Anyone else use reusable grocery store bags?

[ShotgunSteven]

I bought a couple of re-usable bags. They hold more than a large paper bag, and I like to use them for heavy items. Unfortunately, the ones I bought started coming apart at the seams after only a couple of trips to the grocery store. They said if the bags ever wore out to bring them in for replacement. Apparently they just took the old ones, which are made of recycled material and supposed to be recycled again upon being turned in, and threw them away. :roll:

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: dartworth

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: dartworth
It is estimated 100,000 marine mammals die each year because of plastic litter in our ocean in the North Pacific.

So what. I'll continue to use plastic bags because I'm not going to go through the hassle of bringing a bunch of recyclable bags to the store each time.

The marine animals that die due to litter in the ocean isn't my fault, I didn't put the bags there. My bags go into the local landfill, same as all the rest of my trash, and it doesn't hurt anyone.

Plastic bags are made from a non-renewable natural resource: petroleum. Consequently, the manufacturing of plastic bags contributes to the diminishing availability of our natural resources and the damage to the environment from the extraction of petroleum. At the same time, plastics are hazardous to produce; the pollution from plastic production is harmful to the environment. Finally, most plastic bags are made of polyethylene - more commonly known as polythene - they are hazardous to manufacture and are said to take up to 1,000 years to decompose on land and 450 years in water. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1974750.stm)
The fact that plastics are not biodegradable means that the plastic bags in circulation and future production of plastic bags will stay with us for a long time: in our landfills, oceans, streets, and so forth.

1,000 years to decompose on land? I have seen what one looks like after spending a year tangled up in some brush, and there is no way in Hell it was going to last more than two or three. Ever seen what the old ragtops for mid-50's convertibles look like when people go to restore them?

UV destroys plastic too, and some of the plastic bags they make these days are photo-degradable, which further hastens their demise.

If they were buried in a landfill they might stick around for a thousand years, but not if they're exposed to the elements.

Thanks for digging up those articles, OrooOroo. :thumbsup: I only had a chance to skim them, but I want to read them in their entirety later when I am not pressed for time.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

How about bringing the plastic bags back to the supermarket for recycling?

That would be extra work for me with 0 benefit.

I suppose the supermarket would benefit from saving $.001 on bags, but it's not my job to help the supermarket save money.

I'm guessing you don't do any recycling at all. The environment appreciates your laziness.

i guess since you drive an Infiniti QX4 suv you beat baby seals to death for kicks eh?

more of this hypocritical sanctimonious nonsense. the couple bags he throws away would probably be equivalent to 5 minutes of driving in your suv.

Except I drive it 4k miles a year and more often than not hauling 3-4 people and 3-4 dogs.

Keep on talking, you sound more and more like a tool.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

How about bringing the plastic bags back to the supermarket for recycling?

That would be extra work for me with 0 benefit.

I suppose the supermarket would benefit from saving $.001 on bags, but it's not my job to help the supermarket save money.

I'm guessing you don't do any recycling at all. The environment appreciates your laziness.

i guess since you drive an Infiniti QX4 suv you beat baby seals to death for kicks eh?

more of this hypocritical sanctimonious nonsense. the couple bags he throws away would probably be equivalent to 5 minutes of driving in your suv.

Except I drive it 4k miles a year and more often than not hauling 3-4 people and 3-4 dogs.

Keep on talking, you sound more and more like a tool.

right, and its all frivolous choices for your own benefit, you aren't hauling vaccines to the poor in distant villages. none of it is necessary. you choose to use a luxury vehicle as a toy with all its environmental impact. thats fine. its your choice. but to get sanctimonious over stupid sh*t like plastic bags which are simply insignificant in the context of your other wasteful and frivolous lifestyle choices is really just a load of bs. and actually, the more the "bag" people talk the more clear it becomes they are just guilt ridden yuppie hypocrites.

 

[Capt Caveman]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

How about bringing the plastic bags back to the supermarket for recycling?

That would be extra work for me with 0 benefit.

I suppose the supermarket would benefit from saving $.001 on bags, but it's not my job to help the supermarket save money.

I'm guessing you don't do any recycling at all. The environment appreciates your laziness.

i guess since you drive an Infiniti QX4 suv you beat baby seals to death for kicks eh?

more of this hypocritical sanctimonious nonsense. the couple bags he throws away would probably be equivalent to 5 minutes of driving in your suv.

