<p>I love Envirosax. Last year on Black Friday everything was half off on their website. I don’t know if that will happen again this year but I plan to check. They say they hold up to 40 lbs. but I have not tested that. I love that they are washable.</p>
<p>** Parent1986 ** you wrote * Where I am these things are privatized, taxed and a few local people get rich *</p>
<p>Curious where do you live? ** So you think the plastic bag “tax” “is a money making plan benefits a few” ? **</p>
<p>It appears to be effective - from Wiki [Plastic</a> shopping bag - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_shopping_bag]Plastic”>Plastic shopping bag - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>The plastic bag levy introduced in Ireland in 2002, resulted in a reduction of over 90% in the issuing of plastic shopping bags;</p>
<p>The “ban on free plastic bags” in China introduced in 2008 resulted in a reduction by two thirds.</p>
<p>** A five-cent tax levied on plastic bags in Washington, DC in January 2010 resulted in a decrease in consumption from 22.5 million to 3 million bags in the first month alone **</p>
<p>Looks like ** Chicago is introducing a ban at Nov 2 Council meeting:**
If Chicago were to pass a plastic bag ban, they would join a handful of American cities such as ** Aspen, Colo., and San Francisco** which have already done just that.
Other cities, including ** Boulder, Colo., have looked into either banning the bags or charging a fee, while ** Washington, D.C., in 2010 **, instituted a small fee for plastic bag users.</p>
<p>Elsewhere in the world, nations such as ** South Africa, Ireland, China and Bangladesh ** have discouraged the use of plastic bags through fees or outright bans.</p>
<p>Bag It – the movie, looks like it’s going to air on Public Broadcasting Stations around the country.
Click on link to see where it will be shown near you. </p>
<p>I predict a wave of “ban the bag” movements once people see this movie. </p>
<p>Here is the amusing trailer- if it doesn’t link to the clip just click on “trailer”…</p>
<p>Why don’t we have “American Made Reusable Bag” movement, help the economy while we are helpnig the environment?</p>
<p>[Bag</a> It The Movie: Is Your Life Too Plastic?](<a href=“http://www.bagitmovie.com/]Bag”>http://www.bagitmovie.com/)</p>
<p>Did anyone see Diane Sawyer’s ABC news segment about buying a few Made in America Items for Christmas ? </p>
<p>So buying American made reusable items, seems like a “win-win” for economy and environment! </p>
<p>Can anyone recommend any Made In USA reusable bag companies?</p>
<p>Also, regarding that American Chemistry Council “bacteria scare”- check out this-
[Ban</a> The Bag! REUSABLE BAG BACTERIA SCARE DEBUNKED.](<a href=“Welcome banthebagspdx.com - BlueHost.com”>Welcome banthebagspdx.com - BlueHost.com)</p>
<p>“Here’s the skinny: The American Chemistry Council funded a study (through the Progressive Bag Affiliates) on bacteria growth in reusable bags”
Well, the ACC does their homework, they have an annual budget of $124 million- ( FYI - I just watched a CNN report, and congresswoman who proposed banning the bag, said that American Chemistry Council spent $1 Million in adverstising successfully defeating their proposal.)
