Paper or plastic?

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I remember when at the grocery store you'd always be asked "paper or plastic?" Nowadays plenty of grocery stores don't carry paper bags.

Yes, and the 5-gallon plastic bag (great for lining a pail) is the only size. However, it is easy to carry several bags into the house at once while unloading them from the trunk of the car.

I'm surprised they stopped carrying paper bags -- at least those break down in landfills and are a natural product.

In the UK, they used to only offer plastic, and now they don't have them at all. You are expected to bring your own bags. It's better for the environment.

At first, they just charged a few pennies for a plastic bag, but now they've withdrawn them. You can buy a larger, sturdier plastic bag for a little bit more, and keep re-using it. Or bring your own non-plastic bags.

I am eco friendly and bring my own bag that I made out of leather.

I have reusable bags but I seldom remember to take them with me. I know, that is something deepest shame.

I remember that too. I wish they would carry paper because that's alot better for the environment. Me & my girlfriend bring our own bags usually but we sometimes need the store bags like if the items are really small or delicate or we're carrying more than our bags can handle.

Please correct me if I might be wrong here, but I would guess plastic bags amount to only a mere fraction of the packaging refuse -- as compared to water bottles, for example -- being compacted in landfills.

Plastic bags are of such concern in the UK environmentally that there has been a massive campaign for quite some time now, to stop using them. And it's not about how little space they might compact to in a landfill compared to plastic bottles. . .

All supermarkets over here no longer make plastic bags available unless they are recycled "bag for life" bags that are intended to be re-used by the customer until they fall apart, at which point the supermarket will take it back and give you another for free, and recycle yours back into the making of others.

Plastic bags thrown away or becoming litter are a HUGE deal environmentally. If you don't believe me, do some googling.

Here's a start: http://www.healthguidance.org/entry/14901/1/The-Effects-of-Plastic-Bags-on-Environment.html

I see plastic bags being outlawed here in the next ten years or so. Bag for life, paper or nothing.

People here are also buying nice canvas and hessian bags that are now being sold for this exact purpose, or using those bagged shopping carts on wheels if they are not driving the goods home in a car. There are even people who use wheeled luggage to pull their groceries home in if they are pedestrians visiting local stores.

That article also essentially says "recycle yours back into the making of others" is not likely to happen...


Beyond all of that, however, there are some even bigger issues to consider:


I am certainly not trying to say plastic bags are harmless, better, best or even good, just that their overall impact amounts to but a mere fraction of an overall problem where even paper bags have negative environmental impacts.

Throwing rice at weddings can result in death to birds, and releases of balloons were discovered to be causing the same kinds of troubles as plastic bags even before plastic bags ever came along. So just as with the matter of gun control -- people, not guns, kill people -- the real challenge here is to encourage people to bag responsibly (including how the bags are disposed) rather than an all-out assault against plastic bags.

In Seattle it seems they only offer paper. Further north were I live in Snohomish county they ask paper or plastic, but I'm expecting them to go all paper too. The Seattle / Puget Sound area seems almost fanatical about environmentalism.

To leejosepho -- plastic bags are having a devastating impact on wildlife, on the oceans when they find their way into them as litter -- but I see you are one of those people who want to argue about everything, just because you think oh, a harmless little plastic bag just squishes up into a tiny ball in the landfill --- so lets just go ahead and keep using them and letting them wind up there. ]

And at least the "bag for life" situation massively decreased the "one use and toss" problem. But no, you're one of those people who don't believe the very positive figures.

And then you pick up on the hessian/other material "bacteria" issue.

Well PARDON ME. Let's all just carry our food home in our bare hands. Seriously. Fine! We can't use ANYTHING! Or else we will ALL DIE OF FOOD POISONING!

Listen buddy.

My mother used to bring all manner of food items home in a f*****g wicker basket that never got washed. We didn't die. We didn't get sick.

But no you go ahead and NITPICK AWAY if it makes you happy. You're just pissed off that your convenience has been hampered. Grow up.

Someone's a bit triggered

I have never suggested otherwise, and I was aware of that kind of problem with released balloons and began becoming very careful with the disposal of *all* plastic before plastic bags ever came onto the scene. My point is only that the bag problem, however large it might be, is but a fraction of the overall problem of global litter.


Not even in the slightest of any kind of way. Paper bags are my preference and it would be fine with me if no plastic bags were being used anywhere.

edit: This looks promising -- https://www.theoceancleanup.com/updates ... -pictures/ -- if funded well and something can actually be done with the collected trash...

"Paper or plastic?
Don't matter
She'll have it"

This thread title reminds me of Good Charlotte.