Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

Bee — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 15:28:38 GMT

Hooray for Wlhole Foods! It amazes me than whenever I go to the health food store they provide nothing but plastic bags. Even at the grocery store they give you a choice. Its about time. After having lived on and old farmstead that was previously a piggery, I've seen first hand what plastics in the landfill can do. The place was a functioning farm back in the 30's till the 50's and we lived there for 15 years. There was not one time while working in the garden that the rake or pitchfork didn't come up with the tattered remains of a plastic bag, and this was in the 80's and 90's. The stuff just never goes away, in addition to what it adds to the groundwater and soil. It makes me wonder now just what we were absorbing during our time there. I've been campaigning against plastic ever since.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

blue sky — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 15:23:04 GMT

we use several reusable bags - the best ones I have found so far came from home depot. They are huge and have plastic grips that fit over the edges of a grocery cart making them very easy to fill as the cashier scans your items. They were only $1.99 each.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

Peggy.Parker — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 17:42:48 GMT

This is a great article and should be broadcasted on all the major networks, and all public media and pushed by the political world who promise solutions but never have a solution. It is a solution to a long-standing problem. I am going to try to do my part.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

Hathorhetep — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 07:43:11 GMT

Trader Joe's is good - always read the labels! They are honest about many things not being pure. Luckily, here in Chicago, we have a number of excellent produce markets that also have other foods available, such as deli goods or refrigerated foods like hummos, yogurt, etc. I pay the same price for organic produce there as I would for commercial non-organic at the Jewel or Dominick's. I also shop ethnic markets for fresh food. You can often buy cloth or net bags at these stores, too.

I shop for vitamins and other things at J's Vitamins, in the shopping center at Foster, Central, and Northwest Highway. The American Science and Surplus Center is there, too. J's is independent, prices are good, and I would rather pay 25¢ more for an item there than save that quarter at the Vitamin Shoppe where I cannot find the brands i want. Vitamin Shoppe is ok, but I would rather not get Vitamin E capsules made by Archer Daniels Midland - makes me suspicious of the likely commercially raised soybean sources for the oil in the capsules. vitamin E. J's carries or special orders the Weleda products i like, and Whole Foods does not carry them. When I've special ordered homeopathic remedies, skin care products, and other such products, they try to guilt trip me into taking a dozen tubes of skin cream at a time! They don't carry Weleda anymore and won't order it for me. It's not part of the corporate thang, baby... they have a set-up with distributorships and bigger corporate 'health' industry suppliers - speaking of which,

when my dog had to defecate, I slid a piece of newspaper under him to catch the droppings. By the fifth or sixth day of walking him,, he was used to it. Broadsheet was better than digest size for a big dog!

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

KimberlyB — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 13:38:17 GMT

I have used canvas reusable bags for the past 10 years and thankfully don't have to deal with the avalanche of plastic bags that used to invade my closets in pre-canvas days. Plus my grocery store gives me a 2 cent credit per bag each and every time I shop with my canvas bags. The most functional bags I have found can be purchased at www.plasticfreeshopping.com for as little as $7- per bag. They are washable and will last a lifetime. They have a nice squared off bottom that stays upright in your shopping cart and car. Another plus is that they are made in the USA. When stores sell bags for 99 cents, I have to think that somewhere down the line, someone is paying for that bag with blood, sweat, and tears. I don't really want to support countries that offer a dollar a day wages. For those of you who think you may forget to bring your reusable bags...you might the first few times, but after the feeling of guilt when I ended up with a shopping cart full of plastic, it soon became like second nature to me. Remember what a hassle it was when we had to start recycling? Now, it is just part of the routine.

You'll really feel like you are making a difference if you switch to reusable! And another easy change we all can make is to stop buying those single-use cases of water...another unnecessary habit people do out of convenience that has some detrimental effects on the planet. Get a good reusable bottle, fill it with tap water, and clean it out every night.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

Linda24 — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:54:01 GMT

What about the plastic bags that everyone uses for their fruits and veggies??

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

frank_vbigpond.au — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:57:46 GMT

Plastic certainly is a big problem and I applaud anyone doing whatever they can to make us aware of how damaging plastic is to the environment. It is sickening to learn of marine animals suffocating or suffering otherwise from ingesting plastic instead of jellyfish, and then being passed down the food chain when eaten by larger marine animals. Of course there are many other problems associated with plastics.

However, early in the article it states that Ireland uses 316 plastic bags per person; later it states that Ireland (author thinks) is nearly plastic bag free because of charging a fee for plastic bags. Now what are us readers supposed to believe about plastic bag usage in Ireland? - Please provide unambiguous accurate information on important environmental issues so that people will see such information as being current and credible - and not give them some excuse to sit back and do nothing until the "experts" have figured it out.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

Avice — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 04:18:57 GMT

Shopping bags can be purchased inexpensively online at the website below. Enjoy!

