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Plastic Bags | Pad Patter 7.3

Almost all of our stores have stopped using plastic bags and have reusable bags or paper bags. Our Walmart doesn't offer anything except purchased reusable bags. I keep the odd plastic bag I come home with and store them in a bag saver container that is mounted on the inside of the door under the sink which has a small garbage disposal mounted on the upper part of the door(which is so convenient).
 
IntenseMagic said:
I need to check to see if our Walmart has started accepting them again. I never think to pay attention when I go in there (which is seldom anymore since I have discovered how much I love curbside pickup LOL)
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Wal-Mart doesn't always have the container by the doors around here. At one time they had it at the back of the store near the doors to the employee only warehouse section of the building. I think that was a different manager that did that!

IntenseMagic said:
We don't have any kind of recycling pick up here, but I sure wish we did!!

I wish my area would get more serious about recycling! We have to haul it somewhere if we choose to do it and not too many take the time to do that.
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My small town has had recycling of cans, paper, glass etc since the 1980's. They provided one bin per household that would be picked up on the same day as garbage pickup. They have discontinued curbside pickup of everything except plastic, cans and paper. Everything else that they will accept has to be taken to an area where they have huge bins for every type of product. Plastic bags can be dropped off there and it was used a lot when the stores weren't accepting them during the pandemic. I watched the recycling truck take a big box that had smaller boxes broken down in it and 2 boxes of shredded paper that I put out last Thursday. They put it in, lifted the bin up, dumped it and crushed it while I watched. Evidently they just collect the stuff in the bins until they are full then they lift/dump/crush and start over. I now have 8 more boxes of shredding to put out (although I will spread it out over several weeks) and some boxes from the basement that I had saved in case I needed them for shredding.

Although there are some people around here that like to take their garbage to the recycling area and just dump the bags there. Inconsiderate of these people since more often than not, animals rip the garbage bags open and everything gets strewn all over.
 
The county used to have a recycling "center" in a nearby church's parking lot. Just four big containers for various types of recycles ... paper/cardboard; clear glass; colored glass and plastic. It was always a mess which might be why it was shut down. I used to take our office shredding there. I'd empty the plastic trash bags of "shreds" into the paper dumpster and bring the trash bags back to the office to reuse.

Since I can't take the shreds there anymore we just bag them and toss into the trash dumpster as our small office complex doesn't have a recycling service. I'd take them home, but the shreds would likely end up all over the neighborhood since they'd be loose in my recycling cart ...
 
I'm honestly amazed more of the US doesn't appear to be plastic-bag free. I think our state is now at the point where the only bags you can get from the grocery store/supermarket is the small freezer bag size ones from the fruit and veg section but i tend not to use them anyway - if i want 4 apples or cucumbers, i just put them in the (reuseable) bags i have with me, DH still uses them from time to time - i don't even pick up a basket since covid, one less thing to wipe down before and after, and taking bags is second nature now - i do have some in my handbag and car glovebox always - the ones ikea sells that sort of fold up into their own little pouch (they don't seem to have a photo of it folded, why i have no idea, that was the main selling point to me!) but a friend gave me some from Japan that started using this system like over a decade ago and seeing i hate plastic bags with a passion (it makes me mad seeing so much plastic in the environment but i won't get too high horsey) and that aldi have charged for bags since like forever, i've been using them for at least a decade - i know i have scrapped photos of DD (nearly 17 y.o.) helping unpack groceries when she was in pre-school or kindy and we had 'green bags' (enviro reuseable fabric bags) back then - the down side is that the birds really like pulling at the stitching if they are out and are 'helping' put groceries away.

We have this to keep bread bags and old freezer/fruit bags in that we use for rubbish bags, the only time i use bought big traditional 'garbage bags' is to put clothes in to take to the second hand drop-off

We have stainless steel straws (and the cleaning brushes) in a little pencil case if their needed but we're all in the habit of just taking a water bottle everywhere and don't often use them, but i can never unsee the sea turtles that have inhaled plastic straws and eaten plastic bags thinking they were jellyfish and it's been my main motivator since - cigarette cartons are either blank packaging or covered in photos of the long term consequences of smoking here as a deterrent - if plastic bags had the seaturtle images or similar on them, i think they'd be easier for people to give up). The kids also take a normal stainless steel fork or spoon to school if they have like leftovers or something for lunch that requires it. I bought silicone reusable ziplock bags for bread roll style lunches that they have at least 3 times a week but i wrap the sandwich in papertowel first - they bring everything home and the papertowel can then get reused for cleaning bird messes etc - but i still use cling-wrap for messier sandwich fillings. It's the one kind of plastic i'm really having a hard time giving up but it can go in the red-cycle (return to store plastic recycling with the package from frozen peas etc so it's not the worst thing in the world i guess).
 
@bellbird Wow, I had no idea that rhe Skynke bags were foldable. Saw rhem on the web site and thouht they looked good, but a bit expensive. Now that I know they are foldable, the price make more sense. We're planning to go to IKEA, looks like it will be next week. I'm going to see if I like the bags. I need one or two more, some of my grocery bags are getting old.
 
Va Beach we still have plastic bags too... there was talk last week of doing away with them and charging 5 cents as well, but they put it on hold as of Monday so not sure... we too use them for the bathroom garbage, plus I use them for other things as I clean the house too.... they also make for great packing material if you mail a package to someone insead of all those styrofoam peanuts.
 
jk703 said:
BUT... what am I going to do with all of these fabric bags after I have 100, lol! At least with the plastic I was able to pick up dog droppings in the yard and for bathroom garbage. I may have to try the fabric one for the garbage lol!
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Our local thrift store collects them. They use them instead of plastic, and charge people .25. Well, in reality, you get a .25 discount if you bring your own, so they aren't really charging people?

