@zanadoo_56 wrote:
@am*3 wrote:Like the old days-- brown paper bags..
Having apparently lived through the old days....I have some very clear memories of grocery shopping with my parents.
Every supermarket would have a huge cordoned off area off to one side just inside the entrance where they put all the empty cardboard boxes for people to use to take their groceries home...quite handy if you only bought about a box size worth. Mum would unload the groceries at the checkout while Dad would be sent off to choose a suitable box.
If you didn't want to use a box of course there were the brown paper bags. If you only had a few items they were great. If you had a lot they could be a right pain depending on how they were packed. It wouldn't take much for something pointed to cause them to split. Also same thing happened if they were over packed. And cans....if anyone remembers the scene in Mother and Son where Maggie sends oranges cascading into a grave at the funeral, just picture a paper bag at the carpark with cans falling out and rolling away from your car. Sometimes people would come from all around the place to retrieve them for you. 🙂
Same thing happens to plastic bags. Anything pointy splits them easily, anything heavy like cans or drink bottles rips the bottom out of them or shreds the handles, sending them rolling all over the carpark.
And one of the biggest reasons I never want to see groceries in paper bags again is....when it rains. Supermarkets really needed deep covered areas outside the entrances in those days for the rows of wives who lined up and waited for their husbands to go and get the car because if you ventured out in the rain with the groceries by the time you got to the car the paper bags had turned to soggy mush. We all hoped the rain would stop by the time we got home because you still had to get the bags in to the house.
Most supermarkets have underground our covered carparks these days.
It became even worse when penny pinching supermarkets provided flimsier bags that could barely hold half what you put in one in the past..and that was when the weather was fine. When it rained it was much worse.
Bless KFC's little cotton socks for apparently listening to their customers (or so they say) and replacing their plastic bags with paper ones. Their chicken pack boxes are not as durable or as well designed as they used to be, their paper bags are thin and flimsy and by the end of a car journey home grease and oil have leaked out of the bottom through the paper bag and onto the car seat. So for the very few times I'd buy KFC I make sure I have a handy supply of.....plastic bags.
This is where you'd use your recyclable shopping bags that you have in the boot, and/or some of those newspapers you normally put in the recycling bin.
99% of seabird species to be affected by plastic ingestion by 2050 – report — RT USA
Sixty percent of all 186 species of seabirds currently have plastic in their gut, according to researchers from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO) in Australia and Imperial College London.
The research team analyzed studies going back to the 1960s, as well as oceanographic and ecological models, to determine how plastic bags, bottles, fibers, and the like will continue to affect avian wildlife and invade their ocean habitats worldwide.
Plastic ingestion causes choking, intestinal blockage, weight loss, and can lead to death, according to the study was published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
@zanadoo_56 wrote:Plastic bags have handles and if you tie them closed you've got a better chance of keeping the contents easily distributed so the bags don't break, you can also carry more bags of groceries in one go than with paper bags...and most importantly, plastic bags don't disintergrate in wet weather.
Exactly. That's why they're environmentally disastrous to wildlife.
None of the supermarkets in my local area have underground carparks. That's because they and the surrounding shops are all on one level....ground. The carparking is outside the shopping malls or strip parking near old style shopping centres. And not every home has a garage with access to the main house from inside it.
So use your polypropolene bags. You can use them many many many times before they disintegrate.
And what do most people do with the polypropelene (green) bags when they break? I repair mine but it appears from what I've read that I'm in the minority. Most end up as land fill and they can last a lot longer than plastic bags....and cause problems for wildlife. Plastic bags that are biodegradable might be a better bet for disposing of rubbish as paper wrapped items are easily torn open by crows, foxes etc.
I also find plastic bags are handy to have around at home and work and a few spare in the car because you never know when you might need an extra bag to carry stuff.
I find them handy as bin liners, so yes I'm not totally plastic bag, or any kind of plastic free either. There's actualy no escape from it in our society, and certainly not for our marine animals, as everthing eventually washes into the sea.
But we can at least reduce it.
I use plastic and green bags. My point was.....going back to paper bags is not a practical idea, that all.
I think they are. We have plenty of waste paper to make them with, mountains of it. It would serve to alleviate both problems.
I was nearly going to put: "kill 2 birds with one stone". Inappropriate
@zanadoo_56 wrote:Your previous comment about most supermarkets having underground carparks cracked me up BTW. Hilarious....and wrong.
Ok well I guess it's a question of locality. I'm a city dweller, so yes, most supermarkets in my environment have undercover carparks. Not all though.
I wonder....have you ever bought full trolley loads of paper bag packed groceries? Not fun, not very convenient either.
Well...no. Not since the dark ages 30 or so years ago, anyway.
Brown paper bags are not even an option where I shop. My major shopping is done at Aldi. They don't offer plastic bags, you have to buy them. I just pack my groceries back into the trolley, and at the car, pack them into the green bags I have ready in the boot . It's an extra chore, but I do it anyway.
The produce bags I use, I put them to use as tidy bin liners. I specially bought a tidy bin to fit them.
If I'm doing top-up shopping at either Woollies, Coles or IGA, I have my own roll up bag handy which fits neatly into my handbag.
Anyway, this is my last comment on shopping bags because, due to arthritis I now get all my groceries ordered online. And yes, Coles and Woolies - despite what they show re their online services on TV - deliver them in those dratted plastic bags (which you can give back to the driver on the next visit for recycling).
Well at least you're doing your best, considering your circumstances.
I used to order staff supplies through Coles. Cheaper for the budget. They used to deliver our biscuits (like 30-odd packets of Arnotts Assorted Creams) in their bluddy plastic bags!
What the!?
Not only did that mean the biscuits would end up largely shattered by the time of delivery, bouncing around in the back of a truck, but we'd end up with huge amounts of those ghastly grey plastic bags. Which went straight into the bin!
I've since gone back to our original supplier, who delivers in cartons, and takes the cartons back. Cost a bit more but at least we're not throwing shattered biscuits in the bin along with the plastic bags!
