Do you use your own reusable grocery bags?

[Good Times]

If you haven't noticed plastic bags have been getting a really bad wrap because it's causing a lot of headaches across the world by wasting landfill space and contaminating the oceans. Many local governments are taking an aggressive move to ban these so called plastic bags or even forcing businesses to charge consumers a fee to use the plastic bags.

So how many of you use your own reusable grocery bags? It's still a relatively new movement but my friends have begun using them so I'm curious how many others are. Most stores will sell em for $1 or so or you can get em for free if you take this online quiz.

quiz: Take the test to get your free bags! (http://www.ebfarm.com/AboutUs/Environment/ConservationQuiz.aspx)

[Lee]

i dont, but i do bring bags back to the grocery store sometimes.

i wish i could say i was better about this :(

[4runnerchevy]

No I don't, but I have noticed that the grocery store now gives you paper bags unless you ask for plastic. This is a complete 180 from what it used to be. I recycle and thats as far as I am going to go with the grocery bag thing.

[wifesaysimadumbass]

i hate plastic bags i think they are the worst thing to ever happen to the world

[wifesaysimadumbass]

try to watch this video and see if you will think of plastic as a great thing
http://www.wetsand.com/article.asp?locationid=7&resourceid=6522&ProdId=0&CatId=2328&TabID=2328&SubTabID=0

[slosurfer]

I don't but maybe I should look into it.

I hate plastic bags! What's the point, they might as well just dump the groceries all over the back of the Tacoma, because that is where they all end up if they are put in plastic bags. :chair: All our bags we get (paper or plastic) get reused for other things at least once before getting recycled or tossed.

We are switching from regular diapers to ones that are made from natural products and are biodegradeable. We'll see how they work.

[garrett]

i should, but i don't

i do end up keeping most of the plastic bags i get though, just to use whenever.

i also try to tell them i don't need a bag if i'm not getting too many things.

[YotaFun]

I don't, But I should.
The worst part is I work at a supermarket now...

We offer recyclable bags.
And we also offer an incentive for customers to bring back and reuse there bags
A cent for every plastic bag
and
Two cents for every paper or canvas bag they bring back.

They have some nice brown ones I should by that would match Tess's interior nicely.

[MasterWIII]

Yeah, we offer reusable bags at the grocery store I work at too. Then we give a six cent refund for every bag that they bring in again to reuse, regardless of what kind of bag.

[YotaFun]

Yeah, we offer reusable bags at the grocery store I work at too. Then we give a six cent refund for every bag that they bring in again to reuse, regardless of what kind of bag.


Wow, makes my store really cheap.
But honestly in the area I am in, the people could careless.
They are rich enough to drive there huge gas gusslers, send there kids to private school and Ivy League Schools, and take vactions to the far corners of the planet.
Why the hell do I live in this area, I can't do any of that....

[habanero]

When I take the wagon, the backpack or the bob trailer I don't use bags at all. When I have to take the truck I use paper or plastic bags for everything but the milk, beer, that sort of stuff, and bring them back to be recycled.

[MTL_4runner]

Alot of stores up here now are switching to banning the plastic bags completely including many of the major grocery chains. We already use reusable bags and just leave them in the back of the vehicle so when you head into the store you just bring the bags with you. Honestly it takes maybe another 10 seconds max to use your own bags and after a while it just becomes second nature. It's a routine just like putting gas in your truck.

[Erich_870]

I haven't started bringing my own, but I don't use them whenever possible. I'll take my stuff out of them and leave them with the clerk if they're not responsive to my request. :flipoff:

Erich

[Seanz0rz]

i bought a couple when they first came out because our local store switched plastic bag companies, and they were thinner than onion skins, and about as strong. my mom still uses them, i dont so much because here at school i could never remember to bring them with.

i usually reuse my plastic bags several times though, once they are done with groceries, they will serve as trash bags or as bags in the truck, when i go between home and school and need to carry shoes, they go in one. i never throw them away unless they are soiled. usually i will put them in the recycle, since they are HDPE and will recycle with milk jugs and the like.

[4runnerchevy]

Does everyone work at a grocery store? I get plastic cause its gets caught up in the dolphins mouth. Ummmm tuna, definitly plastic !

[Good Times]

Great video mikey!

[4x4mike]

My wife does. She has a bag of bags in the back of the car. She gets them free from conferences and such. She does the shopping (food) so they're in the back of her car. Now, if I go to HomieD or somewhere else I usually come home with them. We use them when we clean out the little box.

