Banning plastic bags at stores doesn't cut down on plastic bag use/waste. amirite?

If your bathroom trash can isn't lined with a grocery bag you're too rich for me lol

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Mine isn't anymore because my reserve of plastic bags has run out :( I'm still bitter every time I have to buy bathroom garbage bags

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'm down to my last bag full of bags. The cupboard under the sink is now bare

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Order a case of take out bags from Amazon .

by Anonymous 1 year ago

So I have to wait for them to arrive, pay for shipping AND support Amazon? Buying them at the grocery store isn't the end of the world, I just miss them being free

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Some cities are banning their use completely. I was just mentioning a solution.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah where I'm at they are banned completely. I meant buying legit garbage bags at the store, that was unclear I guess

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Excuseee meee but when did you come to my house without me knowing?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yall are wild. Maybe it depends on area with the bags? I literally have a laundry basket full of grocery bags because I save them just from habit, all our stores use them here. I use them for the bathroom, cat litter, cleaning the car out, packing the kids clothes for sleepovers at a relatives house, the possibilities are endless 😂

by Anonymous 1 year ago

What if it isn't lined with a bag at all? 💀

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Where I live we can't have plastic straws anymore, so now we use paper straws that come wrapped in plastic.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Instead of plastic straws wrapped in paper. Lol.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah, exactly.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

And we stick those paper straws into plastic lids...

by Anonymous 1 year ago

And studies are now saying those are WORSE for the environment due to nondegradable toxic chemicals. Genius!! /s

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeap, nothing beats drinking coffee with a soggy straw that starts melting within 30 minutes.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Even worse, milkshakes or slushes with a paper straw. That is near impossible

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I've honestly just switched to metal straws at home. At work I just got some large plastic straws that are still sold and I can rinse off and reuse for a couple of days.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Pushing plastic bag fees onto customers does not compensate for the amount of waste stores create in receipt paper alone. Do not get me started about the amount of Saran Wrap is used to hold product together on pallets. Absolutely ridiculous that they push the responsibility of climate friendliness onto the consumer.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I work at a deli in a grocery store. Every night 20+ meats are shrink wrapped an hour and a half before close. This is then completely destroyed by people who come in and ask for those meats which makes me take off the wrap and have to wrap it again. Not to mention each customer gets a plastic bag to hold their meat. I must use 40 sheets of shrink wrap, and 300 plastic bags in a single 6 hour shift. The consumer having to deal with paper bags is hilariously short-sighted

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Plus, usually, every shirt arrives in it's own plastic bag. Usually a huge one.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The plastic bag bans, in my mind, got set back severely by Covid. Remember how for a while it was all about bringing your own re-usable bags? For like 1-2 years everybody was getting used to that and then suddenly they're no longer able to take your bags and use them for safety concerns. Then also during COVID, use of single-use plastic containers and bags for takeout/delivery food skyrocketted. Now at the grocery store I never see somebody bring in their bags anymore. They just take the 10-cent fees, since it's like $0.40 added to a $120 purchase. And those bags are thicker now, too, so I'd imagine getting 4 of those is like getting 15 of the old type of bags.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Honestly, I've started keeping a small laundry basket in my car. I throw things back into the cart after I scan them, and then throw everything into the basket. Only have to make one trip in the house too.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

That's lowkey genius

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Where I am even those plastic bags you can buy for .5 cents are banned! I have to bring my own bag or carry my stuff in my hands to the car!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I've read that food borne illness is much higher with the reusable tote bags because people don't clean them and some of them are very difficult to clean. Human beings developed plastic bags and packaging for a reason, not because a cadre of them hated the earth. Many elements of "feel good environmentalism" have unintended consequences. There's also the "justify your existence" law of diminishing returns. The big environmental battles were won long ago but some people earn their living from the movement so they keep going after smaller and smaller things and eventually it's just a nuisance.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. - CS Lewis

by Anonymous 1 year ago

>and so did everyone else Negative.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I've been ranting about this in my brain for a few years now. I can't have the bags to reuse in my garbage cans, so I have to buy bags to use in my garbage can, thereby NOT re-using them.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Like Starbucks getting rid of straws to replace them with even bigger plastic lids with even more plastic than the straws lol

