Poll: Ban the bag

[Ron Wenrich]

They're talking about banning them in San Francisco.  A half trillion are produced every year.  Bring back the old brown bag?

Ends 6/4/07

[Fla._Deadheader]

I've always hated them. We made canvas bags to take shopping. Reused them for years.

[Dan_Shade]

i like the plastic bag, but I do have to consider the envirnmental impact.

I like them so that I can carry 75 lbs of groceries in one trip.

[Jeff]

Here in town for years they always used to ask me if I wanted "Paper or Plastic"  I hope its not my fault they quit giving us the choice of using paper after I started answering "I don't care, I'm Bi-Sack-Sual."  You never get the option around here anymore for paper. Its kinda nice up to the cabin. When we go to Cedarville grocery, they have brown paper bags with the carry handles on them and don't use plastic at all. They also still have carry-out boys that take your groceries to the car.

The save-a-lot grocery stores that are around this area provide no bags for groceries. They have a limited supply of boxes that merchandise comes in, other then that, you either bring your own sacks or boxes, or take the cart to the vehicle and unload it.

[metalspinner]

I don't like 'em -  even though you can carry plenty in them.  We can't seem the throw them out around here.  They just keep piling up.  At least the paper ones can be used for things like starting the fireplace or wrapping wet wood bowls in.  Is a ban really neccesary?

[WDH]

I see them blowing all over the road.

[Tom]

A ban insinuates that the "Government" is imposing rules and regulations because we are too stupid to do it ourselves. Personally, I'm a bit leary of turning everything over to the "Government".  I like to make my own decisions sometimes.  Why can't we just say, "I don't want a plastic bag".  If they don't have paper bags then you can always leave your groceries on the checkout counter and go somewhere else. 

[Patty]

No, I don't want them banned either. However I do prefer the paper, only because they someday rot away if left to blow around the countryside. I think a better idea is to make the plastic ones biodegradable so they will melt into the ground like paper when left outdoors.

[tcsmpsi]

I don't like "banning" inantimacies.  If one doesn't want to use them, and make an environmental statement, well that's exercising one's individual freedom.  

I'm about 'six of one/half dozen of another' on the matter.  It doesn't cause me grief or discomfort when I use them for toting goods that I have purchased.  At the few places where there is a choice, I get paper because I like the feel and smell of it better than the plastic.

Deadheader's got the proper note, in furnishing one's own reuseable tote bag.  Especially if they are so intriniscally environmentally conscientious as to want to create a ban.  Heck, just change a letter and create a bag instead.   :D

[johnjbc]

I found a good use for plastic bags. I use them for starting a fire in the wood stove. I made a frame that I hang the bag on and fill it with the chips and bark that fall off when I split fire wood. Put one in the wood stove with a wad of paper, throw a couple logs on top and the fire starts right up. In the spring and fall when you don't need a fire just a little warmth I put 1 or 2 in the stove and take the chill off the room.

[Cedarman]

I like a more capitalistic way of getting the job done.  Put a 25 cent deposit on each bag or 50 cents maybe.  Whoever brings them back gets the money. It might even change my behavior and I might get a bunch of cloth bags that I reuse.

I hate bans a whole lot more than I hate incentives to get me to do one thing or another.

I would love to see a packaging tax based on the weight of the package paid by the people who package there products in almost unopenable bomb proof oversized containers. 

[Dave Shepard]

I don't like the idea of banning things. Citizens as a group should just not use them, and they will go away on their own. I like the idea of the markets not offering anything to hual your groceries with. You will find your own solution one way or the other. ;) Seems to me there are better things to use our wood and plastic products for. It seems every time I stop in a store for lunch or a snack, they are trying to put it in a bag. This really bothers me, and I have all the regular places I go trained, they know I don't want a bag. Do they really think that my sandwich is going to stay in the bag all the way to the truck? Nope. If they are lucky I'll finish it before I leave and maybe buy another one, not going to happen if I have to start a major excavation to find where the hid my lunch.


Dave

[Furby]

Aldi's charges for bags, but you are free to bring in your own of any type or use what boxes they have.
I find it's easier to simply push the cart to the truck, toss the stuff in and carry it inside in groups as to where it belongs when I get home.

[thecfarm]

We have a Save-A-Lot here too.Same way here.We have a grocery store here in Maine that use to have the best plastic bags,Hannafords.But there are real thin now,like Walmarts are.Put a box in just wrong and it will cut the bag.When I use to bag grocery,in brown bags,there were no choice,it was a act to baging.Now the kunckel heads don't have a clue.Comes down to training.They put soap and bread in the same bag.Or they try too.I tell them don't do that and rebag it the right way.I would not miss the plastic bags.Try to ask for a freezer bag.We really gets some looks on that.In my day we went out with the customer with more than one bag.Most of the time now,they don't even ask.