Except I drive it 4k miles a year and more often than not hauling 3-4 people and 3-4 dogs.

Keep on talking, you sound more and more like a tool.

right, and its all frivolous choices for your own benefit, you aren't hauling vaccines to the poor in distant villages. none of it is necessary. you choose to use a luxury vehicle as a toy with all its environmental impact. thats fine. its your choice. but to get sanctimonious over stupid sh*t like plastic bags which are simply insignificant in the context of your other wasteful and frivolous lifestyle choices is really just a load of bs.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

If I could save the world, I would. But yes, I do volunteer my time and donate to charities. What do you do? Do you even recycle? Do you do anything but attack people that would like others to think about more than themselves?

Though you love your plastic bags, you don't see a need/reason to recycle them when it costs zero money for one to save them and bring them back to the supermarket to recycle?

But yes, I walk to work and use a SUV on weekends to haul people, dogs and equipment that would take multiple vehicles.

Basically, you're here to preach to us that doing something good is bad. Keep on crying.

ps. Kind of scary that you actually searched to find out what I drive. I suggest you spend more time informing the public about plastic bags than waste your time here. Don't you think you could make a better use of your time educating people?

 

[idiotekniQues]

its amazing how the cavemen come in and are so offended by anything that might have environmental positivity.

nobody is saying be a perfect environmental hippie extremist and live in mud huts and walk barefoot to work, so its amazing that some people get so anti when it comes to some of the little things that if more people do it will add up into larger benefits for all.

if you try to do anything good for the environment such as re-usable bags, carpool, energy saving bulbs - the cavemen come in and say if you arent doing everything environmental to the extreme just to shut up. then if someone states how bringing a bag in is 'extra work' to them with 'zero' benefits - a very crude statement considering, in the end, we are all stuck on the same planet so a lil here and there helps - god forbid anybody calls out what is really just a stupid attitude to have for so little actual effort required.

 

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: looker001
No, and never will.

edit:I like to do anything that pisses off environmentalists

I buy them to save plastic trees!

 

[HombrePequeno]

I use mine when I remember to bring it. It's a pain having to bundle up plastic bags for recycling. Seattle will likely be taxing plastic bags soon anyway so I might as well get used to it as much as possible.

 

[dartworth]

Capt Caveman has a stalker....:jealous;

 

[Sumguy]

Me and my roommates bought them when we went out to get some random things to cook. Decided that bringing all of the plastic bags into a college dorm would be a pain and we didn't want to go back to the car for a second trip. That and they were $1

We figured the environmental bit was a plus. The main motivator was laziness lol

 

[Chiropteran]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

How about bringing the plastic bags back to the supermarket for recycling?

That would be extra work for me with 0 benefit.

I suppose the supermarket would benefit from saving $.001 on bags, but it's not my job to help the supermarket save money.

I'm guessing you don't do any recycling at all. The environment appreciates your laziness.

If recycling made any economic sense at all, the companies doing the recycling would pay me to take my recyclables. Yet they don't, and they actually CHARGE for the privlidge of recycling my stuff.

That proves it's a broken concept, if recycling is such a net loss that they have to charge for it it's not really saving anything, it is actually costing us in the form of added pollution involved in collecting and processing the items to be recycled.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

Originally posted by: Chiropteran

Originally posted by: Capt Caveman

How about bringing the plastic bags back to the supermarket for recycling?

That would be extra work for me with 0 benefit.

I suppose the supermarket would benefit from saving $.001 on bags, but it's not my job to help the supermarket save money.

I'm guessing you don't do any recycling at all. The environment appreciates your laziness.

i guess since you drive an Infiniti QX4 suv you beat baby seals to death for kicks eh?

more of this hypocritical sanctimonious nonsense. the couple bags he throws away would probably be equivalent to 5 minutes of driving in your suv.

Except I drive it 4k miles a year and more often than not hauling 3-4 people and 3-4 dogs.