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Just ask your friends. So many people I know still have a stockpile. Or I've literally pulled some out of the ‘recycling' bin at the grocery store (I know for a fact that they don't always get recycled)

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I get so mad every time I hear about stuff in the recycling not actually recycling 😭

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Plastics Recycling has been one very successful scam.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Its not about plastic bags. Its about money. Everything is about money

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah I still have to buy plastic bags for my cat litter and trash bins whereas I used to reuse the grocery bags but now I have to intentionally buy a bunch of plastic trash bags! It's so stupid.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I use dog and cat food bags for when I clean the litter trays I figure I've got them anyway to why not

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Thank you!! Yes it's so stupid!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

They definitely cut down on how many end up as litter though. They banned them a few years back where I live and now you don't see them stuck in trees and bushes anymore. The creeks and river used to have so many of them.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Agreed. I don't have pets, so sure I reused my plastic bags in my small garbage can but that was like one maybe two bags every two weeks. It was significantly less than how many plastic bags i got from a store in that time. The amount of plastic litter in the community since bans come into effect now is way less which I appreciate a lot.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I've been a reusable bag user for longer than the ban because I hated how flimsy the bags were. One clamshell plastic and it would rip

by Anonymous 1 year ago

People cherry pick the absolute dumbest as f hills to die on when it comes to sustainability.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

This is a hill I'm willing to die on as well, OP. There is lots of research that say those nylon/canvas sacks that have replaced plastic bags are even worse for the environment. Banning plastic bags is "feel good" legislation that didn't accomplish anything.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Don't you love packing the groceries in their plastic packaging into a paper bag? 😆

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I love irony so yes 😂

by Anonymous 1 year ago

and then, after being forced to pay for non-plastic shopping bags, said bags are then filled with products encased in plastic

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree with you. OP.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Not enough to make a difference... The real change will occur when huge corporations are forced to be environmentally ethical. It's these huge corporations who are wasting resources and accelerating global warming. I literally have eight carwashes within 20 minutes of each other in our city. Why the F'ck do we need that many? Best part, As citizens we have to follow a water schedule to water our yards YET these car washes are wasting thousands of gallons of water a day. Makes sense to F'ck over the citizens who pay for everything then the companies that waste everything.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Exactly! Environmental policies that only apply to citizens not corporations. Someone gets it 👏

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I just use the reusable ones now because we get so many. I think, at the very least they should use them for grocery delivery because we use as many as we can in different ways but still end up tossing out tons. They are even harder on the environment

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Also, I've heard the number of times you have to actually use a reusable bag before it actually becomes more eco-friendly is ridiculous. Depending on the material, it ranges from dozens to thousands of times.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Everything in the store is packaged in plastic. Despairing bags thing is just a way for people to feel a little good about themselves. But there is no impact in the real world.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yeah I agree. They claim it's more eco friendly but now instead of using the plastic bags for trash bags too I have to buy trash bags. Kind of seems like it's not about the environment since it's almost a dollar for the plastic-y cloth "reusable" bags at Walmart and our targets and a few other stores here still have plastic bags you can buy for ten cents each. It's just so stupid to me since I used those "single use" bags for trash bags, donations, so many things. Now I have to buy more plastic?? Make it make sense.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I've been saying this exact thing since the day they started it.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Stores to do this for positive public opinion, not to make a difference. It doesn't matter if it has a positive impact, just if consumers think it does

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I work at landfills across the south east. I think if more people actually saw where their trash goes and not just a picture of it they'd be more for reducing waste and recycling. As a conservationist it kinda makes sad how much land is used for waste collection. On the bright side, I've seen more foxes, black bears, and birds on landfills than I have hunting.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Highly doubt it, even people who live next to the landfill still produce high waste. Also, we would reduce waste significantly if companies would reduce the packaging. A bag of chip could be reduced to 1/4 of its size.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Ugh yes, packaging is ridiculous. Especially clam shell type stuff, so much plastic that is unnecessary.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Not unpopular. I'm totally with you there. Shake n Bake eliminated the bags from their product. So I guess it's drag n bake now? I have to use my own plastic bag, which is bigger than the ones they put in the box.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Exactly!! Saves the company money though….not the environment. It's all a sham 😁

by Anonymous 1 year ago

This is exactly correct. The amount of plastic bags in circulation has actually stayed constant. Just think about it. Everyone reused those bags once for their garbage and dog poop and such, now those bags are just purchased and then used, so no bags have come out of the circle of bags. Lol

