Interesting (my bolding). A little more than a decade ago, I was a judge for the city’s “science fair” (the city was Houston, Tx) where one of the participants was testing the quality of various stores’ shopping bags. This participant found that Wal-Mart had some of the highest quality bags among the typical retailers in the area.
The tests were performed by dropping weighted “darts” and seeing what height was needed to cause failure. It seemed the participant’s father worked for QC at a local chemical plant (which is where the “darts” were borrowed), but between the local grocery chains, dollar stores, and convenience stores, the Wal-Mart bags consistently outperformed the others. As I said, this was in the early 00s and Wal-Mart may have changed their specifications, but as little as 15 years ago, Wal-mart was making sure their bags didn’t “suck”.
Thanks for that, you saved me having to post Hawaii’s situation.
I haven’t had any roach issues related to paper bags myself, but I"m sure circumstances vary. (I was tented for termites not long ago, and between that and my cat, the only roach I’ve seen in months was a decapitated specimen whose head was … in my kitty’s tummy? :eek: Probably. Yuck. Not thinking about that, nope, not…)
I do my best to keep my shopping bags in the car and would say that 85% of the time, I’ve got them when I need them.
Paper bags and corrugated cardboard are two the favorite places for roaches to hide and lay their eggs. There’s something about the glue that they love!
I just thought of something. The plastic bag ban has changed my shopping habits. I buy less on my store visits, especially if I forget my bags and have to pay for new one. Even if I bring my own cloth bags, I try not to buy more than 2-3 bags worth of stuff because I’m a shorty and the handles are too long for me to carry comfortably (hanging a couple of inches off the ground or dragging when full).
Just read that there’s a proposal to ban not only plastic straws, but takeout boxes (Hawaii’s the home of the plate lunch), forks, spoons and knives. Thank goodness almost everyone knows how to use chopsticks! Soup? Eat it Japanese style by slurping from the bowl and picking up the solid bits with your chopsticks!
Also, I remember growing up, before styrofoam boxes, plate lunches were served on paper plates and covered with foil or wrapped in butcher paper, so losing the boxes aren’t a big deal unless you’re traveling more than 20-30 minutes with your food, which will get cold.
Seriously though, this is insane, but understandable since we’re surrounded by the ocean and a lot of the waste ends up there.
I found that the produce bags which are still given out for free work great for dog poop - much better than the plastic grocery bags, in fact.
Plastic bags are great - if you like clogged waterways and dead fish. I’ve gotten along just fine with my cloth bags.
So if pet owners glom on to this idea the use of produce bags will increase, defeating the bag bans, which will lead to bans on plastic produce bags, then…
Maybe education is a better idea overall, pending development and widespread usage of biodegradable plastic bags.
For starters, asking people buying stuff at retail “Do you need a bag for that?” instead of automatically jamming all purchases in one would help. I avoid using bags fwhenever possible, though being semi-paranoid, I carry the sales receipt conspicuously to avoid drawing suspicion from store security who see someone carrying out an item not in a bag.
I plan on reusing the paper bags I get from Trader Joe’s and Whole Paycheck. Even when I have to re-glue the handles.
But I’m still stockpiling the plastic bags for used cat litter.
In our community, we have to put the recyclables out in blue plastic bags, otherwise they won’t be picked up. I wonder what alternative we’ll have to use.
The whole state of Washington has a ban that will go in effect soon. My wife howled about it, she uses the store bags for cat litter. Found a box of 1000 small trash bags at Costco for about $9, it should last for a few years of cat box cleaning. I have also been using plastic bags to carry my lunch to work. I’m retiring soon to fix that problem.
Edit, just checked, the bag ban didn’t pass the state legislature. Guess I didn’t need to buy that box of trash bags.
This – at least the Amazon part. Especially in Cleveland since the FC/SC/AMZL operations are as large and reliable as they are. There will be glitches but I experience those even when shopping and hauling the crap myself.
Just not for large bagged stuff like dog food. You don’t want to know what the usual Associate thinks of people who order dog food.
If it forces people to buy more veggies, it will probably save long term on healthcare. In any case, plastic bags filled with dog poop tend to get disposed of properly.
Plastic bags filled with dog poop have another advantage - they make you feel safe in the park. Someone comes up to you and you can start swinging the bag and say “do you feel lucky, chump?”
Because I am a pedestrian, I alays go shopping with my backpack. Inside I have a couple of the reusable bags too, for the excess or otherwise necessarily separated items (hot from cold, etc). This is fine for when I know that’s my purpose, but it’s no good for a spontaneous purchase, where I’d have to carry the item home unbagged or buy a new reusable bag, which are huge and ungainly things anyway. So I try to anticipate a bit by have a tiny foldable bag in a pocket in case the fancy takes me.
We’ve only had the bag ban here for less than a year, so I imagine I will get used to it eventually, and having the right bags with me in case I need them will become second nature. Still, it seems to me that this is not optimal, and better systems ought to be figured out.
Soup? Eat it Japanese style by slurping from the bowl and picking up the solid bits with your chopsticks! 
