do something and everyone will want to jump on the band wagon. So, this sets the stage for plastic bag usage. Everyone knows that the currently used polyethylene (PE) plastic bags are not good for the environment, however, they are very cost effective for the retail sales businesses that uses them. Second, manufacturers of these bags makes them by the 100s of thousands and custom prints them as they are produced for fractions of a penny per piece. Blow molding machines at most locations run 24 hours per day making the film from which the bags are made. The equipment is relatively inexpensive to purchase and start running. Paper bags on the other hand requires several manufacturing steps, are produced at slower rates and are printed per piece unlike PE bags. So, the process is slower more complicated and fairly expensive to get into for a local manufacturer. Paper bags cost somewhere around $.03-.05 each. When it comes to delivering bags to the end user/retailer, PE bags are far less expensive to deliver than paper. They are a lot more compact per 100 piece count than paper bags and take up less space as an inventory items on both ends. The manufacturer and retailer. So, all in all, PE bags for bagging up sold goods make a lot of economic sense for the manufactures of PE bags and the company that uses them. There are a few other issues about making PE bags that I have skipped over to keep this short. To easily get PE bags out of the mainstream, an alternative must be devised that usurps all or most of the benefits the PE bag offers. See below list. Your suggestion of a monetary incentive is being used up in Ohio. A store chain called Buehers offers it's customers discounts to use the reusable bags. This discount is offered at the checkout when purchasing goods. Their program is to sell the reusable bags for $1.00 and then give a $.05 discount when that bag is used. So, a person can have the reusable bag paid for after 20 uses. It works and the program is used, but not by everyone all of the time. Maybe a program that allows the customer to use the bag in place of the PE bag can be put into place. The customer is charged a $.05 deposit and the $.05 is returned when the bag is reused. This is kind of like the soda can deposit used in several States, but not used universally. Coming up with an alternative material will take some time or investigation. Yes there are PLAs and other materials in the works, but are the materials a one for one swap? The solution shouldn't be that hard to develop, but it will take time to market the alternative(s). Then all of the manufacturers of the PE bags will have to convert or find alternate places to sell their PE film. Any way it is looked at, I believe for the short term, the best alternative for the PE bag is to develop a polymer that breaks down relatively quickly when exposed to one kind of an element or another or an entirely different polymer that can be used on the manufacturing equipment that meets desired criteria. A few hurdles that have to be overcome: human safety - must be non toxic. It must be known that the material is none toxic. < Toxicity reports are quite often made available by companies wanting to sell their polymers or modifiers. < Natural decay has to take long enough to go through the manufacturing, distribution and inventory storage process before it starts to break down < Be able to be run on common blowing equipment < Be cost effective < Not cause a hazard by its use by becoming toxic upon breakdown < Potentially be reusable or recyclable in the waste stream or be compostable in combination with standard PE or on its own < Be accepted by the consumer.

I can remember being a wee young lad (1963) when my dad was stationed in Germany. At that time the house wives would all take a small mesh bag to the market for their groceries. Now before you get all self righteous about the superiority of that system, they went to the market EVERY day because they had no refrideration...

Plastic and paper shopping bags and recycling

I think I'll reply to this thread by simply telling you what we do in our house. (I'm retired and am the doer. My wife is handicapped and can't help much with the recycling; but she's a real computer guru and saves me countless hours of suffering with this medium.).

Anyway my shopping results in a collection of plastic bags from various stores, free paper bags (which I specifically request) from my two favorite super markets and cardboard boxes from Costco. Being retired I have the time to mess with recycling, maybe 1/2-1 hour per week. Here's part of what I do:

1. Paper shopping bags get used to collect newspaper, magazines, junk mail, other household clean paper and pieces of cardboard packaging much of which I reduce in size to fit the bags either with a razor knife, folding and occasionally my shop bandsaw. I avoid using the bandsaw to cut through plastic tape on the boxes because the adhesive residue will build up on the saw blade. I tend to end up with more paper bags than I need for recycling; so I occasionally recycle the excess bags in bulk.

2. A few of the better quality plastic bags get used to collect all the other plastic bags, sheet plastic wrapping material and packing material like bubble wrap. One bag suffices for an average week's collection. On garbage night I compress the bag, tie it's handles down in a square knot and throw it in the recyclables bin.

3. Some of the cardboard boxes I select purposely from Costco I use in my workshop for storage. With selected razor knife cutting and gluing with spring clamps and white glue I come up with sturdy custom boxes for storage. Since I have some aversion to the garish graphics on most corrugated cartons I often paint them with flat or semi gloss water based interior wall paint I find for cheap on the mismatch rack in the paint section of local hardware stores. This may seem like a silly waste of time; but these little 15 minute construction projects are often just the brainless exercise I need to get myself going beginning a day of workshop projects and are a source of immediate gratification.

