By Beezie

December 20, 2007 12:01 PM | Link to this

I’ve been taking my own bags for years, following my mother’s practice. At least now it’s not so weird.

Bring-your-own trend has two downsides: I still need bags to clean up after our cat and Yr. DeKalb Farmers Mkt. now requires everyone to check their reuseable bags before shopping which is a bit of a pain.

By Spock

December 20, 2007 12:29 PM | Link to this

I would still shop at stores that no longer use plastic bags. I recycle them and would hope that if a store offers only paper bags, that they would provide recycling for them as well.

By Maria

December 20, 2007 12:30 PM | Link to this

My husband and I have been using canvas totes for a couple of years. I’m glad that cashiers and baggers have gotten more accustomed to seeing them now. At recently as a year ago, I was still dealing with Publix baggers who would look at my (Publix) canvas tote and say, “I’ve never seen one of these before!” ???

We still occasionally get a couple plastic bags when we make an unplanned stop at a store and don’t happen to have the canvas totes in the car. It’s good to have a few around for lunch bags, bathroom trash can liners, bags to take out the recycling, etc. Any plastic bag we get is used more than once.

By Drew

December 20, 2007 12:38 PM | Link to this

There are new corn based plastic bags (no polyethylene) that are eco-friendly and they are fast to decompose. With that said, they are a little more expensive than regular plastic bags. Why doesn’t Whole Foods use those? Money… they are always charging ridiculous prices for items. While I certainly think using a cloth bag is fantastic, it is still a money making scheme.

Bring back live lobster and that will earn back some of my respect.

By michele

December 20, 2007 12:41 PM | Link to this

I usually get paper bags (I reuse those), but if the store I’m at doesn’t offer them then when I get home all plastic bags go directly to our recycle bin.

By Meg

December 20, 2007 12:42 PM | Link to this

I use my plastic bags for trash, and I try to avoid shopping at places with bags too flimsy to reuse (like kroger!) so I might avoid stores that don’t use them, or only shop there occasionally.

By Aunt Birdie

December 20, 2007 12:55 PM | Link to this

I take my own canvas bags to the store. Plastic thingies were cutting into my fingers and hurting my elbows. Canvas bags hang over shoulders—much easier to handle. The checkers still look at me like I’m from Mars, except at Whole Foods.

By Chris

December 20, 2007 1:13 PM | Link to this

80% of my groceries are carried out in a heavy duty oversized milk crate, canvas bag, and/or backpack. When the groceries are unloaded, the crate goes back in the trunk of my car. The crate and its contents are heavy enough to not move around in the car. No surprise apple to be found months later in my trunk.

I still occasionally take paper bags or plastic bags from the store since I am paying for them. The paper bags are great for arts and crafts for my kid, or to use to package items. The small plastic bags make wonderful trashbags. The cashiers look at me strangely when I have all the groceries neatly packed away in a crate or backpack, then I grab a handful of plastic bags. My response is that since I am paying for them, I’ll take them.

The only bags I refuse to use are the ones from a major home improvement store. Those bags will fall apart in the parking lot.

I would fully support having to pay for bags. My groceries would be less expensive!

I also never let the bagger pack my groceries or crate. They do not know how to tightly but safely pack my items.

By Kim

December 20, 2007 1:38 PM | Link to this

I would seriously miss the plastic bags if their use is discontinued. I reuse by disposing of cat litter in them and as a liner for small trash cans.

By Koz

December 20, 2007 1:45 PM | Link to this

I get extra plastic bags and throw them away with my regular trash.

By JJ

December 20, 2007 1:55 PM | Link to this

I need the plastic bags to clean up after my dogs, on our twice-daily walks.

A canvas tote wont work for that!!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

By ahhh

December 20, 2007 2:00 PM | Link to this

I use my plastic bags as trash liners, etc., recycle as much as I can. I started using my own totes over the last couple of months. I would much prefer to see less plastic period. The Counties, Cities and waste management companies really need to make recycling a much easier thing for people to do and we could really start cleaning up the mess we’ve all contributed!

By Bud

December 20, 2007 2:19 PM | Link to this

The plastic bags are just the thing if you have to contend with cat or dog poop. I get annoyed with businesses that use the “Save the Environment” banner as a pretense to increase their own profitability. Like those hotels that go to great lengths to avoid washing bedsheets (and now towells) for a guest during their stay. That’s just cheap!

Hey, I’m all for maximizing profits…but let’s call it what it is and avoid this politically correct B.S. about being friendly to the environment.

