<p>** Fauxmaven ** so many categories- guess it’s under ** eco-logical ** link?
Are they washable ?
Just washed my assortment of bags today, and it was so easy, they look great, dried fast. </p>
<p>If anyone has the chance to see the movie ** Bag It ** go! or sponsor it in your community. Life changing…</p>
<p>When it comes to stylish canvas shopping bags, it is hard to beat bags by See by Chloe:</p>
<p>[SEE</a> BY CHLOE Ugly Monster Big Shopping Bag in Lunar at Revolve Clothing - Free Shipping!](<a href=“http://www.revolveclothing.com/DisplayProduct.jsp?product=SEEB-WY29&c=Totes&s=C&d=Handbags]SEE”>http://www.revolveclothing.com/DisplayProduct.jsp?product=SEEB-WY29&c=Totes&s=C&d=Handbags)</p>
<p>[See</a> by Chloe 9S7160-N76 - Free Shipping](<a href=“The Style Room - Women | Zappos.com”>The Style Room - Women | Zappos.com)</p>
<p>At $95, it is a screaming steal. ;)</p>
<p>LOL!!!</p>
<p>emeraldkity4 - plastic bags aren’t necessary & they harm the environment. </p>
<p>So what do you suggest be used for trash? Paper is of limited value for this purpose. Is there another option?</p>
<p>I really wish someone made corn-derived/degradable bags in a bigger size! Mine hold about a gallon of compost scraps, but they are too small for trash cans.</p>
<p>Plastic bags are a problem, but the brewing environmental disaster called BRIC is a much bigger worry of mine.</p>
<p>My city (Portland, OR) has eliminated plastic bags about a month ago. Frankly, I haven’t noticed a problem.</p>
<p>Bookreader–we all grew up without plastic bags, and some how we endured. I do use the occasiona plastic bag for can liners, but the vast majority, zillions more than are used in garbage cans, are simply thrown out. If people buy them because they feel they need them, that would be a fraction of what are thrown out rather than re-used.</p>
<p>^^** Dmd77**- Portland one of select group of communities who have successfully “banned the plastic bag”-Was it an act by city leaders?</p>
<p>In what ways are people adapting to this ban? (especially those people who didn’t use reusable bags)
Did usage of paper bags increase ?</p>
<p>Are people using reusable bags at restaurants , clothing stores, or are there exemptions to the ban? </p>
<p>And, did you have American Chemical Council campaign against the ban?</p>
<p>Garland,
I’m old enough to have gone around the block a few times, but I do not remember a time without garbage bags. Maybe it’s because I’m so old that I’m losing my memory. LOL</p>
<p>I agree that the number of bags in the trash would be greatly reduced if stores were not allowed to use them, but why not let consumers solve this one without the ‘help’ of government? I think it’s quite possible to do it this way.</p>
<p>The bio bags that I linked to in #73 make different sizes of biodegradable bags. For our actual garbage, we just put it in the can. Our paper goes in recycling, our food/yard waste go in compost or in yard waste bins.</p>
<p>I don’t remember plastic garbage bags from my youth in the '70’s. We lined all our trash cans with brown grocery sacks, and then took them out to the big metal trash cans. That must have been nasty with wet trash. </p>
<p>It was my job to haul those things out to the curb, all 5 of them, and then get them after school. Of course, the men just threw them "toward’ our yard, and finding all 5 cans and lids was a challenge. Yes, 5 metal cans, so we may not have been using plastic bags, but it surely appears we had a lot of other trash!</p>
<p>SouthJerseyChessMOm: I consider myself fairly aware but I have no idea what the answers to your questions are. One day I went to the store and they told me they no longer had plastic bags because they’d been banned. Everyone I know uses reusable bags anyway. If there was a fight about the plastic bags, I didn’t hear about it (although I have a vague memory of a billboard saying something about plastic bags–but I can’t remember which side it was on). </p>
<p>Portland is an interesting city. We have municipal trash pickup (not private) (although there is a fee for it) and they make a real effort to keep costs down. I can put food and yard waste in my composting bin, mixed recyclables in my recycling bin (which is twice the size of the garbage bin). Glass goes in a separate bin. (We also have municipal water and electricity. Costs of trash, water, and electricity are all significantly less–about 25% lower–that they cost in our previous house in Seattle’s Eastside suburbs, where they were all privatized.)</p>
<p>Dmd77- **Everyone I know uses reusable bags anyway. **
I wish I could say that here in NJ. Kudos to you for all you are doing! </p>
<p>Apparently, after a 3 year effort, and unsuccessful attempt to “ban the Bag” on a state level in Oregon, Portland council voted in** July to enact a city wide ban! **
Go Portland !!!</p>
<p>It went into effect on October 15th, with many large retailers Walmart, Target, Walgreens, distributing free reusable bags during the inaugural weekend.
