In Australia supermarkets have cut the number of plastic bags they hand out by 30 per cent, although other shops have barely started on this blindingly simple, obvious, and even cost-saving environmental measure.
So why has this move not even started in Britain? I spend an amazing amount of time telling shop assistants, often two or three times: "No bag thanks. No, really. No bag!" Most look as though no one has ever said that to them before.
Article comments
1 - Temple Stark
Go with cloth bags for your shopping. By one or two at a time and wean youself off plastic OR paper.
Many stores used to (still do??) give you five cents off or so if you do. Although maybe that was only Washington state and not Arizona.
2 - Eric Berlin
Trader Joe's sells a pretty nifty looking canvas bag, and I see quite a few crunchy types using them from time to time.
3 - Temple Stark
As in number-crunchers? I was going to call them canvas but they aren't really canvas are they?
4 - Eric Berlin
No, crunchy as in granola. People who like the environment... and are therefore stereotyped as "crunchy"... think sandals, long hair for men, short hair (perhaps) for women, earthy type folk... like that.
5 - Temple Stark
Oh yeah. :=) My mini-break is over. Back to writing. I'm writing about the Pinal County Fair and it's hard to get inspired. Come one, come all ...
6 - Natalie
I mostly shop on the internet, so don't do big shopping trips, but whenever I need something I always try to take my own bag. When I fall down with an impulse buy, I try to use the bag at least a few times - to take dinner to work or similar purposes.
I'm not saying never use a bag, but if everyone cut down significantly it would make a difference.
7 - Dave Nalle
Now that's bizarre. When I first lived in England 30 years ago, supermarkets were just starting to be introduced. We would go to the local greengrocer, butcher, baker, etc and take with us our own cloth or macrame bags and our own little push-basket thing and there was no thought of some sort of plastic bag being involved.
How could things have changed so much in 30 years that clerks no longer even remember that it was once done differently - and not so very long ago? Surely older customers still come in with their own bags and push baskets. Doesn't that give anyone a clue?
It's not like the US where paper bags have been around since the early A&P days and plastic bags have been around for at least 30 years.
Dave
8 - Bennett Dawson
I don't know how it is in the rest of the country (ies), but here in Vermont it seem that the "baggers" are trained to put each and evey item into its own yellow plastic bag. I keep telling them "Pack 'em full" or "as few bags as possible" but it still seems like I walk away with a dozen bags everytime I shop.
Some of these teenage dullards even take an item like a jug of bleach, or a bag of dry cat food, and put it IN ITS OWN PLASTIC BAG!
I rant, I rave, and a blank look is what usually follows.
I do appreciate it when a store hires the mentally retarded, but then the bag situation is even worse... A plastic bag for every single item!
Plastic is made from oil, so hopefully the rising price of oil will put a stop to this nonsense.
9 - Tristan
the times they are a wacky --
when we have to be so concerned about paper vs. plastic bags....
and don't the security people at those stores get alll hyper if they see someone throwing goodeies into a private bag---
maybe wondering if you're shoplifting--
10 - JR
No, crunchy as in granola. People who like the environment... and are therefore stereotyped as "crunchy"... think sandals, long hair for men, short hair (perhaps) for women, earthy type folk... like that.
No, Temple Stark had it right - I use those canvas bags from TJ's, and I crunch numbers. When you buy a half dozen bottles of water at a time, plastic just doesn't cut it.
I've also carried a Trader Joe's bag my local Giant grocery store and nobody hassled me. I wouldn't try it in L.A. or NYC though.
11 - SFC Ski
In Germany, the grocery stores don't hand out bags, you bring your own or you can purchase one. It took me a few trips juggling items home before I remembered to bring bags. I usually use the cardboard fruit or milk boxes that are stacked by the registers to carry my stuff, then receycle them at home.
12 - Mark Saleski
bennett's got it right. we like to ask for paper bags because we get free amusement watching the poor dullard teens tryin' ta figure out how to put stuff into the bag.
i guess they're 'trained' on plastic (1, 2 or as many as 5! items per bag) so when they have to use paper it turns into a mental exercise.
you can just about hear the groan when you say "paper".
13 - DrPat
On the other hand, we usually buy in bulk, leave most of the items in the cart, and just place a representative sample on the belt, telling the cashier, "9 of those, 16 of that, 5 of these..."
We keep milk crates in the trunk of the car, and transfer the loose items from the cart to them. The only things I need in a bag are books and clothing - those milk crates are a bit dusty!
14 - Bennett Dawson
Hey Mark!
Paper Bags??? Yeah, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Bagging groceries used to be an art form, well we didn't think so back then, but now?
Ask your average teen to use paper and when he gets done, piling the soup cans on top of the vegetables, the entire bag falls over.
They just don't have a clue!
C'mon ya schmuk! Cans on the bottom....
DID YOU HEAR ME??? CANS ON THE BOTTOM!!!
15 - Eric Berlin
JR - Temple was asking me what my usage of crunchy was in that case, and I told him. But if you're crunching numbers and tending to the environment at the same time, that's cool.
Different but related topic: does anyone know which is "better" for the environment: paper or plastic? I've heard it explained both ways, which leaves me confused.
In any event, I used to ask for paper during college (when it was an option: doesn't seem like that's the case much anymore) and my roommates would castigate me with the sarcastic title of EcoWarrior.
16 - NancyGail
I will turn down a bag when I am not carrying a lot of items. Have noticed grocery stores where I live displaying fabric bags in spots where those "need that too" items are on racks right next to certain things.
17 - Natalie
Sorry Dave, the oldies don't turn up with their own bags any more. You're right that they must have in their youth, but aside from the odd one with a bag on wheels - usually it seems because they are physically incapable of carrying bags - they seem to have entirely got out of the habit. If you see someone trying to avoid getting bags they've usually young(ish).