By MrHughes

December 20, 2007 2:28 PM | Link to this

I go to Trader Joes and love their policy on reuseable bags. They give you two for free and charge $0.05 per plastic bag after that. In addition, if you use reuseable totes they enter you in a weekly drawing for a gift card for $25 in free groceries. I’ve only been shopping there for a month, but have been very impressed. Very cool company… Try the french onion soup. I could live on that stuff.

By Rachel Z

December 20, 2007 2:45 PM | Link to this

I just recently purchased a canvas tote and have found it very handy to use when picking up only a few things at the store. I don’t have to worry about wasting plastic bags and don’t have to contend with the filthy plastic baskets they provide at most local grocery stores. On the downside, if I’m picking up a cart’s worth of groceries, unfortunately the canvas tote doesn’t do the trick and I have to make do with plastic.

By Jay

December 20, 2007 2:58 PM | Link to this

Yes, not only would I shop at a store that did not have plastic bags, but I would prefer them. I hate plastic bags. They are a litter problem and they seem to last forever. At least paper bag will rot away after a few weeks.

By Aurora

December 20, 2007 3:04 PM | Link to this

I cut the sides of the plastic grocery bags and lay them out, then put them underneath the mulch in my gardens. Keeps the weeds under control.

By Penguinmom

December 20, 2007 3:12 PM | Link to this

Personally, I’ve always like paper better but they don’t train store employees to load paper bags properly. They treat paper bags like plastic bags, just throwing a few items in each one and then moving to the next one. And I don’t believe paper bags are readily available at the self check out lanes.

We have a family of 5 so I’m not sure exactly how many canvas bags we would need to carry home our groceries. I’m trying to picture my husband (he’s the shopper) slinging 10 canvas bags over his arm to go to Kroger. When he shops for a week’s worth of groceries, it can take 3 trips from the car to the house with the two older kids helping. I just don’t see canvas bags as an alternative.

By I use plastic bags

December 20, 2007 3:25 PM | Link to this

I like plastic bags and I’m going to continue to use them. They way some of you are, you’d probably prefer everyone to wipe their butts with tree bark instead of toilet paper.

By Lamont Sanford

December 20, 2007 3:46 PM | Link to this

I’m no big dummie but I like plastic bags, they are useful around the junkyard. You can wear them on your feet so you dont mess up your nice pair of platform shoes while changing the oil. great for dog poop and trash can liner! i can fit 6 bottles of ripple in each bag too!

By Sparkie

December 20, 2007 4:06 PM | Link to this

These bags are made of a petroleum product…yes…oil. And, they virtually never biodegrade. So, our planet is filling up, up, up with them. Some loss of convenience is a small price to pay for giving these up. San Francisco is the first city to ban their use. Atlanta should follow. Do the cloth grocery bag thing, or canvas or what-have-you. Reuse the plastic you have. We just keep taking all these bags out of habit and don’t need them. TO PENGUIN MOM…your husband can take boxes with lids tucked in or cut off. Cart ‘em in and cart ‘em out. How did humans get along for thousands of years without plastic bags?!!

By NOT STUPID

December 20, 2007 4:24 PM | Link to this

I shop at Wal Mart, use their plastic bags, and save a lot of money.

Instead of forking more of my money over to some corporation, I am actually forking over less.

Meanwhile, you people will continue to complain about corporations, all the while buying more of their goods than people who do not complain.

Hypocrites!!!!

By Rebecca

December 20, 2007 4:51 PM | Link to this

I have been taking canvas bags to the store for several months. I shop mostly at Wal-Mart, at which I can never locate baskets so the canvas bags work great for carrying groceries around the store over my shoulder. I can carry a week’s worth of food in a few canvas bags that I pack myself instead of receiving at least twice as many plastic bags because the cashiers unnecessarily put no more than 3 items in each bag.

I think that more stores should adopt a policy of making customers pay for the plastic bags.

By Dusty

December 20, 2007 4:58 PM | Link to this

I recently purchased the canvas bags Publix has started carrying. I love them. I can fit so much more into them and actually have fewer bags to carry. They’re much easier and when the groceries are emptied out of them at home they go right back into the truck for the next visit.

To me it seemed like the plastic bags were multiplying on their own once I got them home. No matter how many I got rid of by recycling or reusing them, I always had more than I started with.

