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I'm wondering, on a forum where most people are eco-conscious and many people are probably doing their best to avoid plastic...how many bags do you use in a week? maybe count them up this week, M-Sunday, and see?
i did a 2010 resolution of no more plastic bags whenever possible and reduced my use of them substantially, but still found I had tons that I was bringing to the recylcing container. 2011 pledge is to reduce further!
Only a couple.. I have a bunch of cloth bags in the car, that I keep in there for going to the store. The folks at all the stores I go to say I'm pretty much the only one who ever brings bags in there. (Wow.... it's REALLY not that difficult people!!) And if I get more stuff than expected, I might get a few plastics bags that I eventually use for the kitty litter or walking the dogs.
ALSO-- I take an active role (not a passive one) when the cashier is packing my stuff. I help pack things and put as much stuff as I can fit in each bag. Also I don't let them put things like paper towels, big cereal boxes, in bags. It's stupid, there is no need for that. Just put 'em in your cart, put 'em in your car, then bring 'em inside. Not everything has to be in a plastic bag with handles.
It's funny..... I rarely see anyone with cloth bags, ever. And yet if stores started charging for them, which I think they should- as many places already do!- you better believe a lot of folks would start carrying them! (Or just whine about the extra cost of the plastic bags)
I use plastic trash bags, usually 1-2 per week. They are the tall kitchen size. We recycle and compost, so have cut down quite a bit on what we actually dispose of in the trash. We take our own bags to the grocery store, and even have mesh bags for produce.
Only a couple.. I have a bunch of cloth bags in the car, that I keep in there for going to the store. The folks at all the stores I go to say I'm pretty much the only one who ever brings bags in there. (Wow.... it's REALLY not that difficult people!!) And if I get more stuff than expected, I might get a few plastics bags that I eventually use for the kitty litter or walking the dogs.
ALSO-- I take an active role (not a passive one) when the cashier is packing my stuff. I help pack things and put as much stuff as I can fit in each bag. Also I don't let them put things like paper towels, big cereal boxes, in bags. It's stupid, there is no need for that. Just put 'em in your cart, put 'em in your car, then bring 'em inside. Not everything has to be in a plastic bag with handles.
It's funny..... I rarely see anyone with cloth bags, ever. And yet if stores started charging for them, which I think they should- as many places already do!- you better believe a lot of folks would start carrying them! (Or just whine about the extra cost of the plastic bags)
the stats in DC from charging 5 cents per bag are amazing. even better than most people expected. i think plastic bag usage went down somewhere around 80%!
i picked up some mesh produce bags as well, but we often forget those.
i use re-use saved plastic bags for groceries (and have a couple cloth bags too) and go through 1 "tall" garbage bag a week.
i do have a cabinate with a good 50 plastic bags in there and i re-use those plastic untill they tear and then they go into the plastic recycle bin.
id say i go through 1 trash bag and 2 plastic carrier bags a week
The ones from the grocery store - about 5-7 per week. Our ds uses them when he scoops the litter each day. I mostly use cloth bags when shopping - but only because I can pack 20x the amount of groceries in a canvas sack vs those little bitty plastic things. Once a month, I leave the 'good' bags in the car when I do the grocery shopping and that fills my need for the plastic ones - and I don't pay for them, ever. I've been doing this for about 6 years now.
Previous to that, we always brought the excess plastic bags back to the recycle box at Walmart, except for the months of November and December - they make decent packing material for the packages we send out. Plus, if you put the styrofoam peanuts IN them, packages are less annoying/messy when opening.
I finally found the pattern to make the bags myself, so when these cheap ones I bought wear out, I'll be making more substantial ones to replace them. The best ones I own I bought through my kid's school last year - 3 for $1. Each of my kids bought me 3 for my birthday with their own money. They hold almost TWICE as much as the ones you buy from Walmart/Target/Grocery Stores - and they've held up better too. I still have to push the checkers/baggers to fill them though. I find it extremely annoying to go to the trouble of bringing them in and then they fill them halfway and try to load me up with 20 plastic bags as well!
Plastic grocery bags....... ZERO! I take my reusable bags w/ me to do ANY and ALL grocery shopping. LOVE'EM! They are so much easier to even sack IF you get a cashier that knows what they are doing. Hate the ones that try to pack them like they are the cheap plastic bags that barely hold 3 small items. I load my groceries onto the belt in the order they should be sacked so it makes it easier on the cashiers. My usual cashiers have told me over and over that I'm one of the few that actually knows HOW to do that, lol. I usually put my milk first followed by meat and frozen foods then the cold stuff then canned goods.... followed by boxed goods, fresh fruits/veggies and then misc stuff that is typically small that can go w/ the fruits or boxed stuff and then breads or other "fragile" items so that they are on top. Milk does not go in a bag as it has a handle already and neither do things like detergent or the large dishwasher soap and such.
It is also nice w/ the reusable bags that they actually stay upright in the trunk or back of the car and items don't go falling out and rolling around like they did w/ plastic bags. I can also get a full weeks of groceries into the house really easy and w/ a lot less trips
When we go on a long vacation that is at least a week long I always pack my bags to use when we go grocery shopping then. They pack easily all folded flat and put them in the outside flat zipper part of my suitcase. They are GREAT for vacations as sometimes in some condos your car may not be close to your condo door at all. We can easily carry up all of our groceries in one trip without anyone complaining a bag is too heavy. I even take them when we go skiing w/ two other families and we all go shopping for the groceries for the week. They can easily hold a weeks worth of groceries for 15 people and don't take up as much room as plastic bags do in the back of the car and we can again, get them all in easily. Makes short work of hauling groceries.
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