absolutely, my point is that it matters how you define the questions
if you have big retailers putting out studies saying “it uses more plastic” - that might sway public opinion one way. but if we ask and answer “how much is getting in the ocean” - that might sway things another.
I have used my reusable bags hundreds of times, which means that I have saved hundreds of plastic bags from being made (well, not directly, but in the long run). The production process for those reusable bags must be extremely toxic to offset that much landfill
ETA: for context, since I’m not sure we’re talking about the same thing. This is my reusable bag, bought at the supermarket and used for years afterwards. It lives in an outside pocket of my work bag, so it is always at hand for shopping on the way home. Actually, I have two of them, so even big shopping trips are covered
The ones they sell at my local grocery store look like a plastic bag, just made with thicker plastic so it’s more durable, but not durable like what you’re showing. The ones i have a different color but in construction it is pretty much these…
Yeah, with these I wouldn’t be worried so much about durability (they look pretty sturdy), but rather foldability. What use is a reusable bag if you can’t stuff it in your pocket so you have it with you when you shop?
I recognise that this is a very Eurocentric view, since I tend to shop every day and on foot. But then, when you use a car, you don’t need any bags at all.
They’re fairly foldable, but of course a bag like the one you use is going to be easier to put away. For the most part i just chuck the bags in my back seat and when i’m going shopping i put them in the shopping cart while shopping
This is the part I don’t understand. I associate shopping bags with inner city shopping where you have to carry them afterwards. You obviously use a car when shopping. The few times I shop by car or when my parents do (because they live rurally, they have to use the car for every shopping trip) we don’t use any bags. The groceries go from the trolley to the trunk. My parents keep plastic boxes in the trunk to keep groceries from rolling around. Since I only use car sharing cars, I make do with chucking them in loosely.
It makes things less of a hassle, i would rather bag everything at the store rather than chuck everything back in the cart, then in a box or container in the car. I’d say most Americans shop this way, though its also the MO when i lived in Venezuela as well.
I think rather than a plastic ban an information campaign aimed at changing habits might be more effective, then!
For what it’s worth, I find it much easier to put everything into the trolley and then sort it at my leisure into the trunk. But then, the speed of German supermarket checkouts is legendary for a reason.
No arguments here. There is always something different that can be done and i’m willing to entertain it if it makes sense and is helpful to the environment, and even if what you’re describing doesn’t work for me it could work for someone else.
I do something like this with our reusable shopping bags (but rolled up into a little ball instead of a triangle). If you need one or a few you can throw them in a jacket pocket or backpack. If you need a lot, unroll one and put the rest in it.
In our family, we call that supermarket “Pubix.” Please consider doing the same.
Pubix.
Pubix.
I understand that neither my use of reusable bags, nor my choice to buy items packaged in less plastic, is going to put a dent in the overwhelming flood of plastic damaging the ecosystem. I do those things mainly to make myself feel better. And I bristle at the people who make sarcastic jokes implying that nothing we do is useful at all, until we achieve the level of regulation required to make a significant change in the behavior of the largest culprits.
i hope you did not read sacastic joke in what i posted. we are in agreement. yes! by all means reduce single-use plastics on the individual level! yes! enact regulation at the producer level to get them to manufacture less plastic and market fewer plastic container foods and goods.
i know that i, too, feel much better about my consumerism when i do my level best to avoid the abundance of plastic packaging, wherever i can!
where i live, i am sick of fishing other people’s plastic trash out of the water and one more sea turtle taken to the turtle hospital in Marathon for plastic ingestion or drinking straws stuck into their brains through their noses, is one too many. it is sickening.
No worries - I was referring to the commenter to whom I originally responded. And yes, I will be happy when I no longer get to the end of my local disc golf course without a bag full of plastic trash left strewn about the fairways.
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