Posted on 09/01/2022 7:23:04 AM PDT by grundle
Nicole Kramaritsch of Roxbury, New Jersey, has 46 bags just sitting in her garage. Brian Otto has 101 of them, so many that he’s considering sewing them into blackout curtains for his baby’s bedroom. (So far, that idea has gone nowhere.) Lili Mannuzza in Whippany has 74.
“I don’t know what to do with all these bags,” she said.
The mountains of bags are an unintended consequence of New Jersey’s strict new bag ban in supermarkets. It went into effect in May and prohibits not only plastic bags but paper bags as well. The well-intentioned law seeks to cut down on waste and single-use plastics, but for many people who rely on grocery delivery and curbside pickup services their orders now come in heavy-duty reusable shopping bags — lots and lots of them, week after week.
While nearly a dozen states nationwide have implemented restrictions on single-use plastic bags, New Jersey is the only one to ban paper bags because of their environmental impact. The law also bans polystyrene foam food containers and cups, and restricts restaurants from handing out plastic straws unless they’re requested.
Compared to single-use plastics, the more durable reusable bags are better for the environment only if they are actually reused. According to Shelie Miller, a professor at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability, a typical reusable bag, manufactured from polypropylene, must be used at least 10 times to account for the additional energy and material required to make it. For cotton totes, that number is much higher.
(Excerpt) Read more at yahoo.com ...
I made one stop there shortly after they imposed this stupid ban on bags. After I had to carry 3 or 4 items in my hands out to my car, I swore I'd never go to another New Jersey convenience store again.
The subject came up in a conversation among some local business owners I know. When one of them asked why I couldn't bring my own bag to the store, I answered:
"If I have to bring my own stupid bag, then I might as well bring my own coffee, my own muffin, my own pack of gum, and my own bottle of water ... in which case I don't need the convenience store anymore."
Reusable bags are fomites.
I remember in California when they made us use reusable. People got sick from the reuse and never washing with bleach.
Very Halloweenish.
Muzzles...er, masks are fomites, too.
Continuing proof, as if it were needed, that environmental policy isn’t about saving the planet any more than health policy is about protecting the public health.
Yes, those dodo heads. There was nothing wrong with bringing your own bags.
I have so many of the “single use” plastic bags in my house and car, I just use the cart to the car and put the food into the bags and drive off, works well at the sams club or Costco
Are those reusable bags made from recycled or “earth friendly” materials or as most I’ve seen made from petroleum derived plastics? More importantly where are they made? Most likely in China. Why during the pandemic were reusable bags prohibited because they might spread disease, but now they are required to be used? Orwell described this as “doublethink”…holding two contradictory ideas and believing both.
I’m sorry. Are people so stupid they don’t know how to get rid of a few bags?
The brown paper bags are reusable in many ways. We used them to make protective book covers for our school books.
That’s what most of the stores I shop at do - new bags. If you request paper, you’ll get them. The only store I shop where you MUST have your own bags, if you want to bag, is Aldi’s. What I have noticed is they leave bins of empty boxes around the aisleways where they’ve restocked shelves & people will pick up a box or two (or three) for their groceries.
Food Lion has some great reuseable bags - I got a couple for 50 cents each. They enlarged the bags recently, so they’re now 99 cents each. I use the smaller ones all the time, not just for groceries - I’ve even used them for carrying tomatoes when I had too many to pick in the garden for my usual large bowls. As I said, any meat products or anything likely to cause dampness (frozen veggies/fruits that melt a little) go in single use bags before going in my reusables, so I don’t worry about them being “contaminated”. If they need a thorough cleaning, just flip inside out & wash.
My mom is into recycling the plastic bags so some do get recycled. Some people cut the bags into strips and make ‘plarn’ and crochet things with this plastic yarn, including bags that are reusable.
I’m sorry, after a few months it’s dozens. It feels ridiculous to throw out perfectly useful bags that you have no earthly use for.
Many people use delivery service for groceries. We used to get plastic or paper, both easily re-used or recycled. Now we get cotton bags which are neither. The delivery services won’t take them back.
Those reusable bags ain’t free, either!
I’ve grabbed plastic veggie bags & used them to pick up meat - put my hand in the bag, grab the meat package, & then pull the bag over it. Saves sticky hands & getting “juice” on the other groceries in the cart. Chicken packages seem to be especially bad with leaking juice. I’m now buying pastured chicken from a local farmer, so I don’t have to deal with the grocery store stuff ... same for pork. I still buy beef on sale at the grocery & (fingers crossed) not having ‘supply’ issues .... yet.
I got a bunch too hate to toss a dime in the trash
I use produce bags for doggy bags stuff a bunch in the basket
New Jersey must be banned before the idiocy pollutes the nation
“The well-intentioned law...”
“Now we get cotton bags which are neither.”
Something that nice...I’d probably hold onto also! It does seem to be a waste to throw away.
We do most of our food shopping at Sam’s Club, with only the occasional trip to the regular grocery store. Sam’s supplies their used stocking boxes, but that’s hit or miss. We now just carry a couple of those black Home Depot “plastic” crates in the back of the truck. We load the cart in Sam’s, roll it out to the truck, reload the purchases in the crates, get home and carry the crates in the house, stock the shelves from the crates. May take a couple trips to the truck. If we DID bring boxes home, the empty boxes wind up on the garage floor until they’re broken down and put in the recycle.
We now actually find ourselves running out of the single-use plastic bags. We’re more likely to have used Lowe’s (hardware) bags than grocery bags. LOL.
Follow the money. Who is making the re-useable bags and who are they related to.
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