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Do you have a source for that claim lol? I take reusable bags to the store every single time and still have an overflow stockpile of plastic bags from take outs etc. Not everyone reuses those bags like OP clams. Used to work at a grocery store and saw sooo many people buy one item like a drink, get a plastic bag, then immediately toss the bag on their way out. Like ffs you could have just told me you didn't need a bag

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Most were just trashed, left to blow around the street, etc. Few people reduce-reuse-recycle.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'd argue that. Everyone I know kept those bags and reused them.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

In Norway, we haven't banned plastic bags, but they've been made so expensive (5 NOK, about 45 cents USD) that I can't afford to use them in my waste bins, which is just about the one thing I need them for after carrying my groceries home.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Not to mention the profit generated from stores now charging you for paper bags. Somehow consumers bearing the burden and inconvenience isn't enough, stores get to make a little extra from it too as there is no stipulated use for the profit generated between cost and sale of a paper bag when reusable are forgotten. Stores also get to make more money selling reusables now too. Where I am, the govt mandates a minimum charge, at which it's still profitable for a store to sell one bag. Many stores sell for higher than this though.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I don't think I have used a plastic bag in the last 5 years. Well, aside from thrash bags but I never used the bags from stores as trash bags anyway. So overall my use has been going down a lot.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

This makes sense!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree. Yet another example of society placing the sole responsibility on the individual consumer when it's the big companies that need to change.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I'm doing my part to eliminate single-use plastics, no condoms for me!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree. I now use those $2 reusable bags as disposable bags for recycling. I use about two a week. Note that it says on these bags that these should be used 150 times to be equal to the savings of not using a regular plastic grocery bag. So essentially every time I throw one of these things out because I'm overrun with them. I throw out 150 plastic bags. They haven't help the environment they've really only sped it up.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Great point! It makes no sense

by Anonymous 1 year ago

>Unless you are a person that never reused those plastic bags the amount of waste generated remains the same. So it does cut down on waste? Or are you so wrapped up in your own world to realise that LOTS of people dont reuse plastic bags?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yep, it's annoying I still have to buy plastic garbage bags. Just put it straight in the bin you say? No the city won't take it like that.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Considering the biggest polluters when it comes to trash/plastics are developing 2nd/3rd world countries, I would agree.....and same with the plastic straw BS!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Yup!! Turns out the paper straws have toxic chemicals so they're actually worse for the environment.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

So you are annoyed that you need to buy them instead of getting them for free? So folks that have no secondary use for them might think heck I might as well get a bag for life! But on the grander scheme it is industrial / commercial companies that waste the most plastic!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I am annoyed that this is an added expense for absolutely nothing. And I agree companies are the worst.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Just Bring a bag. I keep a nice igloo backpack cooler in my car. It is basically the perfect shopping bag. Haven't needed a "reusable plastic bag" in years. Do your part!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I do. I don't think you understand the point I'm making. I am still having to buy plastic to line my garbage bins and scoop kitty litter. In the past I would use the plastic bag I got free from the store. Now I use a reusable bag for the store and buy a plastic bag for the garbage. So no plastic has really been saved.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's an expense because you are using a product that is bad for the environment. You clearly don't care about the issue and because it inconveniences you, you are pretending a plastic bag ban does nothing which is blatantly wrong.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

What should I line my garbage cans with and put my kitty litter in?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

What should I line my garbage cans with and put my kitty litter in?

by Anonymous 1 year ago

you're actually just wrong. They are given to literally everybody, thousands per day. If you ban them, you cut down on waste

by Anonymous 1 year ago

One of The only reasonable people here

by Anonymous 1 year ago

If the point was to cut down on waste, there are many more meaningful ways to do that. Start with banning flyers and junk mail. Next, do receipts, at least ask people if they need a receipt for their meal, and then don't print it automatically. The intent was there but banning grocery bags missed the mark