[WDH]

However, the masses take the easy route.  There has to be incentives or decentives to bring about change.  Take recycling.  If you had to pay for not recycling, more would recycle.  For every person who wants to do the right thing, there are 4 who don't care as long as it is cheaper.  At our houe every week when we set out the garbage in the big plastic hinge-lid plastic garbage container, it is about 1/3rd full because we recyle everything.  For the most part, however, the neighbor's containers are full to overflowing.  There is no incentive to recycle around here except for personal dedication and person principle.  Yet, I am having to pay for to expand the landfill.  Maybe government regulation is not the answer, maybe economic persuasion would work a whole lot better . 

[Tom]

If there is incentive offered, Government hasn't the sense or means to do it. Government lays out mandates.  "Thou shall, or Shant, or else".   If they had the means to offer a reward for doing it rather than punishment for not, I'd be a little easier on them (it).

When I refuse the bag at the checkout counter, the clerk throws it in the trash.  Heck, I could do that if I wanted to tote it home.  It takes a little common sense on both ends of the transaction.

[Dave Shepard]

Regarding whether or not things should be banned or not reminds me of an incident around here in the mid eighties. This was when recycling was just taking off, and one local town was doing a trial run. The spokesperson, and main proponent, of the effort was quoted in the paper saying that if recycling was widely accepted, they would make it mandatory, and that if it wasn't, they would not.  ??? ??? Yeah, that makes sense, I wish they would apply the same logic to paying taxes. ;D


Dave

[metalspinner]

Something that irritates me is when the checkout person puts only two or three things in a bag.  Then you end up with 10 times the number of bags neccesary.

[DanG]

Let's just ban banning. :

I kinda like the plastic bags, but we get entirely too many of'em.  We use'em for all kinds of things.  They make great garbage bags, and you take the trash out more often because they're smaller.  They're just right for the bathrooms and bedroom, though.  I use'em in the freezer to keep the thinly wrapped stuff from freezer burning.  We put our other recyclables in them to take out to the road.  They make a great litter bag for the truck or car.  I keep a paper towel tube stuffed full of them in each vehicle, to use for whatever need might arise.  Linda is a Nurse, and has to wear white shoes to work.  When the weather is bad, she'll tie a couple of bags to her feet to use as temporary galoshes.  Makes a serviceable rain hat in a pinch, too.  Ain't y'all ever used one for a suitcase?  C'mon, tell the truth now. ;D :D  I always pack a couple to bring the dirty clothes home in, when traveling.  You can get rid of a lot of them when the garden comes in.  Just pack'em with zuchinni and leave'em on peoples doorstep. ;D  Ever have to change out the starter on your truck and take the old one in to trade for a new one?  Use the wife's new car for that trip?  Toss that greasy starter into the back seat?  Heck no, ya put it in a plastic grocery sack!  Gotta watch that parts guy though.  He'll try to steal your sack.  I went to see my folks tonite, and took them a plastic grocery bag full of fresh-dug new potatoes.  Mom sent Linda's supper back in yet another plastic grocery bag.  Oh yeah, I beat my Old Man out of a pgb full of potting soil, while I was there.  There's a pgb on a coat hanger in the closet where we put wore out clothes.  When it is full, I take it to the shop for wiping rags.  Usable discards go in another pgb for a trip to Goodwill.

After all that, we put all the excess pgb's in another pgb and drop it in the recycle bin by the door at the grocery store.  I still ask for paper bags when I get a chance.  They're handy for all sorts of things, too. ;D

[Gary_C]

For all the ones that voted yes, would you also vote the same way if the question also asked if you would be willing to pay more taxes for the government to pass and enforce a ban?   ;D

[thurlow]

Proposed new law (I know, this is a law in-and-of itself  ;));  when any new law is passed, 10 existing laws must be repealed.  Wouldn't take too long before lawbreakers lawmakers would have to think long and hard before passing new laws.    I think there'd be a lot of support for a candidate whose platform was, "I'm going to Washington and vote against everything."  When did being a legislator go from being a part-time to a full-time job?  I say meet 2 weeks out of the year and then go back to the farm or law office and earn a living like the rest of us poor slobs.   8)

[Weekend_Sawyer]

I'm with Dan. We use them for everything from trash can liners to dirty clothes bags when I travel. They are easier to carry and scrunch down to store alot of them in a small space.

what I hate is when people throw them out and they are lining the streets and caught up in the trees. Why do people have to be so messy?

Jon

[sparks]

I tell you what to ban, cigarette filters. Those things lay around for ever and they are everywhere. Can't recycle those filters.   

[johncinquo]

The new plastic bags are biodegradeable, so it really doesnt matter.   Thats the only thing that bugs me, seeing them blowing around everywhere in the breeze and hanging off trees, wires, fences.   If they can rot then I see no problem with them.

[chet]

As long as we're on da trash subject, I'll bring up my pet peav, fast food packaging. Slobs dat are in such a hurry they gotta eat fast food, but are too lazy ta use a garbage can.  :( 
It's easier ta toss da McDonald's and Burger King crap out da window.  :'(