Comments on: Making Peace with Plastic Grocery Bags

By: Frugal For Life » Blog Archive » Save Money and Landfills with Canvas Grocery Bags

Wed, 21 May 2008 13:55:48 +0000

[...] They ARE everywhere. So I indicated my hunt for a canvas bag the look and size of a paper grocery sack. [...]

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By: Dawn

Dawn — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:54:41 +0000

My grandmother, "Lizzie", starting crocheting with plastics long-long ago. Ten children, a farm during the depression...she learned to use everything up. She made hundreds and hundreds of rugs. One long one still lines the floor of my father's old aluminum fishing boat. She even made one in the shape of a flag and mailed it to President Kennedy. Old shower curtains, ANY plastic she could get her hands on was made into something usable. It is noble to focus on NOT making plastic bags anymore, but more realistic if we do little things like using up what is here (can't make them magically disappear from the environment) like making shopping totes from old plastic bags and USING them, we WILL be decreasing the production because the stores will not use as many...will not order as many...supply and demand runs this world. We can fight this battle in THEIR game.

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By: Queercents » Blog Archive » Save Money and Landfills with Canvas Grocery Bags

Tue, 06 Nov 2007 13:33:12 +0000

[...] They ARE everywhere. So I indicated my hunt for a canvas bag the look and size of a paper grocery sack. [...]

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By: Shaun

Shaun — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 03:19:00 +0000

How about a knitted HDPE evening dress? Wedding gown? Until we stop using plastic shopping bags altogether in favor of reusable totes, let knit or crochet all those poly bags into something chic. The dresses will a comment on the excess while they're being worn.

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By: Queercents » Blog Archive » Blog Action Day: Stop Using Plastic Bags

Queercents » Blog Archive » Blog Action Day: Stop Using Plastic Bags — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 12:19:24 +0000

[...] a year ago, I wrote a post called Making Peace with Plastic Grocery Bags and some suggested I should quit using altogether instead of just focusing on “recycling” [...]

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By: shame on us

shame on us — Fri, 28 Sep 2007 17:55:49 +0000

It’s pathetic that we as Americans use over 1 billion plastic bags a year…Have we thought about the possible link between plastic and the recent epidemics with health problems such as cancer, food allergies, Alzheimer’s, Autism and other health disorders…it’s just a matter of time before we realize our mistakes much like the pesticides we used 20 years ago causing health problems.
Not to mention the fact that plastic doesn’t really disappear. Sure, it takes over 1,000 years to break down, but the properties actually leak into the soil, air and water. Plastic is just bad news period…

Try Google for some interesting info on these:

- BPA
- DEHA
- Dioxins (PCDD’s)

just to name a few of the fantastic things in plastic that are poisoning us as we speak.

SO long story short, finding cutesy little ways of “re-using” plastic doesn’t do anything. What we need to focus on is NOT using them at all. Next time you go out to shop, use canvas or a cute basket.

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By: teri

teri — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 22:33:53 +0000

I crochet the plastic bags and am looking for colored ones to add interest. I think people use them as beach bags and recycle bags for the store... know where I can get some colored ones??

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By: Theora55

Theora55 — Mon, 21 May 2007 19:46:00 +0000

I take them to the local dog park for poop baggies. Ikea sells a plastic bag dispenser which works well to hold a lot of them.

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By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 06:37:32 +0000

Plastic bags used as trash bags do little more than increase the lifespan of your trash in the landfill (not that anything biodegrades in most landfills anyway). Weaker plastic bags are possibly LDPE which many suppliers have moved to for its stretchability and cheapness. It is also lighter and therefore uses less fuel in the transportation process. Recycling of plastic bags is hit or miss for many companies. I work for a natural grocer that is passionate about the environment, but even we have to toss many plastic bags often because of contamination of bins. It would be great if employees got paid to do nothing but pick through garbage, but that is simply not how the market works at this point. As a citizen, what are you going to do to protect the purity of your local recycling resources?

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By: jedi_nitemare

jedi_nitemare — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 02:54:10 +0000

In upstate NY, anyway, the plastic bags have become so weak they are barely able to survive the trip home. The handles tear, they have holes in them to start with (to purge air so they can fit more of them in the checkout aisle), and sometimes the bags burst and the groceries end up all over the driveway. Before Walmart switched from blue bags to white ones, you could clearly see that most of the bags on the side of the road were from Walmart. I'm not even sure that Walmart really recycles all of the bags people return, after hearing reports that the bags were dumped into a container with mixed garbage. How many stores are really recycling these bags? I saw a bird fly across my yard with a bag in its mouth, and the bag got stuck in my maple tree. I watch bags blow down the street on windy days. I pick bags out of my side of my neighbor's hedge row and then I have to pay to dispose of them. Personally, I'd like to see a deposit on plastic bags so people are encouraged to pick them up and cash them in. It works for cans and bottles that require a deposit, so most of the cans and bottles that remain are those which do not require a deposit. Go figure.

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