Why I am throwing out my reusable bags

[Anonymous]

http://reason.com/blog/2013/01/24/are-plastic-bag-bans-making-us-sick

DD got food positioning this fall twice and I never connected the dots. It's back to plastic for my family.

[Anonymous]

Can't you just use the washable bags? I use the flip and tumble bags for food and wash them weekly. Non-washable bags are used everywhere else. I'm not paying the 5 cent bag tax.

[Anonymous]

oh boy OP - you just opened yourself up to a ton of abuse. get ready.....

[Anonymous]

From the beginning I thought this was a possibility and I have had food poisoning that I did not want to repeat - it was well over 6 months before i fully recovered (lost a lot of weight, immunity low, caught and infection, went to ER,picked up hospital bug, etc)

I used to ask for Chicken and raw meets in a paper bag and everything else can go in a reusable bag. However, this is very often a much too difficult instruction for the check-out staff to follow. So now I pay for raw meats and anything else that might contaminate the bag first, finish that transaction and then use the reusable bags for the rest. People behind me in the line go nuts... and I am sorry if that has ever been you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:From the beginning I thought this was a possibility and I have had food poisoning that I did not want to repeat - it was well over 6 months before i fully recovered (lost a lot of weight, immunity low, caught and infection, went to ER,picked up hospital bug, etc)

I used to ask for Chicken and raw meets in a paper bag and everything else can go in a reusable bag. However, this is very often a much too difficult instruction for the check-out staff to follow. So now I pay for raw meats and anything else that might contaminate the bag first, finish that transaction and then use the reusable bags for the rest. People behind me in the line go nuts... and I am sorry if that has ever been you!

I'm surprised they have trouble with that request! When I put my items on the belt, I cluster them according to how I want them bagged (usually just cold stuff together) and then let the bagger know. More than half the time, I bag the things myself, which saves everyone time and confusion.
I think this is a poor reason to go with plastic bags. Plastic is destroying our kids health too, just in a less direct way. OP, I'd encourage you to look for compromise.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't you just use the washable bags? I use the flip and tumble bags for food and wash them weekly. Non-washable bags are used everywhere else. I'm not paying the 5 cent bag tax.

I don't see that 5 cent thing flying in VA, at least not in the burbs. Maybe Arlington would pull that shit.

[Anonymous]

I can understand the reaction, but there are other things you can do.

1. Buy washable bags
2. Buy the cold bags that are thicker and can be cleaned With Lysol wipes (trader joes sells one)
3. Ask that the raw meat be put in a plastic bag.

[Anonymous]

EWWWWWWW. Nasty reusable bags.

[Anonymous]

We use reusables and have not gotten sick. You are "connecting the dots" in your mind. Plenty of people in VA have gotten sick with vomit flu and they use plastic bags. In fact, people have been sick with vomit flu every year, year after year.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can understand the reaction, but there are other things you can do.

1. Buy washable bags
2. Buy the cold bags that are thicker and can be cleaned With Lysol wipes (trader joes sells one)
3. Ask that the raw meat be put in a plastic bag.

So instead of the possibility of food poisoning, you're now getting Lyson wipe residue on your food? Fantastic solution.

On the rare occasions I buy meat at the grocery store, I have it put in a plastic bag.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We use reusables and have not gotten sick. You are "connecting the dots" in your mind. Plenty of people in VA have gotten sick with vomit flu and they use plastic bags. In fact, people have been sick with vomit flu every year, year after year.

I'll take it a step further...I never wash my reusable bags. I put meat into a plastic bag before it goes into the resuables. I don't remember ever seeing any kind of food product spilled onto my reusable bags.

It's in your head, OP. You could get sick from the food touching a dirty conveyer belt, or from an ill person handling your food as you check you. Life is full of germs.

[Anonymous]

I've been using the same set of heavy canvas reusable bags for about 10 years and my family is very rarely sick. I wash them about once a month, or when they get dirty.

[Anonymous]

Yeah, I don't really have much faith in the linked article citing a "study" done by two right-wing anti-regulation LAW professors. Find me a study by an epidemiologist or other actual scientist and I might be more persuaded. Law profs are famous for pretending to be actual empiricists just because they do some long division and slap it in some stupid law review edited by naive 24 year old law students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yeah, I don't really have much faith in the linked article citing a "study" done by two right-wing anti-regulation LAW professors. Find me a study by an epidemiologist or other actual scientist and I might be more persuaded. Law profs are famous for pretending to be actual empiricists just because they do some long division and slap it in some stupid law review edited by naive 24 year old law students.

thanks

[Anonymous]

Im surprised it too this long to blame republicans.