Bag Ban Woes

[EricKei]

...and the Earth was flat, cars had square wheels...and they had to walk to school in waist-deep snow uphill both ways...

...in the middle of a New Orleans summer, with only one pair of worn-out shoes to share among all of the siblings...

Of course, my Dad's actual school was literally across the street. The nuns would walk on over and knock on the door if any of them were playing hooky.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It's been over a year now, and I only get the odd customer here and there whinging about having to pay 5p for a bag. But in the first week after the law was passed, there was so much whining about the bag charge that I was daydreaming about using the plastic bag for a different use...

[Willow]

I just want to say this:

The bag ban affects a LOT of people out here in the desert of high. I just wish people would stop the whining.
One customer told a worker they wished they had cancer and would die painfully. With a lot of colorful words put in. The poor worker was in tears at Staters. :/ I, for one, predicted this to happen (California is highly environmental) so what did I do?

I did stock up on the multiple use bags.
I did bring them in.
I didn't bitch nor did I yell. I just tell the poor workers that I'm sorry they're going through hell.

[Zeddi]

There is currently here around (Germany) no real "ban", but in most grocery-stores / supermarkets you'll have to pay since a very long time. (We don't have baggers, you must do it yourself anyway).

So they are three "common" ways besides paying for plastic bags and i use all of them from time-to-time.

1. A lot of people use reusable Cloth-Bags that you pull out of you Pocket. You may also buy them for around 1€ at the Checkout
http://blog.dawanda.com/wp-content/u...872557-432.jpg

2. Older Women often Carry a kind of Shopping-Bascet with them. Often people put i in their cart, show the cashier that it is empty at the checkout and refill it.

3. You put the groveries during checkout back in your shopping cart without any further bagging. Back at your car, you put them into the handy box you took with you (like in the picture). Or, if you notice there you forget it ... again ... you swear a bit und put it onto the car floor

(In the Summer, i use the bags mounted on my bicicle, they are always attached )

http://cdn.idealo.com/folder/Product...p-box-32-l.jpg

[Food Lady]

One customer told a worker they wished they had cancer and would die painfully. With a lot of colorful words put in.

DAMN. And I'm not even allowed to say that word!

[Dreamstalker]

I just heard on the news that my town is even banning the plastic produce bags (and the major city is considering a plastic ban or a fee). Joy.

[greek_jester]

Please tell me they're not going to be daft enough to ban plastic packaging for raw meat? That's a health code violation waiting to happen...

[mathnerd]

I just heard on the news that my town is even banning the plastic produce bags (and the major city is considering a plastic ban or a fee). Joy.

*Some* packaging has to exist. Reduce, yes, but let's not get too silly about it.

In good news, I managed to remember to put my bags in my car, then did a major grocery shopping trip and now they're all back inside. Now to get in the habit of bringing them back out.

[Monterey Jack]

Please tell me they're not going to be daft enough to ban plastic packaging for raw meat? That's a health code violation waiting to happen...

To say nothing of returning opened/dripping packages of meat to the back room, and leaking bottles of milk/bleach/what-have-you.

[Dreamstalker]

When they started with the styrofoam ban, we were wondering if that meant the meat trays would have to be waxed cardboard (ew).

Story here. Originally I heard that biodegradable plastic (which is IMO useless for carrying anything/bearing weight) was allowed, but now mom tells me that's out too.

I'm all for recycling, but this has gotten out of control and misses the point. The original ban already led to more dogshit on the sidewalks due to a lack of suitable disposal bags, but nobody makes the connection.

[Seanette]

*Some* packaging has to exist. Reduce, yes, but let's not get too silly about it.

In good news, I managed to remember to put my bags in my car, then did a major grocery shopping trip and now they're all back inside. Now to get in the habit of bringing them back out.

Yeah, that's a major challenge for me. They do tend to accumulate near the front door.

[Mikkel]

biodegradable plastic (which is IMO useless for carrying anything/bearing weight)

I have tried some biodegradable bags made from corn starch which where quite good. The only thing was that a few months after, when I got around to re-using them, they had degraded and couldn't carry any weight .

[mjr]

I've gotta wonder how many of the people in the OP who were/are complaining about the bag ban actually voted for it.

[workerbee222]

The city where I work banned single-use bags from the grocery stores and some other stores, but not from the farmers' market. (You're right, it doesn't make sense.) One store which was unaffected will give customers a five cent credit for bringing your own bag. I have belonged to a warehouse club, and there of course you had to bring your own.

The town next to it is thinking about banning bottled water. Not soda pop or sugar water with dye in it, JUST banning bottled water.

Once I started using recyclable bags, it got easier to remember them. I still use a couple single use bags a week; used cat litter can go out to be picked up with the garbage, but not IN the garbage. It must be in a separate container or bucket and sealed in two plastic bags.

My favorite multi-use bags are canvas, because they stand up on their own and stay open. Unfortunately, they weigh enough to set off the sensor at the self checkout, and someone always has to deal with that. There's no doubt that floppy bags slow the baggers down. I've never seen a reusable bag that fit over the bag holder and stayed open for easy filling.