Bring Your Own Bags
By Genipher
@Genipher (5405)
United States
January 22, 2020 1:56pm CST
Our little coastal town recently stopped providing plastic or paper bags for groceries. It's an attempt, I assume, to cut back on plastic and be more green. Folks are supposed to bring their own eco-friendly bags when shopping.
I keep forgetting to bring my few, measly cloth bags.
Rather than paying 5 cents for each plastic bag from, say, Walmart, I just reload my loose groceries back into my cart and then load them again into my car. It's a hassle, but I'm too cheap to pay the bag fee.
At any rate, I don't think the "Bring-Your-Own-Bag" law is helping the environment very much. At Walmart I see maybe one or two people out of the hordes bring in their own bags. Everyone else just pays the plastic bag fee which, in my opinion, just makes Walmart richer. Or at least, better off than when they provided bags for free.
I guess I just don't see the point in forcing everyone to pay for the bags. Is it really helping the environment when everyone just shells out the extra dollar or two for plastic bags?
6 people like this
5 responses
@Plethos (13581)
• United States
22 Jan 20
that whole bring your own bag is a scam. for one, the reuseable plastic bags dont break down like the plastic bags before them. since they are made for more than one use, they take longer to break down.
two- they are not recyclable, or at least i havent come across any recycler that will take them.
three- its made it easier for people to steal from stores.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (137463)
• United States
29 Dec 20
I don't understand, Plethos, how does this make it easier for people to steal from the stores?
1 person likes this
@Plethos (13581)
• United States
1 Jan 21
@DaddyEvil - when you bring in your own bags to walmart, they dont bag your items you do. Its easy then to put an item in before you pay and just put stuff over it.
1 person likes this
@DaddyEvil (137463)
• United States
2 Jan 21
@Plethos 
Oh... I wouldn't have thought of that. *sigh* I'm stupid. SMH!
Oh... I wouldn't have thought of that. *sigh* I'm stupid. SMH!1 person likes this
@sol_cee (38219)
• Philippines
22 Jan 20
They do have that BYOB scheme here and I always have an eco bag in all my work bags just in case I decide to drop by the supermarket before going home. It was difficult at first because I wasn’t used to it. We didn’t have the same ‘rule’ in my home country. It took time to get accustomed to it. And I shelled out a lot of cents for the many plastic bags I bought along the way. I made them rich. Lol
1 person likes this
@owlwings (43910)
• Cambridge, England
22 Jan 20
The plastic bag charge is reported to have worked well in the UK and Australia. In the UK, plastic bag use dropped by 85% in the first year. Most of the large chains have set up donations to local causes with the extra money they take from selling the bags. I grew up in an era when there was no such thing as plastic bags and everyone used their own shopping bags or paper carriers and bags, so it wasn't too difficult to revert to the old ways.
Obviously, the less plastic that is manufactured and thrown away, the less harmful it is to the environment as a whole. Plastic bags can be recycled, though it's rather specialised and not many facilities exist for it. Our local authority has installed some benches and picnic tables in a few public spaces which are made from recycled plastic. They are clean, durable and look very like their wood counterparts until you look closely.
1 person likes this
@shaggin (72183)
• United States
12 Feb 20
Here in NY Walmart that we go to they are no longer going to have plastic bags after March 1st. Our local grocery store is doing the same thing. At both we can get paper bags though.
I use reusable bags at Aldi's but the ones from Walmart I use for my garbage cans. Since I won't be able to get them anymore I will have to start buying bags so it's not going to cut down the amount of bags used in this house at all.
