Only 36?
I leave it in the car…every… time…
I put like 10 bags in my car every other… Month. Whenever I remember it.
I don’t own a car, may I place mine in your car?
If you forget the bag, go home and fetch it.
This gives you a while to be annoyed and frustrated, which helps you remember next time.
If you just buy a new bag, it’s such a non-issue that you never learn.
I used this technique and it fixed a year of bad habits in two trips.
How do we know if these are actually a good thing for the environment? It seems like it’s at least possible the excess waste offsets the benefit.
If you have a reusable bag, it uses more plastic than like 100 individual bags, but it produces less waste that floats in the ocean or decays in a landfill.
It’s a complex question to answer. But, basically reusable plastic > reusable cotton > plastic > paper
https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/sustainable-shoppingwhich-bag-best/
I know it’s obvious, but shouldn’t it be: reusable plastic > reusable cotton > single-use plastic > paper
Oh, yes. That is more specific and better communicates the list.
How much material and energy goes into making those thin plastic grocery bags? They’re apparently extruded as a tube and then crimped and cut, Compare that to a woven polyester bag.
The whole “reduce, reuse, recycle” thing: I’m a woodworker, I don’t buy 600 grit sandpaper for rubbing out finishes, I use paper grocery bags. So I get shop supplies for free and use less plastic. Plastic bags mostly get re-used as trash bags, only the ones that are very torn get recycled. I don’t buy purpose built trash bags.
If you HAVE a re-usable bag, use it. Sure. Stacking up re-usable bags that you don’t take to the store IS worse.
I can’t find the video now, but a couple years ago there was a science creator who broke down the overall environmental cost (co2 production, manufacturing chemicals, microplastics, etc.) of producing the materials needed to make the various bags, manufacturing, transportation, and time to break down/end of life impacts. The single use plastic bags were less impactful than any reusable bags by far. This can be increased by reusing the single use bags as you would a reusable bag before using it for garbage like you do. Only paper bags were marginally better than single use plastic, but even that is unsustainable as it is still a single use item, and produces all kinds of chemicals during the pulping process. Not to mention only ~50% get recycled, leading to more forestry to supply materials.
All that to say you’re right. The 3 R’s are the way to go.
My personal pet peeve are the “environmentalists” who rush out to buy new “environmentally friendly” options rather than using what they currently have until it needs to be replaced. Particularly since most of the organic replacements don’t last as long. Yes, the plastic version will end up in the landfill regardless, but they could have reduced their overall impact by 5 to 500 organic whatevers in the meantime. Eco-consumerist nonsense. /rant
I think I recall something similar.
How much material and energy goes into making those thin plastic grocery bags?
its where they end up. They last >100 years.
Do Hefty bags break down any faster?
I recently realised that I don’t even need to use up my dwindling supply of former grocery now mostly garbage bags for smaller garbage cans around my place. Previously, I would remove the bag from the bin, tie it up and drop it in the main garbage, usually after emptying it because otherwise it would be too full (and I’m in a condo with a dumpster, so timing garbage pickups isn’t an issue).
My new method is to just grab the whole smaller bin and dump the contents out into the main bin, reusing the bag unless it got destroyed since it was last emptied. My main bin is my kitchen bin, so the others are mostly getting dry things anyways. It’s the adhesives that can mess up the bags now, though if it’s just a piece of sticky paper, could just leave it stuck to the bag for a while if it isn’t interfering with other things going in.
I’ve been using fancier store bags (sometimes the reusable plastic ones, sometimes the paper ones that already look like gift bags just with the store name instead of Elsa or whatever) as gift bags, mostly because buying special packaging for gifts is just a waste, especially because the kid only cares about what’s on the bag until they can get at what’s in the bag, then it usually sits somewhere maybe holding a bunch of gifts for a bit, probably getting ripped before it gets folded flat to be used in the future, though I’m sure some people just throw them out.
There hasn’t been a plastic bag ban in my area, so I do dispose of them. I even use an office size trash can as a kitchen trash can. I’m a bachelor, kitchen scraps and cat litter will smell intolerable long before I fill a kitchen bag anyway.
I used to throw huge bags of bags in recycling. We used to have bags blowing around everywhere. I can see it made a huge difference in my house, but we’re not idiots, you go shopping, you bring a bag and some type of payment for said goods.
All depends on how many of those bags I’ll need.
If I’ve got a lot of grocery bags at home, then I’ll go with the reusables, since I’m stocked on trash bags. But if I’m running low, I’ll get a fair amount of plastic bags since I’m able to keep my trash output down to a couple of small bins; there’s one under the kitchen sink and one under the bathroom sink.
36? Amateur.
Shops here have a bunch of empty cardboard boxes near the register for the folks forgetting their reusable bags.
The wine monopoly in Norway (yes, that’s a thing) does that too. All the empty wine boxes are left by the register so you can stack your booze in those.
Same in Ontario, Canada.
Paper Bags > (Reusable) Plastic Bags. Trader Joe’s knows what’s up
It’s great because they’re recyclable! Now let’s stick all these plastic stickers on them to prevent that…
I have these nylon ones that scrunch into these tiny little bundles that I keep in my bag all the time. Can’t leave them behind without also leaving my wallet behind.
This is the Way.
If you don’t carry a purse or anything, you can tuck one in a pocket.
I remember reading about how filthy those reusable bags get for most people. Since most do not wash them.