Keep on talking, you sound more and more like a tool.

right, and its all frivolous choices for your own benefit, you aren't hauling vaccines to the poor in distant villages. none of it is necessary. you choose to use a luxury vehicle as a toy with all its environmental impact. thats fine. its your choice. but to get sanctimonious over stupid sh*t like plastic bags which are simply insignificant in the context of your other wasteful and frivolous lifestyle choices is really just a load of bs.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

If I could save the world, I would. But yes, I do volunteer my time and donate to charities. What do you do? Do you even recycle? Do you do anything but attack people that would like others to think about more than themselves?

Though you love your plastic bags, you don't see a need/reason to recycle them when it costs zero money for one to save them and bring them back to the supermarket to recycle?

But yes, I walk to work and use a SUV on weekends to haul people, dogs and equipment that would take multiple vehicles.

Basically, you're here to preach to us that doing something good is bad. Keep on crying.

ps. Kind of scary that you actually searched to find out what I drive. I suggest you spend more time informing the public about plastic bags than waste your time here. Don't you think you could make a better use of your time educating people?

all your rationalizations are frivolous. "if you could save the world you would?" who's holding the gun to your head forcing you to keep the suv? it all costs the environment for your enjoyment regardless of any charity you do. you really think that saving a plastic bag or two makes up for a luxury toy suv? you probably wipe out the token savings of a full year of going bagless in the first couple gallons of driving your suv around which wouldn't take you far. lol, i wouldn't be so high and mighty about any green cred. its fine you own an suv for enjoyment, you made a choice despite its costs. let others make their own.

lol, as for do i recycle, it is irrelevant. i stomp baby seals just for kicks obviously. in an anti suv thread people would claim that because you own an suv you stomp baby seals and purposely don't recycle just to make environmentalists cry. you know this is true, many anti suv people are also hypocrites and fly off their their distant vacation spots every year putting out far more carbon than any suv could. but i'm not the one preaching. apparently you still think what you do is good, what everyone else does is bad and its self righteous attitudes of people that end up legislating arbitrary bans on insignificant stuff like plastic bags so you can feel self righteous when you really are just hypocrites.

 

[thirtythree]

I use a hemp bag. It's big and strong. But sometimes I'll need a plastic bag or two as well...

 

[IEC]

All bags of any sort are recycled in this household...

Plastic --> garbage can liner
Paper --> recycling bin

 

[Chiropteran]

Another take on the subject of bags says that plastic is the best for the environment:
Text

 

[So]

Originally posted by: miri
Anyone else bring their own bags?

The bags I got rock, even if you do not care about the environment. The coolest thing about them is that they stand up on their own like paper bags unlike some of the other reusable bags I have seen and were only .99 cents each. They are also much stronger so I don't need to worry about them ripping. A lot of the paper bags I use rip on the handle area.

You know what has none of the problems that you describe and is free? Plastic bags. Amazing!

 

[So]

Originally posted by: idiotekniQues
its amazing how the cavemen come in and are so offended by anything that might have environmental positivity.

nobody is saying be a perfect environmental hippie extremist and live in mud huts and walk barefoot to work, so its amazing that some people get so anti when it comes to some of the little things that if more people do it will add up into larger benefits for all.

if you try to do anything good for the environment such as re-usable bags, carpool, energy saving bulbs - the cavemen come in and say if you arent doing everything environmental to the extreme just to shut up. then if someone states how bringing a bag in is 'extra work' to them with 'zero' benefits - a very crude statement considering, in the end, we are all stuck on the same planet so a lil here and there helps - god forbid anybody calls out what is really just a stupid attitude to have for so little actual effort required.

This is neat, you immediately characterize anyone who disagrees with the efficacy of an anti-modernist, scientifically unsupported position as "cavemen".

There is a good argument here, that plastic bags are not bad for the environment, but they didn't drink the kool-aid, so they're cavemen.

:roll:

 

[randomlinh]

Originally posted by: So

Originally posted by: miri
Anyone else bring their own bags?

The bags I got rock, even if you do not care about the environment. The coolest thing about them is that they stand up on their own like paper bags unlike some of the other reusable bags I have seen and were only .99 cents each. They are also much stronger so I don't need to worry about them ripping. A lot of the paper bags I use rip on the handle area.

You know what has none of the problems that you describe and is free? Plastic bags. Amazing!

Umm... I dunno where you live, but the plastic bags here get thinner and thinner. I got tired of coming home to having some of the bags rip while carrying them inside. Paper bags here have no handles.. it makes the $1 for the resuable bags well worth it.