# Plastic bags vs paper bags vs reusable bags? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 17, 2010, 11:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514 "2010-08-17T11:57:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/41 "2010-08-19T12:44:25Z")
> [@KinkiNipponTourist](#): > > –so I’d end up wrapping individual poops–a process akin to creating endless smelly wedding party table favors– This was not an image I needed to conjure during breakfast, and I fear it will be with me all day. Somehow, the notion of cat poop party favors at a wedding… :eek: ---
**Author:** ![grimpixie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecb155/32.png) [@grimpixie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grimpixie)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/42 "2010-08-19T13:33:36Z")
> [@Deeg](#): > > > [@Gary\_T](#): > > > > And this is problematic/weird/undesirable how? It seems perfectly reasonable to me that someone would like to carry those bottles in a bag, easily with one hand. Without a bag takes two hands or quite an awkward position for one. > > It’s not all that awkward to carry it with one hand. She walked about 100’ back to her car. IMO it was mindlessly asking for a bag for roughly 20 seconds of minor inconvenience. If she wants to pay an extra 22 cents for that convenience then at least she’s thought about it. I’ve also seen people get a few items in a bag and then throw it out in the can just outside the door. In that instance it was the clerk who was mindlessly putting the item in the bag. The other day I had the dubious pleasure of watching a lady purchase a reusable canvas bag, and then a plastic shopping bag to carry it away in. 🙂 South Africa has the same sort of plastic bad tax that Ireland has, and for the same reasons… ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/43 "2010-08-19T14:25:10Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > This is the problem with plastic bags- they are quite recycleble when collected together, it’s getting them together and to the recycling plant that’s the problem. My grocery store accepts them for recycling, in a bin in front of the store. It also credits us a few pennies for reusing a plastic (or paper) bag at checkout. Is this not common? ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dbc845/32.png) [@Michael\_of\_Lucan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_of_Lucan)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/44 "2010-08-19T16:46:37Z")
> [@grimpixie](#): > > South Africa has the same sort of plastic bad tax that Ireland has, and for the same reasons… That’s a great accidental name for it - the plastic bad tax! “Paper and cloth good, plastic bad.” ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/45 "2010-08-19T23:47:29Z")
A lot of stores here have started asking customers if they want a bag - I’m finding myself a little surprised that about 99% of the time, I really don’t need one. About the only place I still reliably get bags is from grocery shopping, and I’m still working on figuring out how to do that without plastic bags (I walk to Safeway with my little cart, but filling that up with groceries instead of bagging them really hasn’t worked out, since it ends up as the clerk handing me stuff and me sticking it in the cart, with it all jumbled together) or the virtually useless re-usable bags I’ve tried so far. I think I need better re-usable bags. ---
**Author:** ![GiantRat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@GiantRat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GiantRat)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/46 "2010-08-20T00:55:07Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > For those people who need plastic pags for animal waste, why don’t you use the bags that bread and some other groceries come packaged in? How many loaves of bread do you think we can eat in between dog-poopings? ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/47 "2010-08-20T01:27:08Z")
> [@GiantRat](#): > > > [@dtilque](#): > > > > For those people who need plastic pags for animal waste, why don’t you use the bags that bread and some other groceries come packaged in? > > How many loaves of bread do you think we can eat in between dog-poopings? Maybe you just need more fiber in your diet!😃 ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/48 "2010-08-20T04:24:28Z")
> [@Raguleader](#): > > > [@GiantRat](#): > > > > How many loaves of bread do you think we can eat in between dog-poopings? > > Maybe you just need more fiber in your diet!😃 And less fiber in the dog’s diet. 😃 OK, that’s a good point. I was thinking more about cat litterbox cleanup rather than dog poop-scooping. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/50 "2012-12-22T06:16:53Z")
They did away with plastic grocery bags here. We usually bring cloth bags. FWIW, in three years we have never been ill from e-coli and have never washed the bags. There’s usually a nickel credit for not using store bags, and Portland has extensive recycling for the paper bags we occasionally get when we forget the cloth ones. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/52 "2012-12-22T11:05:41Z")
Like several posters above, I get the big brown paper bags (most of the time), and I save and re-use those. Some points: – As most stores wish, I _don’t_ double the bags when I first get them. – But after I get home with them, I _do_ double them. – Thus doubled, I can re-use them anywhere from 20 to 40 times before they fall apart. (Yes, I actually keep a log of their uses – written on the bag itself.) – I collect them until I have a half-dozen (doubled) bags, and more-or-less rotate them in use. When they fall apart, I get new ones. – I suspect that by doubling the bags like this, I _more than double_ the uses I get before they fall apart. – When I pack groceries into them, they can stand up on their own instead of flopping over. Thus, the two hands I have are sufficient. I have no idea how people are able to use those cloth bags that you need one or two extra hands to hold open while you put stuff into them. – I keep them in the back of my car so I won’t forget to bring them when I shop. – When a bag finally gets too frazzled, it gets one final mission as a trash bag (providing that it isn’t _too_ frazzled). I find this scheme has been working quite well for me for several years now. I also get the flimsy plastic bags once in a while, which I then re-purpose as trash bags. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2012, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/53 "2012-12-22T13:15:30Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > They did away with plastic grocery bags here. We usually bring cloth bags. FWIW, in three years we have never been ill from e-coli and have never washed the bags. There’s usually a nickel credit for not using store bags, and Portland has extensive recycling for the paper bags we occasionally get when we forget the cloth ones. At my local Target, they give me a nickel credit for bringing my own bag. But if I simply decline to take their bag, and instead carry the object myself, I don’t get the credit. -D/a ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2012, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514/54 "2012-12-23T10:21:52Z")
There was an article in the local paper about this topic recently. Actually, it was an interview with some expert who was going to give a talk. His contention was that a reusable plastic bag made from recycled plastic was the greenest option, better than cloth bags. His point was that it took lots of energy, carbon emissions, and pesticides to produce the cotton that cloth bags were made of. No doubt that’s true, but if you already have a cloth bag, don’t toss it out due to this. The energy is already spent, the pesticides and carbon are already in the atmosphere. The best thing you can do is use it as much as you can. But I’d like to see his model. The article didn’t say how many times he assumed cloth bags were used vs reusable plastic. There should be a point where using a cloth bag so many times will make them greener than the others. I have one bag which I purchased in the late 80s, which I’ve used at least 500 times and perhaps as many as 1000 times. It’s stil in good shape and I still use it every week. I have two others that are about 20 years old, but I don’t use them now since they both need some repair work on their handles. But they’ve each been used hundreds of times as well. (I haven’t repaired them since I only need one bag at a time now. I carry most of my groceries home in a backpack – while riding my bike.) I have the suspicion that all three have exceeded his estimated lifetime of cloth bags and probably are a net win over reusable plastic. But I don’t have a good idea of how many times a reusable plastic bag can be reused. Anyone? He had another point about a place that gave a discount if you brought your own coffee mug, instead of using one of their plastic one-use cups. It takes a lot of energy to make a ceramic mug, so he thought it better to use the plastic ones. I disagree with his thinking here. It would only be greener if someone purchased a mug just for this discount. If they already have a mug in their office or wherever that they bring along, that would be greener. Someone above made the point that cat waste is biodegradable. OK, it is, but can your typical household “recycle” it? Is it a good idea to put it in the compost bin? I don’t think it is, but perhaps I’m wrong. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/plastic-bags-vs-paper-bags-vs-reusable-bags/550514.md?page=2)