[Video</a> - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com](<a href=“Video News - CNN”>Video News - CNN)
[Video</a> - Breaking News Videos from CNN.com](<a href=“Video News - CNN”>Video News - CNN)</p>
<p>Regarding the Bacteria “non-issue” …
"Here’s my favorite quote on this whole debate, speaking about harmless strains of E. coli and other bacteria levels found in the Gerba study— From a Consumer Reports Researcher:** “A person eating an average bag of salad greens gets more exposure to these bacteria than if they had licked the insides of the dirtiest bag from this study,**” says Michael Hansen, senior staff scientist at Consumers Union.</p>
<p>What happened in Chicago? Did the ban pass or fail?</p>
<p>I prefer Washington, DC’s approach – charging for the bags rather than banning them.</p>
<p>Particularly in a city, where people do not necessarily travel by car, having to carry shopping bags can be a burden. The city resident who realizes on the way home from work that he needs to pick up half a dozen grocery items would not necessarily have a reusable shopping bag with him on his trip home by bus or subway (unlike the suburbanite, who could stash them in the car). And it’s hard to walk home from the grocery store with those half-dozen items without putting them in a bag.</p>
<p>Charging for the bags motivates city dwellers to get reusable bags and to use them on preplanned shopping trips but does not prevent them from making spontaneous stops at the grocery store when needed.</p>
<p>I reuse my plastic bags in countless ways and have no intention of doing otherwise. Plastic bag banning is another one of those things that makes some people feel good about themselves while imposing their will on others, without regard for others’ lifestyles or even for what is truly green in an individual context.</p>
<p>Marian,
I agree that charging for bags is preferable to outright banning them. I could see people choosing what they buy differently if they realize there is no bag to carry their purchases in. However, I disagree with your premise Marian. My very small bags fit in my purse. I found that personally I would just not remember to carry bags into the store even if I kept a couple in the car. With bags the size of your fist, it’s a no-brainer to just keep them with me. I not only use them for groceries, but for library books, mail, gifts, etc. The key with reusables is making them simple to use and carry.</p>
<p>I got these <a href=“http://sierraclub.usptgear.com/ProductBulk.asp?ProdID=SCLBecochi&Prod=Eco[/url]”>http://sierraclub.usptgear.com/ProductBulk.asp?ProdID=SCLBecochi&Prod=Eco</a> one year when I renewed my Sierra Club membership.</p>
<p>Well said zoosermon!
I also reuse the plastic bags in many ways. The only ones I don’t reuse are the ones that get a hole in them. </p>
<p>BTW, I do use reusable bags - I keep them in my car. But I only use them when I don’t need any additional plastic bags. So, I’ve reduced my use of plastic bags, but have not eliminated using them. They are still quite useful to me.</p>
<p>Kathie, I disagree. I cannot fit even a smallest shopping bag into my purse, because I carry a WOC. It is much easier on my back that a large purse ultimately filled with junk. There isn’t enough room in my WOC even for one of those nylon bags. I will gladly pay a quarter for a plastic grocery bag that is sturdy enough to carry a gallon of milk (most bags nowadays require double-bagging even for a pack of cookies).</p>
<p>IMO, this whole “ban plastic bags” movement is smoke and mirrors intended to distract the green community from much bigger issues. By weight, plastic bags represent just a tiny fraction of all non-degradable polymers and other chemicals that ends up in landfills or pollute the planet in other ways.</p>
<p>I thought the problem with plastic bags wasn’t the leaching of chemicals so much, but the physical harm they cause to wildlife.</p>
<p>[Plastic</a> Bags & Animals: Making the Wild Safe for Wildlife | Britannica Blog](<a href=“http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/01/plastic-bags-animals-making-the-wild-safe-for-wildlife/]Plastic”>http://www.britannica.com/blogs/2009/01/plastic-bags-animals-making-the-wild-safe-for-wildlife/)</p>
<p>I never heard of a WOC bag. I found one by googling. Is this it? [Chanel</a> Red Quilted Patent Leather WOC Clutch Bag](<a href=“http://www.yoogiscloset.com/p-9771-chanel-red-quilted-patent-leather-woc-clutch-bag.aspx]Chanel”>http://www.yoogiscloset.com/p-9771-chanel-red-quilted-patent-leather-woc-clutch-bag.aspx) I agree that you couldn’t carry a bag in something like that. Looks like a sort of glorified wallet - not a bad thing, very cute. 
However, most people that I know carry regular purses and even small purses will fit reuseables. I’m a fairly small person so cannot carry a big bag without it dwarfing me.</p>
<p>I think plastic bags are bad for all of the above reasons…</p>
<p>I reuse everything. Bags are just a small part. Re-cycling is very expensive, energy consuming and producing a lot of pollutants. I do not believe in re-cycling. We do not re-cycle, we re-use instead and in addition do not buy products in containers, like pop, bottled water, do not use plastic dishes, re-use plastic silverware…I re-use clothes, picking up from D’s pitched bag and donating the rest and going shopping very rarely, I love old clothes though, I do not like new stuff. I re-use most boxes, containers and bottles that end up in our house. Even in my hobby, I use re-conditioned material, not new one. Just lazy to go to the store. Most batteries that we use are re-chargable. We do not do much remodeling in our house either. This one is producing tons of garbage. We also do not travel much and our cars are very efficient (and very expansive, so we can keep them longer), but they are not hybrids, we are not comfortable with them.
