Where Have All The Disposable Plastic Grocery Bags Gone?

What would we do without those lightweight disposable plastic grocery bags? Imagine if they no longer exist. Imagine if they get banned from all shopping centers!  Horror of all horrors!  Suddenly we wouldn't have any plastic bags to reuse for the dogs poop or the baby's disposable diapers - ugh - that could cause a problem!  A smelly one.

What about those clean-eaten chicken bones and T Bones and lamb and pork chop bones that you store in used plastic grocery bags inside the freezer until the next garbage pick up?  No used plastic grocery bags for placing shoes in when travelling or going to the gym or soft ball practice and what about wet clothes and swim wear? What will we do with those on the drive home from the beach or a friend's house?  For those of you blessed with orange, lemon or other fruit trees and bushes, who so willingly share this bounty with neighbors and friends by the bagful, what would you use instead of those handy plastic reusuable grocery bags?

Recently we moved into a new house and found that the backyard is shaped like a pudding bowl and is prone to flooding to the extent that in a summer downpour it licks the sliding doors into the family room.  My husband conveniently and as a temporary measure, until we can sort the bowl part out, used grocery bags as sandbags to keep the water out of our home.  What a useful item the grocery bag is! 

I would certainly be lost without a used grocery bag to put the wet umbrella into and those wet snow and ice removing implements and gloves which would have to be stuck on the carpet in the trunk.  Oh and what about a "garbage" bag for the car especially on a long trip and there is always the spare used ones I keep in the glove compartment in case one of the kids throw up from car sickness.  Then there's the waste bins in the bathrooms and bedrooms  - no recycled used grocery liners for those!

Of course I could always start buying more boxes of baggies or dinkum trash liners but that would be using new bags for the above uses which are always pretty much taken care of by saving the disposable plastic grocery bags.  Besides, they wouldn't be big enough and certainly won't be able to be tied securely to keep out smells without those bothersome wire ties.

I also often wonder how hygienic these new reusable polyester and nylon bags are when they get used over and over across check out counters and in shopping carts and in the trunk with fresh food.  Of course people may diligently wash them and let them drip-dry in their bathrooms or something, every time they're used.  I read a report that staph bacteria binds to polyester pretty strongly and that two thirds of shopping carts tested had fecal matter on them.  Not very kosher at all!

You know, it kind of reminds me of a time when doctors didn't use gloves to perform surgeries and how the invention of disposable gloves saved so many lives because of bacteria not being transferred.

Oh and if the grocers decide to keep offering the indispensable disposal plastic grocery bags but start charging a fee for them, they will definitely add money to their pockets.  What a bonus for them!  They already have the bags priced into each item. 

Needless to say, I do not shop at stores who don't offer free disposable plastic shopping bags because I'm really afraid I'll run out of reusable plastic disposable bags doing my shopping that way!!  I can't imagine using new clear plastic bags for the above uses.  Can you?

Seriously though, if you're not into washing and drying and storing and remembering to drag fabric or so-called "green" bags with you for your weekly groceries and think you'll use paper over plastic, you'd be wise to study more about it because it actually costs environmentally more to produce and deliver paper bags than it does plastic. Also, these new stronger "green" polyester and nylon bags, they too will end up on the landfill and they will take infinitely longer to decompose.  For those who don't want to use disposable plastic bags - that's okay with me.  I respect your decision.  I do hope you'll respect mine and that I don’t want to pay double for my plastic bags but if I really have to, I will.  In the long run, it will be environmentally cheaper than using new plastic bags for those "old" conveniences.

Update on Monday, June 7, 2010 at 1:04PM by [Pamela McMonagle]

Now my fears of "where have all the plastic bags gone" are coming to fruition:  The California Bill AB 1998 to Ban Plastic Bags!

What amazes me most about this bill AB 1998 to ban plastic bags in California is that the people who are not in favor of it seem to meekly accept that plastic bags will be banned either because they are too scared that people will think they don't care about the environment if they resist or they are too busy to care.  Then there are those who are in favor of it, who, on the whole, seem to have been brainwashed into believing that plastic bags are so bad that they must go without studying all the repercussions surrounding their ban.  What will happen to all the industries who use recycled plastic bags for other uses if all plastic bags are one day a thing of the past?   Where is the actual evidence of how it performs in landfills and the damage to marine life?  Who did the studies and under what conditions?  Where are the studies if they were done?  It's my belief, knowing how clean and aware Americans are of the environment, that plastic bags aren't littered all over the ocean.  I haven't seen any, have you? As for the California Grocers Association they caved under intimidation.  Just gave up out of fear of more draconian rules.  Just what can be more draconian than NO plastic bags?  Where is common sense in all this?  Thus, bills like AB 1998 will often be enacted because of the 2% "squeaky wheel" environmentalists and their constant drumbeat, who will only be happy when caveman conditions are left on this earth for them to thrive in.

Update on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 9:06PM by [Pamela McMonagle]

The Defeat of the California Bill AB 1998 to Ban Plastic Bags

I was pleased that the bill to eradicate plastic shopping bags from stores in California was defeated.  I was glad because it preserves the right for plastic bags to exist for those of us who use and reuse them, and reuse them in many more ways than one.  By the way, the article about the defeat of the bill which I read, quoted South Africa as charging for the plastic bags at the check-out counter.  Yes they do but it wasn't to stop the production of plastic bags because of the landfills. I lived there for many, many years.  The plastic bags were being chucked all over the sidewalks, parks and pavements and wind blown into gutters, and trapped in chain link fences and bushes and trees.  They were a huge litter problem.  Making the people pay for them (3 American pennies per bag) has reduced the litter problem.  That's it.  We do not have that litter problem in America in any shape or form.