How is the plastic bag ban going? Do you miss the plastic bags? (Seattle: condo, house)

[Hemlock140]

We still have them in Sammamish and Redmond. We are saving up ours and have quite a pile so that when they get banned here we will still have some. They are handy for other things
as well as dog droppings. My wife brings a reusable bag but it's never big enough so we always get 1-2 plastic ones.

[seattlenextyear]

Get canvas bags or washable nylon bags if you're worried about meat contamination. We just throw ours in the wash with the towels every week. Hang them up to dry and they're ready to go for the next shopping trip.

Those 99 cent plastic reusable bags are crud. They're not washable and they break really easily.

We live in an area with the ban and we haven't run into a shortage of plastic ones for bathroom garbage can liners. You can always use your produce bags for this.

[burgerbun]

As others have said, I don't really use less plastic as I have dogs and now have to buy bags instead of reusing grocery bags for poop scooping. Meh. For me, it's just another minor irritation to keep up with my canvas bags. It's not a big deal.

[la_fuerza]

I love the plastic bag ban. I've been using canvas bags for years before the ban went into effect.

My wife and I actually buy reusable bags from grocery stores as souveniers when we go to other countries.

[hamellr]

Originally Posted by xcalgal

I have to pay for plastic doggy bags which now are a once used bag as opposed to twice used when I got them in the store for free and then used them for my doggy or trash bin linings.

Doggy bags are biodegradable.

[Kayela]

I used re-usable bags before the ban and I use them now. I haven't really noticed. On the rare occasion I stop in a store and don't have one with me, I always used to ask for paper anyway. I have no use for plastic bags and it was a headache to have to remember to grab them and recycle them. At least the paper ones can go in the regular recycling.

[RotseCherut]

They should ban paper bags next, as the forests in Oregon and Washington have become decimated with so much wasteful paper consumption. We are such a wasteful society, that Americans waste many more times than many countries in the world consume.

Nobody ever has to use another paper bag, paper towel, paper cup, paper plate, etc. But, people in USA need those quick conveniences or they might go insane with all the planning of buying a travel mug to fill their coffee, etc.

I lived many years by myself as like a yogi in the Oregon Coastal mountains and was tormented by the mass deforestation I witnessed all around me, so the wasteful, consumerist society could indulge in all its quick, useless conveniences. I also spent some years with eco-militants in Eugene, OR who would put their life on the line sitting in trees to prevent the greedy logging corporations here from clearcutting the old growths, which they could do, since they would pay off any fines they encountered.


However, I am very happy for all cities that ban plastic bags, as few to none would recycle them and they waste resources and contaminate the environment. I actually reuse my vegetable/produce bags and use a biodegradable corn bag to put my veggies in, which then goes into the reused plastic produce bag. This way I can reuse the plastic bag and not have toxic chemicals from the plastic leech into my vegetables.

This is a step in the right direction.

[Hemlock140]

[quote=RotseCherut;29265716]They should ban paper bags next, as the forests in Oregon and Washington have become decimated with so much wasteful paper consumption. We are such a wasteful society, that Americans waste many more times than many countries in the world consume.

Nobody ever has to use another paper bag, paper towel, paper cup, paper plate, etc. But, people in USA need those quick conveniences or they might go insane with all the planning of buying a travel mug to fill their coffee, etc.

/quote]
On the other hand, doing more laundry and dish washing means using more water, sewage treatment, and electricity, natural gas.

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

On the other hand, doing more laundry and dish washing means using more water, sewage treatment, and electricity, natural gas.

I don't own a dishwasher. Yet, by some miracle I manage to clean dishes.

Laundry?? How much resources does it take to wash a single towel or mug that can be used over and over again.. You could simply just rinse out of the towel and air dry it and then reuse it without even using a laundry machine..

Oh yeah, you can buy cloth bags or other types of sacks for your grocery shopping that require little use of water, trees and petroleum to produce. These type of bags may outlive you. Just ask the Russians back in the Cold War era, there was no such thing as paper bags.


Good try Hemlock

[flyingsaucermom]

It's kind of annoying, but not really. It has totally made me use all those reusable bags I've been slowly collecting over the years. I do use (what we have left at least) the plastic bags for cleaning cat litter and as our main trash bags. I assume when I run out I'll be doing what my mom did when I was younger and just using paper grocery sacks for the trash. Not a big deal, especially since all the food scraps now go into the compost (which wasn't even an option when I was little) and the majority of our household output is recyclable (also wasn't an option). My mom was visiting a couple of weeks ago from the twin cities and she was having a much bigger problem with it than I am. She kept saying how the choice should be left up to the stores, it should be available if requested.... she was complaining about food contamination from the dirty reusable bags (um, it's called "washing"). I'm all in favor of it. In fact I've been inspired to go further. I'm replacing our shampoo/conditioner/lotion bottles with LUSH solid products. I'm buying milk in glass containers. I only buy frozen concentrated juice. I wish I could find a more sustainable way to buy soy/almond milk than the tetrapackaging. I wish I could also get them in glass. The other big gripe is with the berries. We eat a TON of berries and they all come in plastic containers too. That's my biggest waste right now... I remember when they came in cardboard