Plastic or a reuseable bag

Whenever I head out to the grocery store
I always grab a few reusable cloth bags to bring home groceries
I see some communities in CA now have a 10cent bag fee


http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-plastic-bags-20161111-story.html?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

Plastic.

Drives me crazy when people in line in front of me at the grocery store bring their own bags. Takes so much longer. By that point I just want to get out of the store!

I have never seen an analysis on whether the cloth bags are truly more environmentally friendly. The additional weight/amount of raw materials in the "cloth bags" which are often not cloth anyway but still a petroleum product.

It will depend on the recycle rate of the plastic bags and how long before a person determines their cloth bag is to dirty to use and throws it out.

72.5% of the throwaway bags used in the US are made in the US (90% in Canada). 90% of the re-usable bags are made in China. This means the freight factor is very different for the two types.

One of the many times that the words "environmentally more friendly" are used without any proof.

Quote: kenarman

One of the many times that the words "environmentally more friendly" are used without any proof.

I always get plastic because I reuse them
as garbage bags in the bathroom and
office. 99.999% of plastic bags end up
in landfills, back in the ground they
originally came out of. Recycling at
it's best.

I miss the paper bags like they still have at Trader Joe's. Far more reuse than the plastic bags. This gets missed by the enviro movement.

Health food stores often affect paper bags and of course mushrooms in even a supermarket will have a stack of small paper bags nearby.
Its sort of a 'current PC' thing. In France I believe women still use these string gizmos that go from a pocket item to a large bag.

Environment: Most of it is hype. Sort of like Don't Wear Corsets in WWone and Don't pre-slice bread in WWTwo and collect chewing gum metal foil in WWTwo... I think somewhere in Arizona they still have warehouses full of the stuff, it was never recycled at all.

Plastics seem to emit a 'food stimulus chemical' to seabirds, turtles, etc.

Its all hype. Everything is hype.

Quote: kenarman

It will depend on the recycle rate of the plastic bags and how long before a person determines their cloth bag is to dirty to use and throws it out.

Plastic bags get recycled at ruinously low rates. They're just too insubstantial to be worth bothering with. In Mexico some supermarkets had receptacles for used plastic bags, and very few people bothered to bring any. They're mostly gone now. Some brag about biodegradable bags.

FWIW, I use supermarket plastic bags to line trash cans at home, rather than buying dedicated bags for the purpose. Also to carry my meals to the office (they last about a week before developing tiny holes or tears), and to keep assorted stuff now and then. Overall, that might take care of, oh, 20% of all the supermarket bags I use up.

But that's not recycling, only extending their use.

Quote: kenarman

It will depend on the recycle rate of the plastic bags and how long before a person determines their cloth bag is to dirty to use and throws it out.

That makes the reusable cloth bags too nasty to use IMO. If any chicken blood or soft fruit leaks onto the cloth, the person may never know, and continues using it, allowing new food to touch that fermenting mess in the bag.

Quote: zippyboy

That makes the reusable cloth bags too nasty to use IMO. If any chicken blood or soft fruit leaks onto the cloth, the person may never know, and continues using it, allowing new food to touch that fermenting mess in the bag.

I found a "reusable" bag that they sell at Target for 99c, and they give me a nickle every time I use it. I have been operating at a net profit for the past three years. It's pretty cool when you find something for 20 cents and effectively get a 25% discount.

On the other hand, Target got their customer data ripped off in a bad way, so I'm pretty sure my SSN is floating around eastern europe or China right now.