Cuyahoga County, Ohio has banned plastic bags starting in January. I’m trying to imagine the huge stacks of paper bags that Walmart will need. They take up a lot more space then the compressed plastic bags.
We re-use them for lots of things. Heck, sometimes the wife tells me to go shopping because she is out of blue bags! What will shoppers use for fresh veggies, it doesn’t seem like paper would be good if the veggies are wet.
Have other experienced this in their towns?
Dennis
In California, the bag ban only covers the bags at checkout. Bags for produce, meats, etc. are exempt.
I don’t think the stores replace plastic bags with paper sacks, certainly not at a 1-to-1 ratio. Shoppers are expected to bring their own bags, or they can purchase bags from the store.
Wal-Mart bags suck anyway. I am a dedicated [del] hoarder [/del] recycler of plastic bags, and theirs usually have holes & tears before I’ve even gotten my original groceries into my car, let alone had a chance to re-use them. Grocery stores where stuff costs a few pennies per ounce more have better quality bags using sturdier plastic IME.
I feel your pain. Chicago has the same ban. Well, not exactly the same. The ban didn’t work, so they changed it to a tax, seven cents per bag. That outraged all us skinflints. So now, most Chicagoans bring their own reusable bags to the store with them. We got some very tough nylon (I think) bags for pretty cheap. The batch of them will hold an entire shopping cart of groceries. Then they go through the washing machine are are ready for the next trip.
And yes, supermarkets still have the flimsy veggie bags and chicken bags available for those juicy items.
We still get enough cheap, disposable plastic bags from small mom-and-pop stores that are exempt to keep our trash cans lined, etc.
As someone with three cats in Chicago, I can tell you I don’t mind spending the extra seven cents per bag. Nothing else works for scooping out litter.
I also didn’t like the concept of always having to carry around cloth bags in case of some unplanned shopping.
“It’s so easy! Just keep a few cloth bags in your car!”
I don’t have a car, you idiots.
European cities have already been not providing bags for awhile now, and when Aldi came to the next town over to where I live here in the U.S., they kept the practice. Our local co-op has just started doing it too. You bring your own bags, or you buy some at the store. Our co-op also has a ‘bag corral,’ where people can put donated bags. If you forget your own bags, you can take some from the corral. I have one of these in my purse, so if I forget to bring a bag into the store or need to do some impromptu shopping, I still have one. It fits into a little pouch that I keep in the side pocket of my purse. I bought it just before I left for a trip to Belgium a few years ago and it’s come in very handy.
I haven’t noticed anyone not providing the type of bags you put produce or meat in, though. Seems to me that would bring up a sanitation issue.
I don’t understand why paper bags didn’t become default instead of forcing us to pay for more plastic bags. I assumed after the California bag ban we would see a switch to paper but instead it seems like all stores have gotten rid of paper bags entirely. Is there a reason for this? Did the law specifically say you couldn’t get around this by providing free paper bags or is it just stores now seeing bags as a revenue source thus getting rid of the free bags entirely?
You’ll get used to it. In my town, a bag will cost you ten cents, so everyone brings their own reusable bags & a mesh, net like bag for produce.
The California bag ban (Prop 67) prohibits both paper and plastic bags unless the bag is made out of recycled paper or certified as a reusable grocery bag. Bags without handles are allowed for prescriptions and bulk food items. Stores that wish to distribute recycled paper bags or certified reusable grocery bags are required to charge a minimum of 10 cents per bag. The store keeps the 10 cents.
They didn’t ban them from Breckenridge Colorado, a 10 cent a piece charge for a bag (plastic or paper) enforced (who gets that money, I don’t know). So, we just use our own canvas bags for groceries. Not a problem.
We do still those plastic bags around the house for lots of stuff. When we had cats, they where a must. Now, I just by them from Amazon. They are called T-Shirt bags. A box off 1000 of them lasts a long, long time. We do recycle all paper plastic and metal. Passive solar house. Never use and don’t have AC. But really, these are just to handy to not have around.
I wonder how many people are doing extra shopping between now and Jan. 1, when the ban takes effect. How many bags do I need to stockpile? Currently, we need to use blue bags when throwing out recyclables; what will we use when these run out?
Screw them all, have Walmart or Amazon deliver them in a nice hefty box.
The idiots who think plastic bags are Plutonium have never tried to get a 2 litre soda up the stairs without being injured by a falling bottle when the bag inevitably fails.
The towns around here that have bag bans have an additional ban–the one on my wallet opening there.
actually, I live in ca and the recycled bag from (there’s even a joke about how the bag started out as a water bottle and had "plastic surgery " ) Aldis can carry three 12 packs of coke in a single bag and haven’t torn yet … of course sucks when your the designated schlepper of such things when walking home
the stores here started selling reusable bags for a dollar like the one mentioned above …although the insulated one we use for frozen stuff was from ttarget for 5 bucks I don’t think we paid for it because my cousin used to work there so they knew us …
So its not as horrible as its made out to be …
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compared to Boston, which has almost zero exemptions, CC has many; there’s hope though since state legistrature is proposing to override all local bans
In my part of the city, I wouldn’t say it’s “most” people who bring their own bags, but it’s certainly an order of magnitude more than used to. I just pay the seven cents a bag because, hey, it’s just seven cents (I don’t care) and I need it for the dog poop, anyway. I have a whole stack of reusable bags at home, but I almost always forget to bring them with me, and when I do, most of the time I forget them in the car, anyway. It still hasn’t been engrained in me. That said, I think it’s a wonderful incentive to use reusable bags, and the streets and grass areas do seem to be a bit less littered with plastic than before. I fully support the bag charges and frankly don’t understand why people bitch about them.
Been there, done that.
First, Ohio is trying to pass a state law to block countries from banning plastic bags, so it’s not a done deal. https://fox8.com/2019/05/29/proposed-ohio-law-aims-to-preempt-local-plastic-bag-bans/
Second, the ban in on “single use bags”, but heavier “reusable” plastic and paper bags will be permitted. https://fox8.com/2019/05/28/plastic-bag-ban-passes-in-cuyahoga-county/
In 2015, Hawaii passed a plastic bag ban and all stores had to switch to resuable bags. Large chains like Walmart switched to the heavier plastic bags and didn’t charge for them. Smaller local stores charged 5-15 cents per bag depending on size. So for many, shopping at Walmart didn’t change.
Seeing that the impact of the ban wasn’t what they expected, in 2018, an amendment was passed that required stores to 15 cents for any bag, plastic or paper, no matter the size. I try to remember to keep my car stocked with cloth bags, but sometimes forget and have to buy bags, which for me goes directly into the trash, because the plastic bags are too small and flimsy to reuse more than a couple of times and the paper bags are a haven for roaches.
We started buying dog-poop bags from Amazon. They are around one cent per bag in a bulk purchase. Not as good as free bags from the Jewel like we used to get, but it’s a lot better than seven cents a pop. And more importantly than that, I’ll be damned if I’ll give the crooks at City Hall one cent more than I absolutely have to.
Then the bag tax is doing its job, so that’s good.Honestly, I wish they’d raise it, so more people (like me) think about bags. If it was like a quarter a pop, then I’m sure it would aid my memory a bit more. I’ll have to get around to being more eco-conscious about this issue. There’s probably better and more environmentally friendly bags I could buy for dog poop.
I’d rather give seven cents to the crooks at City Hall that give one cent to those billionaire anti union slavedrivers at Amazon and let them continue taking over the world.
I should say, if there’s any issue I have with the bag tax, is that it’s regressive, so raising it to a quarter, as I suggested, is not really a serious proposal by me. At that point, just ban the darn things.