The ban applies to stores with revenues in excess of 2 million! </p>
<p>[Portland</a> merchants prepare for bag ban | Sustainable Business Oregon](<a href=“http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2011/10/portland-merchants-prepare-for-bag-ban.html]Portland”>http://www.sustainablebusinessoregon.com/articles/2011/10/portland-merchants-prepare-for-bag-ban.html)</p>
<p>Kudos to Fred Meyers stores (we don’t have those in NJ- do we)
**Fred Meyer stores , which supported the ban during its incubation stage, took ** plastic bags out of its 10 Portland retail outlets in August 2010 in anticipation of the law.</p>
<p>“We just feel like this is a train that left the station,” said Melinda Merrill, director of public affairs for Fred Meyer. </p>
<p>Question for CCers- ** Are your communities taking steps to ban or charge for plastic bag usage?** </p>
<p>Seems like the train is parked in the station, here in NJ !</p>
<p>How I remember my bags: If I’m at the checkout, I have a self-imposed rule to go out to the car and get the bags. It helps me remember them the next time.</p>
<p>^** GTAlum**- nothing like a little punishment to learn the lesson-</p>
<p>I prefer these little stickers- designed for your car, which say
**“Got Your Bags” **
The Go Green committee handed these out last week after showing of the movie Bag It. (had not seen these before
It 's small and looks like this
[Got</a> Your Bags?](<a href=“http://keepcabeautiful.org/programs/got-your-bags.html]Got”>http://keepcabeautiful.org/programs/got-your-bags.html)</p>
<p>We too used brown paper bags as garbage bags when i was a kid in the 60s and 70s. Plastic bags are a fairly recent invention.</p>
<p>(We also used to create a lot less garbage–something I’m trying to get back to–“reduce” is a lot more powerful than “recycle.”)</p>
<p>SJCM: Washington DC has a bag tax, not a ban.
</p>
<p>If you leave the reusable bags in the car, just put stuff back in the cart, take the cart back to your car, and put the stuff in the bags at the car.</p>
<p>SJCM - I recently read that Maryland is charging 10 cents per plastic bag. It is under consideration where I live.</p>
<p>Personally, I think it is a money making attempt that benefits a few. I remember Safeway sending me a very cutesy reusable bag made out of plastic, which most of the resale bags are now. Those nice washable cotton bags aren’t what is being pushed now.</p>
<p>“Portland is an interesting city. We have municipal trash pickup (not private) (although there is a fee for it) and they make a real effort to keep costs down. I can put food and yard waste in my composting bin, mixed recyclables in my recycling bin (which is twice the size of the garbage bin). Glass goes in a separate bin. (We also have municipal water and electricity. Costs of trash, water, and electricity are all significantly less–about 25% lower–that they cost in our previous house in Seattle’s Eastside suburbs, where they were all privatized.)”#91</p>
<p>And the above comment is really what it is all about. Where I am these things are privatized, taxed and a few local people get rich. Things can also be private with municipal subsidies that benefit a few and the way the utilities are financed, etc. And, it reaches to the federal level. Did I mention my big taxes?</p>
<p>Most people don’t have that overall awareness (as dmd77), which is necessary beyond the paper bags to have any real affect on all the “green issues”.</p>
<p>“If you leave the reusable bags in the car, just put stuff back in the cart, take the cart back to your car, and put the stuff in the bags at the car.”</p>
<p>Better yet, have plastic crates with handles in the trunk of the car. We use this strategy, and it works for Costco shopping where we buy mosy of our food.</p>
<p>It is funny that plastic bags became the target of such heated debates; however, almost no one looks at the plastic used in product packaging which almost certainly represents the bulk, by weight, of all plastic deposited in landfills (think cereal and chips bags, cookie tray wrappers, clamshells that are not recyclable in many municipalities, etc.). That annoys the heck out of me! I do my best by avoiding stuff that has such excessive packaging (mostly highly processed foods, anyway).</p>
<p>Paper bags are degradable, but they aren’t totally “green”, because it takes a lot of energy to produce a paper bag. There was an article in the Seattle Times that had the numbers, so if I find it, I will post a link.</p>
<p>As a few of us have said, these bags [Envirosax</a> - Set of 5 After Dark Pouch, Reusable Shopping Bags - Shopping Bag Sets](<a href=“http://www.reuseit.com/store/envirosax-after-dark-pouch-reusable-shopping-bags-p-3755.html]Envirosax”>http://www.reuseit.com/store/envirosax-after-dark-pouch-reusable-shopping-bags-p-3755.html) are perfect because they fold up into about a fist size package so it’s easy to always have at least two in your purse. No remembering needed. :)</p>