As you can imagine, we are not contributing to economy much. I hope that most do not follow our life style, because if they do, our economy would be in much worse shape than it is now.</p>
<p>I like to get the brown paper bags because I use them to sort, store, & transport thigs like Christmas gifts, foods etc to parties and many other things, in addition to using them for the trash can. When my kids were younger they were book covers for school.</p>
<p>Trees are a renewable resource and are replanted in a commercial forestry operation, and paper breaks down, can even be toren up and put in your own compost pile. Plastic bags are made from oil and are not renewable.</p>
<p>I do use reusable bags, and the paper ones, and sometimes accept the plastic ones from the store. Or, as with Walmart, I get them whether or not I want them.</p>
<p>The newspaper comes in a skinny plastic bag which we use when we clean the litter box.</p>
<p>I do not like the reusable ones that are made from that stuff that gets fuzzy & disintegrates if washed. They are not made from a renewable resource, either. I have some canvas ones & we use those.</p>
<p>Back in the Soviet days, everyone in Russia had a “string bag,” made of crocheted cotton thread, in their coat pocket. When they saw a line forming at a shop, they would get on it, and the bag was handy to tote home whatever had actually turned up in the store.</p>
<p>We do not want to be back into Soviet days, not here, I do not care what others want in their own countires, it is up to them. That is exactly what I meant when I said that I hope that most people do not follow my family life style. If they do, we would end up in Soviet system.</p>
<p>No one is advocating going back to Soviet days!</p>
<p>The string bags they were using there were the same ones that French & English housewives had been carrying in their purses for generations. The Russian housewives, and the gents, carried their bags all the time because they never knew when something would turn up in the poorly stocked (if at all) stores.</p>
<p>The French & English housewives carried them when shopping because in those days, store owners did not provide bags. You brought your own.</p>
<p>^But you have to wash them frequently to re-use for food items. You also need many as you cannot put meat products with fruits in the same bag. You cannot put bread/bakery items in the same bag with other stuff. In addition, the ones that contain meat might leak in a car, creating contamination health hazards that exceed pollutants. We have lots of this type bags in our home as everybody else now, since they are popular, but I would never use them for grocery. Well, most of our grocery comes from Costco anyway, they do not use bags, they re-use their boxes, many of which we still re-use at home. We still have plastic bags from other stores that we re-use for garbage. But we have much less garbage than our neighbors as we do not throw away a lot.</p>
<p>Interesting post MiamiDAP #113. My kid home for Thanksgiving from San Fran informed me plastic bags aren’t to be seen anywhere there. </p>
<p>As I stated earlier, I think much of the environmental movement around plastic bags is a money making scheme for a few. And yes, I can differentiate between carbon polluters and grocery bags. Agree with BB #110.</p>
<p>parent1986,
“I think much of the environmental movement around plastic bags is a money making scheme for a few” - Agree 100%. The biggest Green person on Earth has made the most $$ out of it (as one example)…and rarely seen anymore…</p>
<p>Off topic (sort of)</p>
<p>The Occupy L. A. crowd left 30 tons of debris and human waste at their ‘campsite’ outside City Hall. </p>
<p>Whatever their message, the public will remember that they were a bunch of filthy, waste producing layabouts that made the city spend $1 million unnecessary dollars to clean up after them.</p>
<hr>
<p>I tend to agree with the poster who said plastic bag bans were a distraction.</p>
<p>The better way is to keep, repair, re-use everything. </p>
<p>Keep your car for 20 years. Keep your appliances for 20 years. Keep your computers for 20 years. Don’t buy every new gadget that will be outmoded in a few years. Buy quality and keep it.</p>