Plastic grocery bags v Re-usable bags ? Trash cans?

[Anonymous]

I was considering getting the bags I take to the store but then realized I would be buying plastic bags for trash cans. What do people who own bags for shopping use to line trash cans? I now use the bags from Giant, Safeway etc in our kitchen and bathroom cans.

[Anonymous]

I use a tall kitchen trash bag for our kitchen trash can and don't use any bags in any of the other trash cans in the house. We just dump those into the kitchen trash bag when we take out the trash. You can get a bathroom trash can that has a plastic pail insert that you can wash if it gets dirty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was considering getting the bags I take to the store but then realized I would be buying plastic bags for trash cans. What do people who own bags for shopping use to line trash cans? I now use the bags from Giant, Safeway etc in our kitchen and bathroom cans.

We don't use can liners in anything but our household (larger) garbage can. I use the "greenest" brand I can. For our smaller cans we do not use liners. I just empty into the trash and disinfect with vinegar and water periodically. We also don't use a liner for our recycling - just rinse the stuff out and put it directly into the bin, then carry the bin to the recycling can and empty it.

[Anonymous]

I buy appropriately sized trash bags at Target. I get brand names because the quality is better. But it could be Hefty or whatever.

[Anonymous]

Our kitchen trash can takes the 15 gallon bags, so I have to buy those. The bathroom can has a removable plastic insert, so I pull that out to empty it and don't use a bag at all.

I love our grocery bags: http://www.reuseit.com/store/ecobags®-recycled-cotton-tote-natural-p-665.html

These hold more than disposable bags, are much stronger and never break, wash up great in the machine, and can be hung over my shoulders instead of having to be hand-carried. Superior in every way to disposables.

[Anonymous]

I tend to forget to put my reusable bags in my car sometimes, so I still get the plastic bags on occasion. Use those to line my smaller cans. But I try and remember my reusable totes.

[Anonymous]

I usually use cloth bags but when I'm low on trash can bags, I skip them & pay the 5c.

[Anonymous]

There was another thread on a related topic recently, and I posted the following:

Not saying that cutting down on packaging doesn't make sense from a lot of different perspectives, but a lot of this lifestyle which seems "better" intuitively, isn't really. From the UK Environment Agency: plastic bags aren't as bad as you think. (You have any idea how much water and energy is used to grow and process cotton?)

http://www.heartland.org/full/29538/Study_Reusable...gs_an_Environmental_Loser.html


In other words: Grocery shoppers must use their cloth bags 131 times to see the environmental benefits of using reuseables....

“The reuse of conventional HDPE and other lightweight carrier bags for shopping and as bin liners is pivotal to their environmental performance, and reuse as bin liners produces greater benefits than recycling bags,” the study reads. And reusing a plastic bag just once puts it in the same environmental category as a cotton bag that’s reused 173 times—or, nearly every day for six months.

Note: And this didn't take into account the environmental impact of washing the bags, to keep that nasty e coli off of your food. Plus, if you wash them that often, are they really going to last for 200+ uses?

[Anonymous]

We normally use reusable bags, but we ocassionally forget, use Peapod, etc and end up with plenty that way. We also don't always use a bag in the small cans.

Re the PP, I often wonder about the environmental impact of the non-cotton now ubiquitous reusable bags, which all seem to be made in China under who knows what type of conditions, re pollution, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: Note: And this didn't take into account the environmental impact of washing the bags, to keep that nasty e coli off of your food. Plus, if you wash them that often, are they really going to last for 200+ uses?

That's just silly. Unless you are licking the insides of your reusable grocery bags, you'll be fine. The vast majority of food you buy is packaged. Things that aren't packaged, e.g., fruits and veggies, are normally put into individual plastic bags within your reusable bag. Things that aren't individually packageable, like cantalopes, can be rinsed before using.

We've used reusable bags for many, many years and never had any problems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote: Note: And this didn't take into account the environmental impact of washing the bags, to keep that nasty e coli off of your food. Plus, if you wash them that often, are they really going to last for 200+ uses?

