Walmart to rid of their plastic bags in CA

[Bettacreek]

http://www.bloggingstocks.com/2010/...gins-charging-for-grocery-bags-in-california/

So, honestly, I think it's a great idea to replace the plastic bags, however, there are a bunch of cons to this. First, each bag contains MUCH more junk than the normal plastic ones, so, one bag tossed would be like 10ish bags or however many they say they're made of. Second, I think that it's one heck of a PITA to remember to bring your own bags, and I certainly don't want to pay $.15 per bag every time I shop. When I buy, I BUY, I end up with a cart FULL of stuff. I have to wait on the cashiers to move the belts along so that I can fit my stuff. I don't want to have to shop in a different way, this is how I shop, period. But I'd be bitten in the butt if this was put into place here. Honestly, enough so that I would probably stop shopping at Walmart.

 

[ducks4you]

The future is going to be about services and goods, and WHO provides the best is going to win out. I never shop at just one grocery store. I used to shop at a semi-local chain, but then I moved, and WalMart was on my way home, so I shop there. I also shop at Meijers, every once-in-awhile at Schnucks, and I shop at Aldi, where you can buy their paper bags, or plastic bags, or re-usable bags. Aldi also has a pay-to-release on their shopping carts. You get your quarter back when you return and lock up the cart. I have NEVER seen their carts left in the parking lot.

Edited to remove political commentary

 

[Wolf-Kim]

My mother shops at Aldi's, where they don't provide bags. Instead it's up to you to just take the whole cart to your car and/or use the cardboard boxes that the stuff comes in as 'bags'.

I think it's a great thing. I know around all the local Walmarts, those plastics bags are all over the side of the road and in the forests next to the store and they take forever to degrade. Whereas, if they used paper or cloth bags, then at least the bags would degrade.

When my inlaws shop at the Commissary, the military grocery store, we try to opt for paper bags instead of the plastic. They are more durable than the plastic and we can use them for crafts, in the garden, firestarter or in the worm bins.

 

[kcsunshine]

Although I really hate them, we recycle them by using them at our Farmer's Market. Customers actually save them for us and they feel they are doing something great. So many of our customers are bringing their own bags, though (or baskets).

 

[old fashioned]

I have 2 of the reusable bags. I forget them half the time and even so, I usually get more groceries than they hold anyway. I started leaving them in my car and that helps, but I still end up with masses of plastic bags. We reuse them for lots of things, like when we have a garage sale to put customers items in, or when I send the kids out for yard clean up days (hey it's their broken toys, wrappers, etc). I sometimes take a bunch to our church nursery that uses the bags to wrap up wet/dirty diapers.
I've been trying to get back to paper bags as a better alternative and to help out the timber industry, but they do rip easily.

 

[patandchickens]

All the large stores around here have done that, as of maybe a year-plus ago. Supermarkets, Walmart, Canadian Tire, Home Depot, all but the little one-off stores.

Like another poster above, I am not impressed with the "reusable recyclable" bags they are selling, as being still rather wasteful and not lasting as long as one might wish. Also now I have a hard time ensuring we always have enough trash bags around the house (we always used grocery bags).

Still, on the whole I think it's a positive move.

It's a funny thing about "I can never remember to bring bags, it's too hard to adapt"... most everyone around here was like that a year or two ago when the idea was first introduced. And people still forget bags periodically and have to pop $0.10 or whatever to buy a store bag (which I notice are now larger and stronger than when they were free... ). BUT, on the whole, people seem cool with it now. It hasn't after all been that difficult to get used to.

And as far as those crappy synthetic-but-disposable bags they sell -- it seems like an awful lot of folks around here have seen through that gambit and are using their OWN bags, more durable and better-sized. String bags, cloth tote bags, plastic shopping bins, etc.

So once you get over a year or two of 'bumpy ride', it does seem to quickly become the new normal, and not so bad after all

JME,

Pat, who still is not all that great about remembering to bring her own bags in from the car but it's not such a big deal to go back out and get them when needed and honestly I mostly shop at grocery stores that offer free cardboard boxes ANYHOW (b/c they are the BEST toys for kids )

 

[bibliophile birds]

before i moved to New Zealand, i had honestly never really thought about shopping bags. i just took them home and stashed them in a bin and eventually took them to the recycling (well, the ones that didn't get used to take out the cat litter...). in New Zealand, though, it's pretty rare to get the choice of a shopping bag. everyone has reusable bags of their own or you go to the box store- which is cheaper because they don't offer bags at all (it's amazing how much you actually end up paying for those bags without knowing it)- and take your groceries home in the cardboard boxes that stuff is sent to the store in. it was revolutionary for me. (another cool thing was that i could "check out" a shopping cart to walk my purchases home in and they would collect it from my house!)

they do so many little things like that that have a HUGE impact. each household is only allowed 2 bags of trash per week and it has to be in council approved trash bags that are at least $1 each (you can pay to have more trash, but it's not really worth it). recycling is mandatory in the bigger towns (they do curbside) and you can be fined if you don't. when you know that you have a limit to what you can throw away, you buy smarter and end up saving yourself money. it was wonderful.

the coolest thing to me though (and one i'm trying to implement here) is that every outlet has it's own switch. that way, instead of needing to unplug the microwave so it's not drawing unnecessary power when it's not being used, you just switch off the outlet. i loved it.

i've not seen these for sale here, but they might be available somewhere in the states

(sorry for the tangent, i just get excited about this stuff)

 

[SKR8PN]

WE have been using the reusable bags for quite awhile now.

TIP: We just keep them in the car so we always have them with us!!!

 

[bibliophile birds]

yeah, i got in the habit of refusing the plastic bags by making myself buy NEW reusable bags every time i forgot them. it took a little while, but i finally got the switch flipped in my brain. buying several $1 bags EACH time i went for groceries really really helped (see, 15 cents isn't bad).

i then distributed all the extra bags i had collected to people i knew to encourage them to make the switch.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Yeah but that only helps if you remember to put them in the car. I use the boxes from the store. I have for years. At first I reused the bags that I used to get from the grocery stores, until they all got worn and thrown out. i refuse to buy reusable bags. the boxes work quite well for us. When we lived in town, it was a bit of a pain, b/c we had to cut them down to recycle them, but out here in the country, we reuse them and then burn them.

That's great what they do in NZ biblio. Garbage is a big issue in urban centres around here. And that switch is too cool, I haven't seen anything like it here either.