Plastic bags

[IanSaysHi]

If I know I'm going shopping I'll take a rucksack or something with me now.
Otherwise if I have an unexpected shopping situation I don't mind paying 5p. I just wish more places offered paper bags.
There, an exciting glimpse into my life. The autobiography is coming soon!

[IanSaysHi]

I'd like to see/hear a ban on the phrase "they're 5p, is that okay" when I say I DO need a bag. Surely everyone knows by now?!?! Still, I suppose it's replaced "would you like a hand with your packing?", a generic phrase used robotically for the last 900 years.

[IanSaysHi]

Ugh and I know I'm sad and have no life but self-service tills: do people realise there's an interesting concept called 'pack as you go'?! All I want to do is buy a BLT and a bottle of water but Debbie-Distract-A-Lot in front if me is slowly scanning the weekly shop through the self service till, constantly needs to call for assistance then after paying has to bag everything. PACK AS YOU GO LOVE AND BUGGER OFF.

Sorry I'll go and find a social life now.

[Insertnamehere]

Diod you read that correctly Insert? I said "ingest", not "degrade". Micro pellets are used in many products, toothpaste and exfoliating cream for instance. This gets washed down the drain and eventually ends up in the sea where it is ingested by fish and thus passed down the food chain not only to humans but to other wildlife too.

Those plastic "rings" that hold six packs together are responsible for the deaths of many aquatuic birds that get caught up in them.

Yes, I read that.

But there is no metabolic pathway capable of degrading the particles, neither in fish nor us, so I don't exactly see how it's a dangerous thing unless it's a knife-shaped plasic item.

[LONDONER]

So you're happy ingesting plastic?

[AlfredM]

Supermarkets here mostly have plastic bags ban on weekends, or at least they'll charge for it. Once during my undergraduates, I lived outside the campus and the nearest supermarket totally banned plastic bags and provided old used boxes as alternatives. They were trying to get people to use cloth bags instead. We adapted. But after few months, they started to offer plastic bags back, lol. Personally, I'd prefer biodegradable plastic bags though. Some supermarkets like Tesco do use it here, I wish more will follow.

[Pcolakuntryboy]

Oh darling,,, you simply must start using those cute little check-out boys to carry the groceries to your car!!!

Or maybe you'll have my luck and get a grumpy old bag lady carrying your groceries every time <fleeeeeeeeeeeeee>

Crazy as ever,
Jim

You must shop at Publix? They are insistent aren't they? I never let them take mine out though, it just feels weird to me having someone only ten years younger than me carry my groceries and call me "sir".

I do notice people in Publix using cloth bags, but if you were to take those bags into Wal-Mart they would probably look at you like you were crazy. They have the plastic bags on those spinning racks, and they expect you to remove them as fast as they fill them. I really wish there were a way to fill the cloth bags as you shop, and then somehow scan the entire bag at checkout, it would be so much easier and faster.

[InbetweenDreams]

I think the world has gone insane... There are many things that humans do that "harm" the environment....frankly I think the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere is a bit more alarming than a plastic bag. To me, charging for a plastic bag at a grocery store is just another tax on people. Tax the people who can't spare the extra money to purchase the cloth bags, trust me, someone on a tight budget isn't going to be excited to spend $1 per bag.

Yes I do think there are things that can be done to help the environment, I think it is pretty clear that we don't have to be driving cars that use "combustible" fuels... Do we do it? Well not really, I mean I see more electric cars today but certainly not the majority...The Prius is really cheap right now but only because gas is cheap and who guys a hybrid when gas is $1.70/gallon? It isn't what people want and the oil companies aren't just going to sit back and let automakers kick them right in the nuts and start rolling electric cars off the line.

There's a problem with everything guys. However I think our governments and businesses only put the expense on the poorer people. I mean banks do it... Overdrafts fees of $37 per transaction? Ought to be a crime.

[LJay]

Ha! The one store that provided carry out to the car used old men, like 75. They were very nice fellas but the store closed. These days, if you are lucky, you may get some sullen kid who communicates clearly that you should not be bothering him.

One of the things that I hate about plastic bags is that the checkers will bag two items in each one and when you get to the car it looks like you are building a plastic nest with them. The cloth bags hold enough that I can often get my whole order in one.

[Insertnamehere]

So you're happy ingesting plastic?

Neither happy nor sad nor angry nor anything.

It's just utterly irrelevant, both to food consumption and to the topic you started.

The plastic can't be metabolized and the shape doesn't seem to be dangerous to internal organs, so what's the big deal? What's the difference bewteen a small plastic bead and a watermelon seed?

You wanna worry about something? Worry about pesticides, mercury and other heavy metals, antibiotics and other actually dangerous and bioactive elements of which we have had plenty over the last decades in various foods.

Perspective, man, perspective.

Under the same vision, while I support any kind of pro-environment measure such as this, I think it falls short.

If we want to have an important influence on preserving the environment, lets get the United States to sign the Kyoto protocol, lets boicot fossil fuels and start consuming the alternative energies market right now!

Do you think someone who uses a plastic bag has greater incidence than a car user in a year? I think not.

You have to start somewhere, I guess, so hey, all is good.