Posted on 06/25/2010 4:14:27 PM PDT by JoeProBono
Plastic grocery bags are everywhere and more and more people are using the convenient commodity in an effort to be greener and recycle and reuse; however, The Washington Post has issued a reminder to wash the bags after they’ve been emptied if you plan on using them again.
A study at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University found that just about every bag tested came back with large amounts of dangerous pathogens such as coliform and E. coli, said The Washington Post. Raw meat or uncooked food contaminants—pointing to coliform bacteria—were in about half of the bags while E. coli was found in about 12 percent of the bags tested, wrote The Washington Post. The study explained that by simply putting the bags through the washer or even cleaning them by hand, cut the bacteria levels down to nothing, wrote The Washington Post. But, just about all the shoppers who were questioned for the study generally did not normally—if-ever—wash these reusable bags, while about one-third said that they did use their bags later for nonfood items.
The American Chemistry Council funded the study, wrote The Washington Post, noting that the study took place while a debate continues over a bill in California to ban single-use bags. The Council, said The Washington Post, is opposed to the bill.
Meanwhile, coliform is a pointer to potential fecal contamination and applies to a broad array of bacteria found in the environment—for instance mammal feces, soil, vegetation, and water—and can be used to determine if other fecal pathogens, such as E. coli, are in the test environment. Such pathogens indicate the potential presence of dangerous, sometimes deadly and disease-causing contaminants.
We frequently report on E. coli and have discussed that this is a bacterium—a fecal coliform—found in the intestines of mammals: Warm-blooded animals, including humans. E. coli present in a water system can point to recent sewage or animal waste contamination....
Hmm.
I sleep better knowing I'm causing some hip, trendy CommieLib to toss and turn.
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
ME TOO!!!
No, you don’t understand. I am consuming even more! I get the nasty, reusable, decorated, canvas-with-a-plastic-coating bags that the grocery stores sell. Then I line them with paper bags (trees!) Then I put everything in a plastic (petroleum derivative!) bag first, the recyclable ones you like so much. So, to sum up, I am consuming three times as much as I used to, bag-wise, BEFORE THEY BEGAN HECTORING ME about grocery bags. And I look virtuously green with my reusable bags as I slither out of the store. This is my revenge.
I keep them in the trunk of my car. But I don’t have and have never had any problems with roaches. That is what exterminator companies are for.
I found a colapsable crate from Good Living. I use it at Costco and Shop and Save.
I do get plastic bags everyonce in a while, mainly because I need them for scoopin’ the poop the night before trash day. Two choc. labs sure do create a lot of poop! just sayin’
Hippies pose E-Coli risks
I have meat and frozen items put in plastic bag before going into my cloth bags. Haven’t had any leakage yet...
I do always offer to help her dry it with paper towels, though.
Also, even though I'm tempted to put things I don't want squashed in the "child seat" part of the cart, I don't because, who knows if a kid with a leaky diaper sat in there before unsuspecting shopper sets his loaf of bread, or carton of eggs in there..thereby transfering said baby poop to his fridge when he gets home.
LOL! What was Nordstrom’s marketing department and buyer of merchandise thinking?! :)
Scroll down to the bottom of this to see their grocery bag. It is quite fetching, but overpriced.
http://www.whiteapricot.com/newsletter/archive/issue_10.html
Agreed! The bags are quite fetching, but much too high a price. :)
Reusable grocery bags, ESPECIALLY when washed regularly, are significanlty harder on the environment than the disposable plastic grocery bags. Enviro-commies won't ever tell you the truth, though.
Worth repeating. Bravo! BTW, the thin plastic ones are much easier on the environment than even the reusable bags alone.
The second you throw those bad boys into the washing machine, the water and detergent use make those bags the most extravagantly un-green option there is for toting around your groceries.
Reusable grocery bags - brought to you by the people that brought you ethanol.
Heck, I've got four 10-lb cats and I swear that, daily, I scoop at least 40 pounds of poop out of the litter boxes.
It's really a wonder that there are any cats left ...
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