Monday, January 12, 2009

bags

There has been a movement afoot around here for some time to reduce the use of plastic bags, and now Loblaw is charging a nickel a bag. The new bags are bigger and sturdier than the old free bags. I like using the large reusable bags when I grocery shop, but I haven't been as consistent about it as I should be. I often stop on the way home from work for groceries, but many times I forget to keep a couple reusable bags with me. In time, I'll improve.

When I was a kid, there were few plastic bags. Groceries were typically packed in paper bags or sometimes in boxes. Paper bags were biodegradable, but then again trees were chopped down to produce them, with all the associated pollution. I have no idea how much energy is used and pollution created in the making of reusable bags but they can be used many many times over and that has to be a good thing.

Do you bring your own bags when you shop?

11 comments:

Wandering Coyote said...

I do bring my own bags when I shop, and many places sell really good, sturdy, cloth-ish bags for super cheap. I have quite a good selection and just fold one up into my backpack (which I also use for shopping) when I go somewhere, and some of the bags are even small enough to fold up into my shoulder bag.

I think it's great that Loblaws is charging a nickel per bag. I hope it encourages people to recycle or get cloth bags.

word verification = tater

S.M. Elliott said...

There's a push in my city to phase out plastic bags within a year or two. I'm seeing more and more people with reusable bags, so I think a plastic-bag fee and/or a limit on the number of plastic bags per customer could speed that along.

The Preacherman said...

Do now. All the stores around here give you nice sturdy reusable ones. The wifey is well into recycling ever since she saw a pic of a turtle with a plastic carrier bag stuck round it.

tshsmom said...

I shop at a "bag your own" grocery store. I just throw most of the stuff back into the cart and load it into the cardboard boxes I leave in the back of our truck.

What I really NEED to do is get a couple of reusable bags to use at K-Mart and other non-grocery stores.

I've always hated those flimsy plastic bags! Everything spills out of them on the ride home. What a waste of resources!

Heehee, my word ver is picas. They're such cute little rodents. ;)

Anonymous said...

Very much bag related:

Large breed dog poop.

(you will be begging everyone you know for bags) Forget about the compost-able corn bags, they are made for toy breeds. You can bypass a lot of the bag need (because you have land) by getting an enzyme activated doggy dooly underground composter. Less than a $100 to keep your yard clean.

Anonymous said...

And yes I use re-usable bags for grocery shopping, since there are still lots of plastic bags out there that aren't being recycled.

mister anchovy said...

tell me more about the doggy composter....

Anonymous said...

Commercial: http://www.nextag.com/doggie-dooley/compare-html

Home-made: http://homepage.mac.com/cityfarmer/PhotoAlbum22.html

mister anchovy said...

What do you do when the temperature drops in the winter too low for the enzymes to do their thing?

Anonymous said...

The other issue would be that the lid to the composter is buried under several feet of snow.

For the city dwellers the green box program takes dog poop.

They tried large green boxes in downtown dog parks for a few months. A total disaster as you didn't even want to lift the lid up.

Hell, I'm still trying to get the neighbourhood coke dealer to clean up after his dog.

sp said...

I've always taken my own bags (except for maybe a lapse in my early 20s when I got lazy). My grandmother gave me my first cotton grocery bag since she always shopped with her own string bags that fit neatly into her purse. I still have that first bag that she gave me. It is fairly tattered now though.

Quadra Island is now free of plastic bags. The whole island got together and found solutions so people could either make or buy their own shopping bags.

Now if we could just get rid of all the plastic packaging that everything is packed into...