Going Green....Staying Stupid

[PepperElf]

I don't think it'll actually "save" the planet but if you think it helps by all means.

well... to be honest i've also heard that the energy spent to recycle plastic actually costs more than what you save... (but in many places i'll be sure to catch hell for saying it)

at home my bf and i are trying to cut down on plastic bags still, less clutter especially, tho we don't always plan for it - especially since we were away from home for work issues for almost a whole month. but when we really get to plan ahead it's the little canvas baggies - or the super backpacks.. i mean rucksacks. with metal stays in the back for added support. great for long walks or bike rides to the store.

[OfficeSlug]

I have a few of those bags. I never remember to bring them to the store, and now I can't even remember where I put them.

Not only would I forget to bring them into the store, I drive a pickup truck and there's always a dozen other things in the cab (passenger seat) so digging out the bags would be a PITA.

Our store sells the "cloth bags" for $.99 and will slowly do away with the plastic bags (and hopefully lower food prices which is one of the goals). Without the plastic bags, though, what will I put the kitty poop in?!!??!

[Arm]

I mentioned those earlier. I can't really answer this one way or the other, as all I remember about the article was that they degraded better with sunlight, and that it still took about three years for an urban tumbleweed to do so. I always figured that made them worse for repeated use, as they would weaken significantly with use/light exposure. I'm not even sure if that's what they're using now or if there has been something better come along. There hasn't been much bored doctor office time for me to check out random news magazine articles lately.

When I was a kid, I tested several different brands for a science experiment. My parents oversaw the experiment, which meant that it was fairly rigorous, but also incredibly boring.

The way it worked was, I took three samples from each brand of biodegradable bag, and a matching sample from a bag that wasn't advertised as biodegradable (normal, one would hope).

One sample was buried for the entire length of the experiment (one or two feet deep in the back yard. I want to say two feet deep, but I was a kid, so it would've seemed deeper when I was lower to the ground.) one sample was exposed to the weather for the entire length of the experiment. And one sample was exposed for half the time and buried for the other half.

At the end of the experiment, I tested the strength of each sample to find out how much it took to break each one. (clamped them in a frame and slowly added weight until they tore- didn't even get to break them the fun way)

In the end, the biodegradable bags DO break down faster than the normal bags. If exposed to sunlight, the normal bags break down, but not much and not fast.

If buried, the biodegradable bags don't break down much at all, even when they get rained on. But, they *do* break down somewhat. And still more so than the normal bags.

I can't say whether or not the chemicals would cause problems, since I didn't know anything about that at the time.

And, of course, that was also in the late 80s. How they make the bags has probably changed some in the past 20 years.

...and that's my boring exposition for the day.

I live in a great town for the whole 'go green, stay stupid' concept. Like all the college kids who drive their SUV's bought with their parents' money down to the local hippie-food stores, where you get the overpriced groceries that cost more because they're 'organic'...

now, yes, I know that some methods of growing things are better/healthier/more productive, etc. but there are differences, and a markup on the same product doesn't make it healthier, if there was no difference in its production. e.g. locally grown produce might be a buck more in the hippie store than in the regular one. I doubt farmer bob, or whoever, grows one field for store A and one for store B.

What makes it even better is that these stores are all on the bus line. The FREE bus line. But heaven forbid these kids not take their massive plastic monster cars to the grocery store. They're saving the earth, you know! Or preventing exploitation. Or something. They're generally fairly vague if you press them for details

Don't get me wrong, enough of the kids ARE well-meaning that we as a township have done pretty well for ourselves with the bus line and generally keeping the town clean and the air, well, not brown. But there's a pretty significant minority of the dumbasses.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Here is a comical commentary on "green" grocery bags:

The Great Cloth Gorcery bag Dilemma.

[marasbaras]

It just hit me ... with SCs and EWs screaming "gimme gimme gimme", you would think they'd want to have solar or wind power at home. Once you setup the collectors (either solar panels or windmills ... both of appropriate size), the power is basically FREE.

And, we all know how SCs and EWs feel about FREE.

[calulu]

I see my next craft project to work on between sc calls - crocheting shopping bags from shopping bags out of plarn. I need a cheapie/freebie doormat at the back door too. Curious to see how long it would hold up to the elements.