I realize this is not the formula that fits the average working guy with a family and little discretionary time. But there may be something useful for some of you folks in what I write here.

Personally, I'd vote for the elimination of plastic shopping bags primarily for the purpose of cleaning up our waterways and oceans and the hazards to marine life. But please, please don't eliminate the plastic garbage bags I buy. I'd just as soon live without yucky, smelly garbage cans.

Ed Weldon ............. living in Santa Cruz County, California, USA where we have a pretty good recycling system and very limited landfill space.

Sounds like a very structured and well organized recycling system! I applaud your efforts. While not everyone may have the time to be as dedicated to recycling as you are, how hard is it to have prearranged bins for different types of recyclables. Organization is key in the home when it comes to recycling. Without organization, most recyclables seem to end up in the garbage.

My local supermarket use biodegradable bags. They assure me the extra cost is infinitesimal.

They still manage to be competitive with the big supermarkets.

These bags spontaneously disintegrate within 6 months, even if stored out of the light and way from heat. Out in the open, their lifespan is much shorter.

I reuse the bags to line the kitchen rubbish bin, various waste paper baskets etc.

If government legislates to ban plastic bags, people will then have to buy extra plastic bags to line their bins etc. Who will benefit? Probably among them are the some of the noise makers behind the "ban" movement.

Supermarkets don't mind. They get a new market for reusable "green" bags (usually not very green if you look closely).

Why is it that degradable bags and schemes for recycling old bags never seem to be mentioned?

With respect to plastic bags loose in the environment, single use paper bags will at least break down, but the degradable bags are cheaper and also break down.

Why aren't degradable bags regarded as an alternative?

The township I live in recycles all plastics. So we simple throw our bags in our recycle bin or the stores in the area have their own. If we receive paper bags I save them for spring time a lay them around my vegetables as a weed barrier, they work great. My wife has a couple of canvas bags for shopping at Aldis or Sam's Club but that's the extent of their use.

Here in the Portland area I have recently been seeing reusable grocery bags made out recycled plastic bottles. the material look like ripstop nylon or something similar. I can put 5 of these bags in my pants pocket with room to spare. They stuff themselves into a small pouch attached to the bag. Spread out they are the same size as a paper grocery bag. I think these have a future if they are durable.

http://www.chicobag.com/

All the ones I have seen have secondary advertising on them.

Seems like the first time I got my groceries in a plastic bag with handles I was in Toronto. For the Urban dweller they were definitely superior.

When they first came out they were made of a thicker plastic, and it's probably too bad that as time went on they became thinner and so light as to blow around.

It gets depressing sometimes these days that we are caused for one reason or another to worry about so many little things.

You left your battery charger plugged in! You're using wooden chopsticks! Did you know your new marble countertop is radioactive! How dare you eat a steak, there are too many cows emitting too much methane! That plastic water bottle is turning you into a hermaphrodite! You're cell phone is gonnah give you brain cancer!

-and if you don't put that dog poop in a plastic bag, we're gonnah fine you...

I've had the solution for years.

Fish Net bags.

We have made them for for clothes, beach blankets,toys, tools, anything.......

They are strong enough to put a 50 - 75 lb. weight in them . They are HDPE so they can be washed if they get dirty or contaminated with spilled food. You can stick them in a bucket with some bleach, rinse them off in the sink and they're dry in about 10 minutes. ......... after all , they are meant for use in the water already.

They will last for about 2 years or so with extended use every week. If you don't drag them across the floor and rub them on concrete like a gunny sack they will last for 5 years or longer.

38mm str. mesh so it holds just about anything from a store.

Retail cost per a 4 gallon bag size, with draw cord (400 lb. tensile strength) ...about $5.00

....so why don't we sell them anymore ?

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Lawyers!

Smitty -- I'd love to hear the story behind that....

Ed Weldon

....." We'd like to order 5K of these in say a blue color. Can we get a copy of your product liability insurance?"

What do I need insurance for, there are no moving parts except the tie cord and it is made into a self looped drawstring ?

....."well, our lawyer says everything we buy has to have a $1,000,000 liability policy in case ...hmmmm? ....someone drops the bag and its full of groceries."

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....."oh neat bag.......I bet we can put lots of junk in it......oh oh....that old can of paint thinner is leaking all over our hard wood floor....its the bags fault, the holes are too big to hold the fluid!"

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"..uhhhh... your bag busted with.... uhhhh......a whole lot'a groceries and they hit my moma's foot and she is crippled and uhhhhhh....she can't work and can't have sex with my daddy and ....uhhhhh....the lawyer from the TV says we have a case."

It broke because the mesh is all melted . What happened?

"....uhhhhh..........we had it too close to the stove and it......... uhhhhh.... caught fire and....uhhhh....melted....but the lawyer from the TV said not to worry because you own your business and ....uhhhhh"

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Get the picture now...........

Smitty