My state has plastic shopping bag bans across (most of?) the state and I feel like it’s completely backfired.
Now, instead of those thin plastic bags everyone used to get, people are charged 20 cents for a “reausable” bag, which is still a shitty bag that no one seriously reuses or wants, but it’s thick plastic, like thick, crunchy, and indestructible. Maybe double the plastic waste.
I TRY to remember my (actual) reusable bags, I really do. But sometimes I forget and I wind up with these big thick bags I don’t want to reuse and wind up throwing out or “recycling” (which probably means shippibg then to the Philippines).
I also do curbside grocery pickup frequently and the ONLY option is to get those thick “reusable” bags with your order. Otherwise the grocery employee (who can’t accept tips) will need to individually place each item in my car one at a time.
The thin plastic disposable bags were better. Paper bags would be better. This 20 cents for a “reausable” bag loophole is total bullshit.
I think it’s important to remember that re-using something like that a couple times is even better than using the recycling bin. I love those things because I end up with a small heavy duty trash bag for around my apartment which comes in handy surprisingly often. Of course it’s not perfect, I also try to remember my really reusable bags.
The bags I get from Fred Meyer are so awkwardly shaped and crinkly I haven’t been able to find another use for them. I used to reuse the old plastic bags all the time. To scoop cat litter into, small garbage can liners… but these are wide and shallow, you can’t even tie them closed. They’re so ridiculous they barely hold groceries.
I remember a while ago reading that the thick plastic bags are worse, because they take so much longer to break down, you have to re-use them something like 1000 times to make them more environmentally friendly than using a thin one that degrades much quicker. This was based on the types of plastic bags in use at UK supermarkets. The thick ones were marketed as ‘bags for life’, which they’re not.