By More waste

December 20, 2007 5:11 PM | Link to this

Throw away cotton bags instead of plastic, or I can buy a box of plastic trash bags and use it first for my groceries, then for my trash. All they have done is shift the burden of buying trash bags onto the consumer who already needs to spend 4 hours a week trudging through grocery stores. The new paper bag rule is a nightmare, half my produce was crushed when it finally got home, plus I spent twice the time trying to carefully load it into my car only to have those silly paper handles tearing off one after the other. There is no good reason to do this except to make some silly people believe this will save the planet. To make a difference start by getting rid of the Ford Excursion, replace it with ‘The Air Car’ not heard of it, google it. Then add a grocery cart that loads into the trunk that way you skip the whole bagging and un-bagging altogether and the stores no longer need to bring back the empty carts when customers are done with them. Finally improve the global environment by providing people with a real alternative - search for risug to learn how there are viable forms of birth control, and consider how many extra children are born each year that add strain to overburdened mothers and families. Now that is a plan for a future. One final note; all the places I have ever seen who suddenly believe they can stop using plastic bags realize their insanity after a short while and begin taking care of their customers again.

By Buy a bag like a euro snob

December 20, 2007 5:16 PM | Link to this

There was still one thing making it nicer to shop in america than in europe, free bags at the checkout. Whole foods move is making it less appealing than ever to shop there. First they reduced the quality of their food bar so it is now un-edible, then they bumped their prices 25% last fall, now they are putting another nail in their coffin with this horrible paper bag only and bring your own nonsense. When are they going to realize they are abusing their best customers and making themselves not into leaders, but has beens.

By DD

December 20, 2007 6:14 PM | Link to this

Getting rid of plastic bags means a lot less oil used and less needless plastic in our landfills and rubbish in our streams and oceans.

I have been using cloth bags for many years and will go out of my way to shop at stores who appreciate shoppers with cloth bags.

I don’t have a problem with governments telling retailers what bags to offer. I think it’s great.

By John

December 20, 2007 6:37 PM | Link to this

Most other places (Germany, Paris) have been doing this for years, bring your own bags to the store. We are the ones lagging behind as usual when it comes to these things. It’s people like NOT STUPID who only care about themselves, so sad…..

By Todd

December 21, 2007 8:22 AM | Link to this

Commie libs are at it again. I am all for nature, but I am not retarded and flip back and forth like these morons. First the hippies cry the earth is getting colder; now later in life they cry it is getting warmer—all because of man. In the 1990’s, paper bags were being done away with at grocery stores to save the trees; now the paper is back and the plastic is evil.

Can you say r-e-t-a-r-d?

By Bag lady

December 21, 2007 8:46 AM | Link to this

I have been using cloth bags for about 10 years. I really got strange looks when I started and it’s now pretty common to see people using them. I’m not a real greenie, but this was something that just seemed to make sense. I hated getting 20 plastic bags with 2 or 3 items in each one when I could use 3 or 4 canvas bags that are easier to handle and stronger.

This seems like such a simple, easy thing to do for the environment, I’m surprised to hear so many people against it. Just throw a few bags in the car and keep them there. No real change in your lifestyle or behavior required.

The DeKalb Farmer’s market has started asking you to leave your bags at the courtesy counter while you shop. They aren’t consistent about this and I can often shop without having to go through this process. I agree with Beezie, it’s a pain and I don’t know what problem it’s actually solving.

If I do end up with plastic bags, I take them to the recycle bin at the grocery store and drop them in there.

Paper bags and newspapers are great as underlayment for mulch and they will biodegrade and not remain in the soil for decades. You can also put paper bags in the county recycle bins or in your compost bin.

By chamblee

December 21, 2007 9:01 AM | Link to this

Cloth bags are very nice. I first used one when I lived in South Africa two years ago. The grocery stores charged two cents for a plastic bag and just the thought of paying for a bag was enough to convert me to cloth.

Publix has been very good about loading the cloth bags and since the bags are so much sturdier, they hold a lot. I have had to explain to the Wal-Mart employees several times that I want to use my cloth bags, but last weekend the woman at the checkout knew what the bags were for (so hopefully it’s becoming more common).

It would be nice if people would use cloth bags and resort to using plastic only in situations where they buy more groceries than usual.

By slim

December 21, 2007 9:18 AM | Link to this

Plastic bags have almost no mass and are not an environmental problem. It is very difficult to accumulate a truckload of them, thus they are not very good for recycling.

No bags (paper, corn, etc) will disintegrate when compacted into the anaerobic environment of a landfill.

By Erin

December 21, 2007 9:33 AM | Link to this

Baggers and cashiers LOVE to give away plastic bags. They put like one or two things in every bag.

