A better idea for grocery bags

D

DocT

Joined
Mar 25, 2012
Messages
5,437
I hate plastic grocery bags and was against them from the get-go. Now, they are clogging up landfills and do not rot away. Paper bags were great but required the destruction of a lot of trees that take a long time to grow. I have a better idea: bamboo.

Bamboo is a fast renewable resource, some types grow more than 3 feet a day. It is stronger than wood, generally, and can be made into paper. It rots in landfills and you can even compost it.

I live in a place that has plenty of it, but the paper companies and stores need to get on board.
 
reusable-bag.jpg
 
Yes, but with Bamboo I can use them as trash bags or compost my garden. I can cut them out and make masks, like we did when we were kids. I can make art work. In fact, I can do a lot of things with a bamboo bag I cannot do with a re-usable bag.
 
Doing those things is independent of whether you use reusable shopping bags or not.

Dunno about the bamboo trash bags... They probably leak.
 
Stores like Meijer, WalMart or large grocery chains have recycle centers just inside the door. I take mine back and drop them on my way in.

Aldi has the right idea. Offer paper or plastic but charge for them.
 
I love my bamboo towels, too.

If anyone has ever used a bamboo paper bag they would immediately understand why we need to do this. They are strong and do not fill up landfills in the long run. They are easily recycled. We need to be a bit forward thinking on this issue. Bamboo is cheap to grow, too.
 
I always reuse my bags, but that isn't solving the problem. The plastic bags also get used to pick up after my dog when we walk.

I bought a half dozen of those reusable bags and I have never (I mean not even one time) remembered to bring them to the store with me. :o You would think that I would accidently remember once in a while.

If it would work, bamboo sounds good to me.
 
Birds carry plastic bags into trees and animals eat them. If bamboo were the paper bag of choice these would not be a problem.
 
DocT said:
I hate plastic grocery bags and was against them from the get-go. Now, they are clogging up landfills and do not rot away. Paper bags were great but required the destruction of a lot of trees that take a long time to grow. I have a better idea: bamboo.

Bamboo is a fast renewable resource, some types grow more than 3 feet a day. It is stronger than wood, generally, and can be made into paper. It rots in landfills and you can even compost it.

I live in a place that has plenty of it, but the paper companies and stores need to get on board.
Click to expand...


I would be all for it, and I love bamboo products. I use a bamboo cutting board in the kitchen, and have some bamboo end tables. I hate the whole plastic bag industry, and don't understand why they just can't do away with [plastic bags. Ihad a hard time at first with the reusable bags and would forget them in the car, but finally got a new habit made for them. I grew up with paper grocery sacks, and they were fine. Biodegradable, renewable, and cheap. Let the stores charge for the plastic and make people use the reusable shopping bags.

They need to just stop making everything out of plastic!
 
I used plastic grocery bags as garbage bags. Now I'm just buying more regular plastic garbage bags and getting less for my money at stores...:rolleyes:
 
Panda's are scary and this would just cause a large influx of panda's into metropolitan areas where they would be binge eating grocery bags! :eek: All kidding aside it sounds like a good idea to me. I can't seem to remember to bring the copious amounts of plastic bags we have into the stores for recycling and I end up with enormous bundles of them in the garage and basement. But then again, I seem to have issues remembering things... Just ask my wife. Now, what were we talking about???
 
Common reed is an invasive grass to North America coming from Europe and the Mediterranean. It grows so thick in wetlands that you literally cannot walk through it, machete or not, you cannot see more than two or three feet in places. It raises salt marshes and essentially turns them into grass forest destroying habitat for ecologically and economically important marsh species (both plant and animal). It is a severe allergen as its seeds go airborne in the fall. I've seen it puncture the soles of brand new work boots and go into a foot. It clogs waterways and drains. Millions of dollars are spent each year to eradicate it, using both fire and herbicide, it may cost more in damages. Worst of all, it was used in some of the earliest forms of paper. We have a nationwide, completely untapped, renewable (whether we like it or not), totally unwanted natural resource that we can abuse and mismanage to our hearts content. It's very similar to bamboo in a lot of respects. We don't even want it, the worst thing that could possibly happen is we could extirpate from the region; whoopdedoo, we've spent billions trying to do that for decades anyway. It could be pulped for paper, used for fiber in fabrics, pressed into particle board for cheap WalMart furniture, and it makes great sword targets. The tree huggers don't even care about it because it is so destructive to native habitats, there's no reason not to harvest it.
 
I disliked it when stores went to all plastic bags. But I have to admit that I can carry a lot more stuff into the house (#trips) with plastic than any paper I have ever used. I save the plastic bags. They pile up. I would recycle them if I knew how.

As far as the re-useable bags, I think they work for city people who buy one bag of groceries and walk to their apartment and generally don't have a car. I have re-useable bags (the ones you pay for) and seldom remember to take them with me. Considering I shop at Sams a fair amount, having a few bags in my vehicle might be useful. Note to self > place a bunch of used WM bags in my vehicle to be used.

As far as Aldi charging for bags.... well, you won't catch me in their store ever.
 
The plastics bags are good for walking my dog. If my neighbors didn't mind I would just leave the dog do do in their yard and not even charge them for the fertilizer.
 
Charging a negligible amount for disposable bags (the ones at the check out, not the fruit counter) works well. It's a gentle nudge in the right direction. Prices are low enough that nobody is really out of pocket but it is enough to make you think.

There is a cost to using plastic that people are tend to ignore. The environment pays because the bags have to go somewhere. You pay with great piles of built up plastic in your home and the crappy broken bags spilling your groceries all over the sidewalk.

I have a stack of reusable bags in the car. Groceries are unloaded when I get home and the bags are left on a hook at the door ready to go out the next time I do.
 
Only thing that plastic does for us, is being made into a pile in the kitchen and when it gets too big we recycle them.
We do use reusable bags, but when they tear easily which is a shame.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top