[Bob98SR5]

yeah we have an insulated one from trader joes, but we are just getting used to using them. i think you really gotta have them in your car like mike does in order to get max use out of it. its too easy to forget them.

[dontdo_that]

I haven't moved towards reuseable bags yet but I insist on paper bags all the time. I also save my bags for several uses before tossing them. Paper bags are much more recyclable than plastic and they are made from recycled materials. I need to get in to the whole reuse grocery bag thing because its so annoying having to ASK for paper bags (they don't ask me, they just put everything in plastic here, thats Ralphs in La Jolla).

[MTL_4runner]

yeah we have an insulated one from trader joes, but we are just getting used to using them. i think you really gotta have them in your car like mike does in order to get max use out of it. its too easy to forget them.


Bob, you hit the nail on the head. In order to make good use of them, when you go get groceries or whatever, the final part of the process after unloading everything into the fridge has to be to walk the bags back out and toss em into the truck. I know I forget myself if I don't.

[habanero]

Today at the grocery store everyone in line chose either paper, none or brought their own. The whole plastic is evil appears to be catching on...

[Good Times]

hab where in the world do you shop cuz monst all of the places I've hit many still use plastic! grr

I will note that the only grocery store that I've noticed where ppl bring their own bags is Trader Joe's. They don't even offer plastic bags there :)

[YotaFun]

Today, I noticed 8 out of 10 customers would choose to either bag there own or paper, and complained about this and that with the plastic stuff.
Its catching on very fast.

[MasterWIII]

Yeah, a lot of people here still bag their groceries in plastic. Slowly but surely though people are buying our reusable bags and bringing them back. Or any bag that they choose to bring, even if its a Safeway bag...I do think its funny how a decade or two ago, everyone thought plastic bags were amazing and so much better than paper cause they had handles...

[wifesaysimadumbass]

all you have to do is pay attention to tv and radio to know that peoples minds are changing. i know out here we keep see and hearing these tv and radio ads "plastics make it possible" i think so many people ar sterring away from plastic no that the idustry is trying to remind people that they are relevant....personally I think that san francisco is a totally sick city but they did something right in banning the plastic bag

[MTL_4runner]

Yeah, a lot of people here still bag their groceries in plastic. Slowly but surely though people are buying our reusable bags and bringing them back. Or any bag that they choose to bring, even if its a Safeway bag...I do think its funny how a decade or two ago, everyone thought plastic bags were amazing and so much better than paper cause they had handles...


Up here stores don't care if you bag your items with a competitor's bag.....doing the right thing really removes possibility of any further criticisms.

[Lee]

i dont know if boston is trying to be wasteful or what but ill tell you guys, out here your groceries are bagged in plastic by default, and if not, then youre probably at trader joes.

even whole foods defaults to plastic.

[habanero]

hab where in the world do you shop cuz monst all of the places I've hit many still use plastic! grr

I will note that the only grocery store that I've noticed where ppl bring their own bags is Trader Joe's. They don't even offer plastic bags there :)


Dierbergs is where I was at the time. At the other two stores I shop plastic is still quite prevalent. At one of them you bag your own goodies and the plastic is readily available, the paper is under the counter and sometimes stuck together and difficult to open. I really should get some reusable jobbies for when I do use bags....then I'd have to remember to bring them with....

[Lee]

as a result of this thread, i asked for paper bags at this market near my apartment... when i finished paying and walked over to get the bags, i saw that they put the paper bag inside of a plastic bag :chair:

[4runnerchevy]

Nice :headscratch: Double whammy!

[MTL_4runner]

Lee, my hat's off to you for wanting to do the right thing.
Sounds like they need a little education themselves.

[Lee]

i went to trader joes yesterday and found out they DO have plastic bags, they simply dont use them very often.

they also enter people who bring their own bags into some sort of raffle for 20% of or 20 dollars off or something like that. :)

[YotaFun]

I have beejn strongly considering talking to my manager about talking to corperate and getting rid of the plastic bags all together.

The plastic bags we have are crappy and break a lot so we always end up wasting them.

[dontdo_that]

I just picked up 6 99c bags from trader joes that are huge and durable.. great idea. convenient too actually! now we are using them at ralphs and they give us 10 cents for every bag we have.. so it will pay itself off quickly lol.