Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

sheila2t — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 20:02:45 GMT

I live in England and a grass roots movement has started here to encourage people to reduce their use of plastic bags.

We make bags and give them away,look on the website to find out how you can too

www.morsbags.com

over 40,000 have been made in just over two years This equates to a lot of plastic bags not ending up in the land fill or eaten by widlife

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

vrbaetim — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 16:43:58 GMT

Biodegradeable plastic bags sound like a great idea. Unfortunately, I read they simply put the chemicals into the enviornment even faster. What to do? As for reusing the plastic bags as garbage bags, I do. To minimize their use however, I line a "wet garbage" pail with a foot pedal lid with a plastic bag and toss dried orange peels in once in awhile. A week later I toss it. If you keep meat scraps out, it goes longer. As a kid, I watched my Mom dig a hole and bury it in the vegetable garden. Not all of us have that option. Because it was buried, and in small amounts, it didn't stink.

I put my dry trash in a medium sized trash can that takes a trash compactor bag. I put large paper clamps(stationary store), which I reuse, on each side and I stomp that thing down once per week standing in it. I take it out approximately every month. This at least minimizes the amount of plastic trash bags going to the dump.

Paper comes from trees so I'm torn between saving trees and plastic pollution. For now, I'm minimizing my use of plastic bags by compacting and separation. I'm considering bringing my own shopping bags when I have enough shopping bags for trash bags.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

Goldberry116 — Sat, 21 Jul 2007 10:39:13 GMT

I really like the big blue reusable shopping bags that IKEA sells for just 59 cents. They look durable --- and VERY easily washable (even more so than canvas bags). Next time I go to IKEA I'm getting one. :-D

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

mountaingb — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 22:11:08 GMT

Hooray for reusable bags! When I lived in Italy, and traveled in France, I got charged for each plastic bag I needed to put my food into. Hopefully, San Francisco will be able to set a good trend for the rest of the US. I believe they've got a ban on styrofoam take-out containers that will take effect also.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

cafeneko — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 17:36:46 GMT

I have a 3 year old in daycare and donate any plastic bags I don't end up using for trash to the daycare. They bag dirty clothes, and messy diapers in them. They are always asking for donations of more. I used old tissue boxes to store the plastic bags and when they are filled I donate them to the daycare.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

Dorle — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:44:18 GMT

I immigrated to Canada in 1957 and became acquainted with plastic shopping bags. At the time, I thought they were a great, easy way of transporting your purchases instead of having to carry your own baskets, bags, or nets (I remember crocheting a red net with brass rings for myself). Now that people have become aware of the disposal/degradeability problem, you suddenly see a lot of "proprietary" (name of store) bags for sale and surprisingly many shoppers using them. However, checkout staff need to be trained, not to counteract the elimination of plastic bags by wrapping items - such as a tightly closed bottle of Mr. Clean - into a separate plastic bag before placing it into my cloth bag!

I can foresee the time when fellow-shoppers will apply peer pressure to those who do NOT bring their own cloth bags or baskets or nets, by disapprovingly staring at the "antisocial" characters.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

LucyL — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:02:40 GMT

Recycling is becoming a "given" to many people, but I would encourage everyone to read this article before getting too dedicated to legislating it.

EIGHT GREAT MYTHS OF RECYCLING

www.perc.org/.../ps28.pdf

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

Patricia G — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:25:39 GMT

I ordered, just recently, over the internet, 3 string bags for $12. Each one holds as much as a paper sack and weight doesn't matter. I love them!

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

Laura Ramsey — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 19:25:37 GMT

Our local grocer started carrying re-usable shopping bags with a solid bottom and handles. They are quite nifty ~ but are stil made out of polyprypoline. Lately, I've taken to using large purse/totes ~ stylish and yet oh-so-practical. There was an article in this month's Vogue about it being very fashionable now to shop with totes and there is a line of artistic tote/shopping bags selling like hot-cakes at the Whole Foods Market in NYC. Once it begomes the "in" thing to do the masses will catch on. One nice thing about using the tote is that I only purchase from the grocery what I can fit into the bag... this way I only purchase what I need for the next day or two.

It's easy to use the totes when I'm at my local grocer's because of the way the cashier's line is set up... but it is difficult to do so at Wal-Mart. Their check-out centers are specifically designed for the cashier to move the item from the belt straight into that plastic bag. I slow down the line when I use the tote as the cashier has to hand each item to me.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

ammonihah99 — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 18:50:22 GMT

This is interesting. As much as Dr. Mercola endorses liberty, personal choice and responsibility, he has no problem endorsing an oppressive law, the motivation for which is extremely dangerous. I am as guilty as any person of using these plastic bags to litter and destroy the earth's beauty, and I am thankful for websites like this that can motivate me to do something about it, but I should not be forced to comply. That's the most important factor: choice. I am personally wary of anything that removes my ability to choose for myself, my agency. It is the most precious gift we could have received from God in heaven and we need to treat it as such. We should rely on private institutions and awareness groups like Dr. Mercola to educate us and motivate us to do better and leave the government out of it. When we lose our ability to choose, we lose freedom—we lose everything.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

matei — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:14:11 GMT

Great, now we'll just cut down more trees to create paper bags. Nothing is free. We're simply switching from abusing the environment in one way to another. It is fundamentally us who must change our ways if we want to make a positive impact on the environment.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

RawKin — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:14:28 GMT

It just makes my day reading articles like this. People need little eye openers such as this on a daily basis to keep them moving forward just like breathing oxygen. I can see it now…soon it will become very evident to the naked eye just who the responsible, clean, caring, loving, and honest people really are. I know some people who are still living in the world of irresponsibility. These are people who think nothing of eating at the local Mc Dung Pile, stuffing their faces and throwing all their packaging and baggage out of the window of their vehicle right onto the street. It just thrills me to hear that there are actually people out there who think about the end result and the laws of cause and effect.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

samurai — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 15:10:27 GMT

I heard that in California, they are going to be charging the consumer 17cents per plastic bag. I think, they should charge 50cents per bag!! That way, if you are desperate, you can get it. Otherwise, one should always have a few hemp totes in their car!!

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

Truth is Healthy — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 14:42:56 GMT

If it takes 1,000 years for a bag to decompose, then how are the chemicals getting into the enviroment? Who came up with that number anyway?

More fear mongering...devoid of real factual information and evidence.

Hey Mercola! Are you going to block my comments again????

Don't speak against the "religion", regardless of facts.

re: Plastic Shopping Bags Being Banned

Mousie Tartufo — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:43:06 GMT

I have no affiliation to these folks, just a desire to point out a great source: A great place to get all sorts of re-usable bags (including hemp, cotton, organic fibers, recycled plastic) and re-usable bottles (Great H20 bottles, Doc M!) www.reusablebags.com Great stuff, fair trade too!