Baggubag.com

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

qualitygeek — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:01:52 GMT

I've also caught grief for not wanting to use stores' plastic bags. At the very least, I get funny looks. I just tell them I don't want to have to recycle their bags & they usually back off. If my purchase is small enough, it goes into my handbag with the receipt.

Bummer about Wild Oats. I used to shop there when I lived in Indy.

Wish we had Trader Joes here.

For what it is worth, I am a stockholder in Whole Foods & use that ability to VOTE - I do not sign away my proxy. I don't shop there though. I don't make any money off those shares so who knows where all the huge product mark-ups are going.

If more people made purchases of products according to conscious & then told both the manufacturer and retailer why they did not purchase that product (rather than making decisions based on the cost of the product) changes might occur. But this would require us to get off our duffs & actually do something.

If more people would plant a garden & grow at least part of their food, wow....what a change we could see. But, again - this would require us to get off our duffs & actually do something.

Think globally, act locally - eat locally - eat wild.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

PillowsForSoldiers — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:45:28 GMT

Unbelievable! What brought us the plastic bags in the first place? The same enviro weenies that said we were cutting down to many trees for shopping bags! You know those weenies that think wind and sun will give us all the energy we need (will never happen) and reduce our "dependence on foreign oil", while the same people make laws so that this country can't drill for it's own oil, can't build a refinery, etc. etc.

The communists i.e. liberals i.e. the political left are in the envirnonmental wacko movement. They are the ones pushing global warming (due to a substance called CO2 that humans exhale) that their beloved trees love, yet none of them ever volunteer to stop breathing to "save the planet" and "save our lives", while they push for more and more abortions. There should be a name for this disease called the liberal left. Anyone who believes anything that comes out of any liberals mouth, is an . . . well I will be polite and let you fill in the word..

You watch! Someday we will be taking the "clothes off the poor" for our shopping bags used by the "rich" (except all those rich libs who are always excempt from their own beliefs they force on others i.e. they will still be using the plasitc bags, trust me). The left is incidious and all they really want is the power to make laws to steal your money and wealth, through all their hoaxes and lies. The word for it is evil.

A fact of life for all you hang ringing libs . . . there is plenty of room for everything that is made on earth. It came from the earth, there is room for it.

Ever notice how libs always see problems they cause that are always someone's else's fault then always demand that someone else fix the fake problems with someone else's money??? Amazing existance liberals have. Could it be any easier to be a lib? It is all about feelings and belief, to hell with the truth.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

CRUNCHY — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 16:32:23 GMT

It's admirable that Whole Foods is concerned about the overuse of plastics. I am one of their customers who have purchased their cloth alternatives. However, I have noticed that they are not so concerned with the type of plastic containers they market to use with their purified water refill stations. They are the colored, transparent #7 plastic containers that have received so much negative press lately, even from this site.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

KH-Austin — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 15:09:45 GMT

After personally trying to get them to stop using plastic bags more than 15 years ago (I'm in their home town) I am NOT IMPRESSED. They were lying about recycling the plastic bags back then, telling customers they were being recycled and their employees told me the truth, they were put in the landfill because there weren't any companies interested in recycling the huge number of plastic bags.

Now they lie about ingredients, lie about their concern for the environment and lie about their real intention.

It's the continual greed of corporations - world wide, and this includes those European corporations producing toxic chemicals they outlaw in their own countries, but manufacture and ship to others.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

steelj — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:10:58 GMT

I'm glad Magnolia made the comment that deforestation should not be a part of this debate. She is absolutely correct. In fact, so long as trees have value as pulpwood and timber, we're likely to have MORE, not less land in forest. There is nothing wrong with cutting trees down, so long as the land is left undeveloped and the forest regenerates. What's bad is when the forest is cut down and replaced with subdivisions or crop fields.

I'm not talking about our few remaining old-growth forests. They are irreplaceable and cutting them should never be allowed. And there are places where cutting the trees results in severe soil erosion and watershed damage. But, IN GENERAL, cutting the trees is fine - so long as the forest is allowed to regenerate.

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

andrew.prowse — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 02:28:34 GMT

Funny how all these large corporations are environmentally conscious when it saves them money, but not so when it costs them money. The supermarkets here have started doing the same thing, trumpeting their concern for the environment. What's next... Maybe they'll put the prices of their produce up and claim it's to help out struggling farmers !

re: Whole Foods to Stop Use of Plastic Bags

ww — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 22:57:04 GMT

Trader joe's has been offering 99 cent reusable bags for years. Whole foods finally figured it out. And don't compare the two stores.