Do you still use plastic bags?

I still use plastic carry bags. But what else can I do? The shops will only give us that! I am not right I know but I think I should make it a point to use cloth bags.

yes I still use plastic bags as by the time i pay for groceries I do not have money for anything else and the plastic bags are free. I reuse them at home for dozens of things so they get recycled at my place. going green seems to take a heck of a lot of green. lol.

It's free to use the plastic bags in the past, it's very convenience, so we all use it in our country. But from this year, if you want to use plastic bags ,you must pay for it, so many people use bags that can use many times.

In our country we use plastic bags, in fact, major grocery stores here use plastic bags.But it's good to know there there are some efforts to raise awareness on using "green bags" for the environment. One leading supermarket here has introduced this kind of bags but sad to say when i do my shopping there, i never encountered anybody actually using the bag.

I must admit that I still use the plastic bags... I though tend to reuse them to take lunches to work,as trash can liners, transporters, etc.... and normally they get tossed into the recycling bin at my apartment complex when I am done with them.

I still use it. I dont have a choice because all people in my country use it. and I cant found a paper bag on my country.

Something really has to be done to increase the awareness in terms of use and discard of plastic bags in our country. I remember reading an article about how the discarded plastics bags had a large part to play in the last deluge that Mumbai had to face. There are other similar instances in other cities and the hardship they have had to face on this account. Still people tend to forget or disregard, maybe its thier ignorance or thier not caring attitude. Maybe enforcement in the form of a law or strict guidelines will help, like what they are doing in West Bengal. http://www.wbpcb.gov.in/html/pressrelease/plastic.shtml In countries like Belgium and Ireland you are taxed or made to pay for the bag. We should take an example out of a country like Bangaladesh who have already started taking measures on this. Lets hope that the damage being done to our envoirnment due to the use of plastics can be contained.

Awareness is very much there.But the consciousness is totally lacking in the people who run the malls and other big institutions. Our crowd blindly ape anything from rich malls and places of hep crowd.If they see the so called high society with the cloth bags in malls and 5 star hotels they will follow suit immediately and wander with their cloth bags proudly.Who has the heart to start the good things first here?It is so sad that people don't spend even a single second concerning about the society in their 86400 seconds in a day. I wonder how can our people be so selfish and unruly to the level of leaving a worthless place to live to their own children.

Yes, you are absolutely correct, when you say that we should limit use of plastic bags to the barest minimum. Plastic is a cause of unending pollution and plastic can never be destroyed. But what to do, everywhere you find polythene bags, wherever you go. Either it is a vegetable market, cloth market, beauty product shop or a Dry-Cleaning shop. In Delhi, atleast, you won't find a single shop or outlet, which does not have polythene bags. We have also become accustomed to such bags and use it unmindful of hazards it causes to our enviornment. We carry a cloth bag with us, whenever we go for buying vegetables from the whole sale market or for buying our monthly grocery. I also personally do not like thin and inferior quality polythene bags, which give away very soon. I think, another reason for continous use of polythene bags is, its substitute is not available. One of its substitute is paper bags. Using paper bags is also not convenient, every where and for making papers you require lots and lots of wood. And for getting wood, you need to cut trees, which is also not good for the enviornment. So we sometimes feel helpless. An excellent post.

Hi there Mimpi, I got that once recently and I was going HUH? Well actually, it happened to a friend I was with. He happened to have a bag of something and that security guy at MUSTAFA CENTRE put his PLASTIC bag into another PLASTIC bag then tie it all up. He didn't even bother explaining why to my friend but a lady standing near that who apparently knew why said that it was for security reasons. They are afraid we might slip something into the open plastic bag! I had a bag with me too - a "real" bag - and my bag wasn't required to be suffocated in a plastic bag. Apparently they feel that as long as it is not open, I am less likely to shoplift. That's pretty insulting really since my friend and I are probably among the most honest people in this world.

Hi mimpi1911! I have been using cloth bag for grocery shopping but when I enter the grocery store, I was stopped by the security and said I can't bring my empty cloth bag inside the store. What? I said and explained to him so nicely that instead of using their plastic bags, I want them to put my purchases inside the cloth bag because I am against using plastic bags for it will destroy mother nature. Then the security looked at me as if I am nuts and said, I am sorry ma'am but you can't bring that bag inside or you can't shop! It is the store's policy and I have to surrender my empty cloth bag in the baggage counter. hmmp! I left and didn't shop there anymore. Take Care and God Bless! Celebrate Life!

Hi dear thats nice to hear that u try to put ur efforts in Eco friendly environment.And u r right , Shopping malls to be have awarenes as what they will provide to customer, he will accept it, and preferably it should be recycleable paper with cottom mash to make it strong. Well as far as i am concern, i am mostly told to bring things when i am coming back from office and all the time they are in plasctic bags

I think that buying bin liners is a waste of time when you can just use the checkout plastic bags. They break down quicker (the ones in Australia these days are pretty good). We use the shopping bags to put our household rubbish in, so they are actually getting a double use. I do still have a cloth bag with me when I go out for heavier items or if we don't need more bags at home. Now, while we do still use the plastic bags, I think we are smart. We save money buy not buying the bin liners, which are thicker and more harmful to the enviornment. We also recycle the plastic bags by putting our rubbish in them, so we are still looking after the enviornment, even if other people don't agree.

What a ludicrous situation. On the one hand you have the centre selling cloth bags, and on the other you have their own staff discouraging people from using them! In the UK at least one of the major supermarkets encourage you to recycle bags or use your own by giving you extra loyalty points if you do. I try not to accept plastic carrier bags with my shopping as I'd rather reduce my environmental impact by using a cloth one, but sometimes the assistant has packed something before I can open my mouth to say no! It's so sill to say it is for security reasons when they give you a receipt anyway. Carrier bags are really handy for all sorts of things though, so they never go in the bin. I carry a few in the car for future shopping expeditions, use them as bin liners, use them for packing veg from the garden into when I'm giving it to friends ... all sorts.

I've got lots of cloth bags but the only place it is used it when we go to buy vegetables from the market. The last time I went to a mall with my cloth bag, I got stares! But most of the stores I go to now give a paper bag (with their log on it)...so, it's better than the plastic bag...though I wonder how many trees were felled for that.

i must confess Ia m still using it. it does nit mean that i deliberately but all these. but if any shop gibves me like the dress shop, i accept iot. i still carry some jute bag, but all can't be carried in them. Plus some shops will give their own bag.

Hi there pretty lady, I don't wan't a plastic bags, but those market and supermarket all using them. OMG! i always use them again for my garbage bag. in the end :D

Hi there. We recycle hard in our town, but the shopping centre here still gives out plastic bags, as well as eco friendly material bags. We still use the plastic bags, when we're done with them, I stock them all and every second week or when I know we have so many, I take them to the recycling centre, and they do what they do with them. Its way better then throwing them into the rubbish or even trying to burn them. Have a great day...

Good mimpi, that you have turned to cloth bags.,definitely a good small thing on our part to save our environment.. When every one starts to think like you.. surely most of the problems will find an end very soon. But the sad part is, errr.... what runs in their mind is, " How to save the mother earth when i alone adopt this strategy" or.. It is not possible to put into practice these kinda things.. a negative outlook towards the problem lays a big obstacle on the very first step towards the path of refinement of the society. Take care friend.

In Japan, they have develop a plastic that is bio-degradable. It came from some kind of a polyester thing from corn and it is being used there for various products. I wish it would reach all countries in the world. There's nothing wrong with synthetic plastic bags but the problem is proper disposal.. It should be recycled. In other places they use it in power plants to produce methane gas..