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No, they are not banned in most or all of New England. But we had two rather unpleasant experiences in that regard.
The first one happened to me. One rather upscale grocery asked if I wanted a paper or plastic bag, and I chose the paper. It was a good sturdy, roomy bag, but it had glued on handles which broke off on my way out to the car, and a couple of jars got smashed on the ground. Wasted money, and a mess of broken glass.
The other incident happned to my wife, in a different store. She had only bought 2 items, which the bagger put into a plastic bag. At that point, the cashier took it upon herself to lecture my wife about bringing her own bags, as "California has banned plastic bags, and they will here, too. They're bad for our environment!"
My wife hasn't gone bck to that store since.
But she HAS been to the drug store, Staples, Home Depot, and an auto parts store. They all placed her purchases in plastic bags, with no comment. So why is this just an issue with grocery stores? I should think that people would complain about the same plastic bags from other types of stores, but they don't.
One thing they should never do- with my wife - is start to lecture her!
Here in Michigan they "banned the bans" so that cities are unable to make their own rules regarding plastic bags. Great, more plastic in the Great Lakes!
THis was pushed by a Republican that I think may have ties to industry. What happened to the concept of
1) less government and 2) local control? Isn't that what Republicans have stood for in the past?
I thought this might be a good area to discuss bans of plastic grocery bags. Are they banned in your area?
In California, we have a state wide ban. It wasn't an easy process getting there and involved multiple elections and the same tired arguments each time. My county had banned the bags much earlier than the state wide ban. We started using re-usable canvas bags even before the county ban because they're simply so much easier to use.
I continue to be kind of astounded at the complaints people have about bag bans. Training myself to remember my bags took less than a month. Groceries that would require 8-10 plastic grocery bags now fit in two canvas bags that I can sling over my shoulder. Instead of making 2-3 trips to the car to unload, it's done in one. And I don't have a bunch of extra bags to have to dispose of.
So - are plastic bags banned in your area? And even if they're not, are you using re-usable bags?
So do you put your meat in the same bag as the rest of your food? Gross.
Well .. I live in two different places. One is still pretty conventional on all fronts - in NC. But the place I mentioned is in Canada - Nova Scotia to be exact .. and it is the county I live in (not the whole province - though they - counties and provinces - are all moving in that direction - just haven't gone quite as far yet as mine in most cases) which is THIS strict. And frankly we pay extra taxes too because there really is no recycling done with most of this stuff within 100s of miles so it all has to be shipped very far afield. Gotta hand it to local councillors .. putting the horses before the carts here. Brilliant thinking.
I still have a stash of the old plastic bags I reuse. Mostly as a trash bag, but also to keep food, supplies, shoes, and general purpose stuff in. If that runs out, I may consider buying 1,000 to 5,000 of them on Amazon for... $20 was it?
Where I'm at in CA, we still have the reusable, large, sturdier bags for 10 to 15c each, but that seems really wasted as trash bags or just to fit a few items into a bag. I'd say I am not looking forward to when these are done away with, but it seems I can always turn to Amazon for the old school plastic bags.
This has forced me to remember to bring plastic bags, or to just suck it up and pay the 10c per bag. This has also gotten me to buy less things, as if I have to buy yet another bag, I'll just leave some stuff behind and deal with that.
I was amused how at some Targets, people would go in there just to buy plastic bags... 10 to 20 of them for $1 to $2, and that's it!
No ban here and probably won't be for a very long time. The plastic bags suck so banning them wouldn't bother me as long as some sort of reasonable substitute replaces them such as going back to the paper bags that were strong enough your groceries didn't rip right through them. I have enough things to keep up with in day to day business and keeping up with reusable grocery bags isn't on my priority list.
I recently read a study showed that reusable grocery bags were tested and most contained salmonella and other bacteria where meat packages had been placed in them during prior uses. The reuse of the bags was leading to cross contamination of other future purchases such as fresh vegetables and fruits and also was getting on can/bottled goods which were later touched while preparing food.
This is one of those things people think sound good in theory but the resulting consequences end up being worse. People are going to use something else as a substitute which will most surely be worse for the environment than the super thin cheap plastic bags grocery stores now use.
Fortunately our area does not ban plastic bags. I certainly understand there should be other options for the sake of the environment. However those of us who walk dogs and are responsible citizens actually need/use them.
Center-Right leaning Massachusetts guy here and I bring reusable bags all the way and have done so before several towns added mandatory charge for paper bags (and banned plastic). I will confess to occasionally using plastic at stores in towns that don't have a ban only to then use them for waste cans in my bathrooms and home office.
The are plastic bags all over from Walmart behind their store that the wind has blown. You would think they would be more of a corporate citizen and do their part. By the way the bags are off their property
West coast Canada here. Plastic bags are not banned but everyone is very strongly encouraged to use biodegradable plastic for landfill garbage, and the reusable bags for shopping. All the reusable shopping bags here are made from recycled materials that are biodegradable.
All stores, regardless of whether or not they're a grocery store or some other kind of store, will ask the customer "Do you need a bag or did you bring your own?" before they start running the purchases through.
Some stores will charge 5 cents for a plastic bag while some other stores don't charge for plastic bags but they don't offer them either as they'll assume that you brought your own reusable bags. The customer has to request how ever many bags they want, or else present the cashier/bagger with their own reusable bags.
Some other stores do not provide plastic bags and they charge 3 cents for paper bags. If you present them with your own reusable bags they will give you a discount.
The cities have recycling pick-up services and recycling centers for pretty much everything that can be recycled (including plastic).
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I certainly understand there should be other options for the sake of the environment. However those of us who walk dogs and are responsible citizens actually need/use them.