The other day I brought my canvas ones from home and the lady offered to plastic bag things inside my canvas bags “so the stuff can stay together.”

Why in the world would I care if things “stay together” if I make the conscious effort to bring my own gd bags! Who cares if their food “stays together!?” People will dream up any excuse to WASTE.

By Getting It Out Of The Way

December 21, 2007 9:48 AM | Link to this

Since every blog eventually gets off track, I’m going to help get it out of the way by mentioning all of the controversial subjects at the same time: Only an overweight-anti-nativity-scene-atheist-far-left-liberal-Michael-Vick-loving-Clayton-County-slum-living-illegal-African-immigrant-tatooed-unwed-pregnant-teenager-with-baggy-pants would have the time to respond to drivel like this because all they do is sit home, watch talk shows, collect welfare, and talk on their cell phone. Happy Holidaze!

By Alecia

December 21, 2007 10:32 AM | Link to this

I am not one of those liberal tree huggers that recycle and celebrate Earth Day, ect. However, plastic bags are a petroleum bi-product. With the cost of a barrel of oil flirting with the $100 mark and gas at $3/gallon, we need to evaluate where the demand is coming from. We all know that it is unrealistic to boycott the gas stations. We all have to get to work or school, and very few of us live close to mass transit or have the luxury of carpool. If we want to curb the demand, perhaps we should think outside the box, stop blaming just our cars, and look at the whole picture i.e. petroleum based products. This also includes all of the plastics used in commercial packaging. Yes, I would prefer paper to plastic. Also those flimsy bags accumulate at my house and the baggers have forgotten how to bag properly with paper.

By Naresh

December 21, 2007 10:33 AM | Link to this

By Nana

December 21, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this

…..and disposable diapers? How environmentally friendly are they? But the yuppies insist on using them, driving huge SUV’s and pretend that they are politically correct.

By Ed

December 21, 2007 12:08 PM | Link to this

I have insisted my groceries be placed in paper sacks ever since plastic bags were introduced. Not only are plastic bags likely to spill in the car, they are likely to cause injury to the arms of elderly customers.

By Andrew

December 21, 2007 1:38 PM | Link to this

10 years from now there will be some reason the canvas bags are bad and we will be back to plastic.

By naw

December 21, 2007 5:06 PM | Link to this

You have a sister-paper? She HAS TO BE be embarrassed by her sibling.

By Duke

December 21, 2007 5:14 PM | Link to this

The linked article says, “From the production of plastic to the costs of use to the post-use life of a bag, plastic is costly, both financially and environmentally.” This is typical environmental nonsense. If plastic bags were not cost-effective, people and corporations would not use them. I have not studied the environmental analysis behind these particular claims; but I have studied the science behind several of these popular trends, and it usually turns out to be as ridiculous as the financial arguments. Environmentalism has nothing to do with the science of environmental stewardship. It is ancient, pagan, idolatrous Nature-worship.

By Duke

December 21, 2007 5:15 PM | Link to this

The linked article says, “From the production of plastic to the costs of use to the post-use life of a bag, plastic is costly, both financially and environmentally.” This is typical environmental nonsense. If plastic bags were not cost-effective, people and corporations would not use them. I have not studied the environmental analysis behind these particular claims; but I have studied the science behind several of these popular trends, and it usually turns out to be as ridiculous as the financial arguments. Environmentalism has nothing to do with the science of environmental stewardship. It is ancient, pagan, pantheistic Nature-worship.

By Frank

December 24, 2007 8:41 AM | Link to this

38,000+ barrles of oil are used daily, just to make plastic grocery bags!

By Frank

December 24, 2007 8:41 AM | Link to this

38,000+ barrels of oil are used daily, just to make plastic grocery bags!

By Magenta

December 24, 2007 9:10 AM | Link to this

I think it was in the early 1980s that plastic became the default bag. But before that, all groceries were put into paper bags, with plastic only being used if you were buying ice cream. I miss those days - it was much easier to separate out the perishable stuff and get it put away. I also don’t like the asymmetrical shape of the plastic bags, making it easier for things to fall out. Now that paper is more recyclable (and plastic bags much less so), the choice for me is clear. And for ice cream, there are always insulated coolers.

By ctmoore

December 24, 2007 9:16 AM | Link to this

Those cloth bags brought from home are either unsanitary or people waste water and energy washing them. We just need to put the groceries in our pockets.

By Sanjeev

December 26, 2007 10:18 AM | Link to this

We are only 15 years behind Europe on this trend.