Thoughts on plastic bags

annabelle.27

My grocery store has charged 5 cents a bag for years and years. We used to pay it, and save the bags for garbage bags. But we had a cupboard full of them and decided to stop buying them and started using big plastic boxes my grocery store sells to carry our groceries in instead.

But now we're finally out of saved bags to reuse as garbage bags, so we went to buy a box of garbage bags. Just small kitchen-sized ones, for the garbage can that's attached to the inside of our cupboard door. I was surprised to find that buying garbage bags is more expensive than buying and reusing grocery bags, so we're back paying five cents a bag at the grocery store. I don't have any problem paying the 5 cents per bag.

I sometimes get looks from the people in line behind me, who smugly have all their bins stacked under their cart. But is reusing grocery bags worse than buying garbage bags? Is there something I'm  overlooking? I always feel so bad getting bags when I consider myself to be quite green and plastic bags have been the new soapbox to step on, but I don't think it's any worse than buying garbage bags?

MotherMeg

We occasionaly do the same. Though I do try to but bio-degradable garbage bags and doggie bags when possible.

annabelle.27

MotherMeg:

We occasionaly do the same. Though I do try to but bio-degradable garbage bags and doggie bags when possible.

That's another question- I saw those biodegradable garbage bags in the store, but I wonder if they really work? I can't imagine they would really biodegrade when surrounded by other plastic in a landfill. I used to think that throwing away vegetable matter wasn't a big deal at all because it would biodegrade, but I've since learned that vegetable matter can't biodegrade properly in a landfill and will emit carbon monoxide, so now I compost. I feel like biodegradable plastic bags will have the same effect?

CarrieB.

There's more information on about biodegradable bags in the book I'm reading right now "The World Without Us". It sounds like they really aren't that great since there's still plastic in the bags that comes out when the rest of the bag falls apart. 

Deconstruction

We sometimes get plastic bags too - we use them for garbage, for carrying items that may leak, etc.  We try to use our reusable bags at the grocery store (or sometimes trader joe's paper bags because those are study and we put our recycling in those bags each week) but sometimes we need a plastic bag...

JanetPlanet20

I love plastic bags and usually grab a few extra at the grocery store to keep around the house.

treesapplaud

It's better to buy bags if you the ones you buy are thinner or EF in any way, (like recycled plastic or biodegradable.

We have so little trash with recycling that we only need a grocery sized bag every week/week and a half so I don't mind paying a litte more for a better produced bag. 

hollyfp

We use cloth reuseable grocery bags.  The random plastic bags that we end up with are recycled - I bring them back to the bin at the store.  This includes bags that bread comes in, bags that lettuce sometimes comes in, etc.  We use bags from our newspaper delivery for dog poop and recycle excess.  

I buy recycled & biodegradable kitchen garbage bags (http://thegreengenius.com/).  They are not much more than regular ones.  The box is even 100% recycled paperboard and they are made in the USA

Kaiene

We reuse the plastic bags for garbage bags around the house and also for cat poop and dog poop (when we had a dog).  When we get too many, we'll take them back to Wegmans for recycling.

lefty8881

hollyfp:

We use cloth reuseable grocery bags.  The random plastic bags that we end up with are recycled - I bring them back to the bin at the store.  This includes bags that bread comes in, bags that lettuce sometimes comes in, etc.  We use bags from our newspaper delivery for dog poop and recycle excess.  

I buy recycled & biodegradable kitchen garbage bags (http://thegreengenius.com/).  They are not much more than regular ones.  The box is even 100% recycled paperboard and they are made in the USA

Ohh, you can go to the website and get a free sample- which I just did!  Thanks!

SuperGreen

I just posted a Mother Earth News article called "The Truth About Biodegradeable Plastics."  None of the so-called brands they tested broke down in home composting conditions, which means they certainly won't under the anaerobic (sp) conditions of a landfill.  We use cloth reuseable grocery bags, and random plastic bags get brought to the store for recycling.  I never thought of using them for doggie poop, that's a good idea lefty8881!  We do buy plastic trash bags, but between recycling and composting we only fill up one a week or so.  Since my research indicates biodegradeable bags don't break down in a landfill we don't buy them b/c they're more expensive.