That's just silly. Unless you are licking the insides of your reusable grocery bags, you'll be fine. The vast majority of food you buy is packaged. Things that aren't packaged, e.g., fruits and veggies, are normally put into individual plastic bags within your reusable bag. Things that aren't individually packageable, like cantalopes, can be rinsed before using.

We've used reusable bags for many, many years and never had any problems.

The point you seem to have missed is that they don't really make much, if any, difference to the environment, even before you wash them. You never wash your bags? That's just nasty.

I actually do use reusable bags, for various reasons. I'm just not fooling myself about how I'm saving the planet by doing so (and I do wash them, from time to time).

Besides, are you sure you've never had a problem? In all those "many, many years," you've never had an upset stomach once? Are you sure where you got it?

[Anonymous]

Requiring your packaged food to live in a sterile environment until you cook it is a pipe dream. Your box of ziti has been in a series of trucks and on a seldom-cleaned grocery shelf. It's been pawed over by stock people and other shoppers. Then it rode in your germ-laden grocery cart before getting a brief horizontal thrill on the disgusting conveyor belt, where it was handled by a grocery clerk who has been touching other peoples' groceries and money for hours. Then you suddenly want the bag in which it lands to be sterile?

Take reasonable precautions for food safety. Don't let meat drip on to other food. Wash your hands before cooking and eating. And OK, wash your reusable bags once in a while. Meanwhile, best to stop obsessing about the insides of your shopping bags.

[Anonymous]

We have a ton of reusable bags that we used for awhile.

But we've switched back to getting plastic because we use them for picking up dog poo from the yard or dirty diapers. Either way we were going to be using plastic bags - buying them or using grocery bags. So it just made more since to use the grocery bags.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There was another thread on a related topic recently, and I posted the following:

Not saying that cutting down on packaging doesn't make sense from a lot of different perspectives, but a lot of this lifestyle which seems "better" intuitively, isn't really. From the UK Environment Agency: plastic bags aren't as bad as you think. (You have any idea how much water and energy is used to grow and process cotton?)

http://www.heartland.org/full/29538/Study_Reusable...gs_an_Environmental_Loser.html


In other words: Grocery shoppers must use their cloth bags 131 times to see the environmental benefits of using reuseables....

“The reuse of conventional HDPE and other lightweight carrier bags for shopping and as bin liners is pivotal to their environmental performance, and reuse as bin liners produces greater benefits than recycling bags,” the study reads. And reusing a plastic bag just once puts it in the same environmental category as a cotton bag that’s reused 173 times—or, nearly every day for six months.

Note: And this didn't take into account the environmental impact of washing the bags, to keep that nasty e coli off of your food. Plus, if you wash them that often, are they really going to last for 200+ uses?

Very interesting - as I do think its common for people to only see one side of things. But the quick descripion is very flawed. I doubt that 90 percent of plastic bags are reused (maybe in the UK). We have a dog and used them as trash can liners and even then, we had too many to use. Also, the impact of washing the reusable bags includes "drying" time, which is ridiculous as they air dry quickly. Third, it doesn't appear at all to take into the problem that occurred in D.C., where not only were people not re-using bags, they became a real trash problem and threatened aquatic life. Fourth, and I can't tell from the blurb, but if the analysis is comparing one plastic bag to one reusable bag, it is very flawed. My grocery trips used to result in bringing home about 20 plastic bags - now it is usually 4 reusable bags.

But still, it is interesting. I have a feeling the real answer is us someone converting to not using any type of plastic bag for trash. Doesn't the plastic stop the trash from decomposting? But yet, its a rule that we have to use them (at least in our county).

[Anonymous]

While I'm aware that the analysis of disposable plastic vs reusable grocery bags isn't a slam dunk, our issue in DC isn't the energy to produce them (or not ONLY the energy). It's the the Anacostia River was getting choked with the disposable bags. That's why the fee was instituted. And there has been a measurable improvement since the fee. So, yay.

I take my own reusable bags about three trips out of four. The fourth trip, I forget, and use the disposable bags for cleaning the litter box and lining the small bathroom trash cans.