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Why does it have to be one or the other? Cutting junk mail and receipts sound good too.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

You can still reuse the ones that you buy. Use them to carry home your shopping once, then reuse them for anything else

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I use reusable bags for my shopping now…the point is I now have to buy plastic bags to line my garbage cans and scoop my kitty litter etc. because I no longer get them for free from the store. Also if I buy plastic bags at the store (you can't buy them anymore where I live) it's still a plastic bag in production and in the environment.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The point you are missing is that a lot of families, like mine, get way more bags than we are able to reuse. Our weekly grocery haul is about 20 bags worth and we might reuse a few a week ask trash can liners. I have hundreds of bags in a bin in our garage that I'll eventually take back to throw store to recycle.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

The point you are missing is that a lot of families, like mine, get way more bags than we are able to reuse. Our weekly grocery haul is about 20 bags worth and we might reuse a few a week ask trash can liners. I have hundreds of bags in a bin in our garage that I'll eventually take back to throw store to recycle.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

They cost like 4¢ each on Amazon if you really need them

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Here they just charge you 10-50 cents for it and the places all stamp "reusable" on them. It was just a tax

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's a start.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Plastic bags have a smaller carbon footprint than paper and reusable bags. Reusing plastic bags is what should be encouraged

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I wish they would bring back the plastic garbage bags. They were useful for small garbage bins and animal yard waste

by Anonymous 1 year ago

How much garbage are you producing OR how little food are you eating that you have a 1:1 ratio with grocery bags produced and bags used? I always get way more bags from shopping than bags used for our bins. So no, the waste generation is not the same.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I have a holder in my pantry to store them. 6 small garbage cans in my house emptied roughly each week and kitty litter emptied 2-3x a week.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I agree. I used to use the free bags as gloves to pick up dog poop. After the ban I'd get the $0.10 bags, but they are too thick. So I'd have to buy different bags to pick up the dog poop and end up throwing away the $0.10 bags. Huge waste

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Well, in the San Francisco Bay Area when they banned plastic grocery bags there was a noticeable drop in the number of plastic bags blowing along the streets and stuck in fences. It seemed like an improvement to me.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

That's good to know!

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Resusing platic bags is a staple of Mid-West Culture. If you don't have a bag of bags in your pantry you are not a Mid-Westerner, or at the very least, a Minnesotan.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Hate to erode your culture… but people do this everywhere

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Midwesterners think everything is unique to them for some reason.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Sure, you may have a bag of bags, but we have a bag of bags.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

From the west coast and I don't know anyone that didn't have those.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

I used to have one in Oregon. Many people there did too.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Do you think it's special to Midwesterners or something? That's weird and silly. This is coming from a Midwesterner. My NYC roommates did the same thing.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Lol a bag of bags under the sink or in the closet is also a NYC institution. I think it's more universal than we realize.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

Oh yeah. In Minnesota. Have a bag of bags in the garage, the pantry, and my car

by Anonymous 1 year ago

As someone who's family reused plastic bags this is wrong. There's no way you used every single plastic bag you've bought. Even the ones that broke because it wasn't double bagged? Even the wet ones? I don't think banning them does a whole lot do good but to say it makes 0 difference is ridiculous

by Anonymous 1 year ago

why don't they make stuff out of glass and hemp why just ban the bags? $$

by Anonymous 1 year ago

To my knowledge, MOST people who got plastic bags at the store had a huge collection of plastic bags that were never going to be used again. I know, because I would take their collections to use for litter scooping. But not everyone has a friend with a cat who needs bags for litter, and so most people amass piles of wasteful bags that eventually end up in the ocean, or in our bloodstream.

by Anonymous 1 year ago

It's more waste because you end up trashing the bags from the grocery store and still purchasing bags for your trash can liners because the grocery store bags don't work anymore. and before anyone jumps down my throat, plastic bags are not now and have never been recyclable. They clog up the machines, they are trash items unless you return them to the grocery store, and most stores say they're recycling but just collect them and landfill them.

by Anonymous 1 year ago