They also help people after fires and such, so they will pack stuff into those to give the people in need.
 
Memaw2Wm said:
Half the time I forget my reusable bags, so I end up loading my groceries back into my cart, then bagging them at my car.
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Lol! That's Aldi around here. The cashier always just sticks stuff back in the cart - you bag yourself. So half of us are bagging at the car!
 
bellbird said:
i want 4 apples or cucumbers, i just put them in the (reuseable) bags i have with me,
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Do you have the little mesh reusable bags? Or do you just put them in a big bag? We have the mesh ones and while the stores here won't subtract the tare weight on them, it's not bad since they are light. But I've heard Europe and other countries will subtract the tare weight.
 
We have plastic bags at our stores. Since we couldn't use our reusable bags at all during the pandemic, I'm glad our stores are finally back to allowing them. Like seriously, if I'm at self checkout, why can't I use my own bag?!? I hate plastic bags so I avoid them as much as possible! I even have reusable produce bags.

I actually stopped doing grocery pickup because I hated all the plastic bag waste. There's no way to opt out or request paper bags, and they seem to put 1 or 2 items in a bag way too often! I'm glad our local stores have started taking the plastic bags again. I wish more would offer paper as an option.

I don't have a good reuse system for plastic bags, so I don't store them. We use compostable bags for dog poop and little trash liners. And we have a reusable wet bag for the beach and wet things.
 
bestcee said:
Our local thrift store collects them. They use them instead of plastic, and charge people .25. Well, in reality, you get a .25 discount if you bring your own, so they aren't really charging people?

They also help people after fires and such, so they will pack stuff into those to give the people in need.
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My church was having a garage sale during the community garage sale weekend. Items were donated by individuals and all proceeds went to the church. They also asked for plastic bags for the items that they could bag. I had already taken mine all to Wal-Mart so couldn't help them out.

Back in the old days where grocery stores had paper bags, they were great to put the old newspapers in. Our city recycling collected those as well and since Dad had subscriptions to 2 different daily papers, we ended up with a lot. So they were stuffed into the grocery store paper bag and put out every week.

Even now when I recycle, I collect my cardboard/paper items in a cardboard box. They just take the whole thing. I use the supplied bin for the plastic items they will collect.

I always forget to take my blue Wal-Mart bag when I go there but then I'm usually getting stuff that won't fit into the bag anyways. And, the clerks (yes, I don't do self-checkout... hate it) never load them like I want if I have items that fit even though I put the items on the belt in the order I want them put in the bag. I mean how hard is it to put all the items in small boxes in before the odd shaped stuff. Geesh.
 
No plastic bags here. Everyone has a stock of reusable bags :-) Lots of options for non-plastic (plant based) or recycled plastic rubbish bags in the supermarket too.

What's interesting is we now never see the plastic bags blowing down the street, caught in the trees and bushes etc and I realise how common it used to be. The road to the rubbish dump is still festooned with them, but they are deteriorating away as the years pass!
 
We do still have them but we now have to pay 10pence per bag if we want them at the checkout etc. Some stores like Lynn said now use the decomposable bags but you can't carry that much in them. In the big supermarkets they encourage purchasing a 'bag for life' which the supermarket will replace free of charge once it becomes unusable. Now that we have to pay for the bags I do tend to always have one with me that I will re use. Many shops now have converted to strong paper bags. The supermarket where we purchase groceries online to be delivered to the house have a system where they will take your bags back and recycle them, we count them and get credited 5p per back to encourage them being handed in for recycling.

Yes we stuff them in the cupboard under the sink, and as you say have a 'bag of bags'!
 
HavaDrPepper said:
And, the clerks (yes, I don't do self-checkout... hate it)
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I hate it, but we usually have 1 checkout open (beer, cigarettes, alcohol, age verify stuff), and 20 self checkouts. So, wait in line for 30 minutes? Nope. Not happening.
 
bestcee said:
I hate it, but we usually have 1 checkout open (beer, cigarettes, alcohol, age verify stuff), and 20 self checkouts. So, wait in line for 30 minutes? Nope. Not happening.
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I usually go in the morning during the week when it isn't as busy. And, never on Fridays. It starts getting busier around 11 so I try to get in and out before then. Most of the time there are 2 checkouts open for us old people and the clerks are so good that the line usually goes real fast. I don't remember even seeing a checkout with cigarettes since they did the remodel. I'm gonna have to look the next time I'm there and see where they are!
 
bestcee said:
Do you have the little mesh reusable bags? Or do you just put them in a big bag? We have the mesh ones and while the stores here won't subtract the tare weight on them, it's not bad since they are light. But I've heard Europe and other countries will subtract the tare weight.
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i have seen some that look more like the delicates bags i use for bras and stuff in the washing machine (and at one stage, DD said she could crochet some lol) but no, i don't have any of the mesh kind, i just plonk all the fruit/veg in little groups on the conveyor belt together and i don't think the real human, normal-checkout people here would take the tare weight off and i really don't think the 1 human overseeing like 8 - 10 self-serve checkout counters would think very kindly of me if i asked them to subtract it either
 
I’m weird … I love self-checkouts … but I want to bag my own groceries. I’m picky … no raw chicken, fresh fruits/veggies, and cleaning products should go into the same bag IMO and I’ve seen way too many cashiers bag groceries that way.
 
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