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I use my own reusable cloth bags - the few times I get a plastic bag they are used as bathroom trashcan liners. My area is starting a 5 cent charge as of Jan. 1 - I have no problem w/using my cloth bags (not sure how that will go if/when I ever find clothes I want to buy
Like to hear from those anywhere in the USA already in such a situation with a plastic bag tax.
Single use plastic bags have been banned in California for years. Most people have no problem with bringing their own reusable bags (or paying 10 cents per bag at check out). Washing the bags is not a major issue.
Problem with mesh and cloth bags is time and maintenance wasting water washing these bags so environmentally still an issue with phosphates, etc. going down the drain into streams.
Red herring argument unless you're a germaphobe. Really, how often would someone need to wash a cloth or mesh bag? I have 3 ancient Safeway cloth bags that have been in regular use (they predate the virtue signaling phenomena) for at least 30 years. The number of times I've felt compelled to clean any of them over all those years can be counted on one hand!
I wouldn't care if there were no bags. Like a previous poster, I put bags or groceries back in the cart, trundle it out to the van, where all the frozen and cold go into a picnic cooler, and the rest either go in boxes, or if in bags, the tops of those are tied together or bungeed to limit spillage of contents.
Having no bags is easier, as it makes for easy sorting that fit the way I store things at home.
I learned the cooler trick in south Florida, where 95 degree days are common, and ice cream can melt in a short time. If a day is particularly warm, when leaving home I toss in a couple of frozen bottles of water to pre-cool the cooler and keep things cool longer, as well as having ice cold water to drink if I want.
Grocery bags that I do get are paper if I can get them. Plastic ones line the container by my sink for wet garbage, or get use for cat litter, or melted down with acetone to make a plastic patch material.
I bought two plastic bskts that can hold 2-3 grocery bags from toppling over spilling the goods. they can serve for other things as well. Also have the ice chest for frozen foods etc also in baqs that I paid for in past times shopping. As a former Grocery background know how to bag groceries the correct way.
Sure, but how often does that happen? If the product didn't leak sitting on the shelf for days and didn't leak in your cart as you shopped and didn't leak as it was tossed onto the checkout conveyor, scanned, and bagged then why would it suddenly leak in your cloth bag between grocery and home? I can't even remember the last time I had anything leak transporting it to home.
Plastic bags are banned here in CT but I use tote bags instead. One bag is vinyl and it's huge--used to be my beach bag--so to wash it I would just wipe it with soap and water. Other bags, there are so many that when they finally disintegrate, I just throw them away.
I do keep a styrofoam cooler in the car for frozen foods. This is really not a big deal and I hate plastic anyway, just missing having the bags to use as wastepaper basket liners, that's all.
Best is probably the huge vinyl bag or the other idea of just pushing the cart right out to your car and unloading it there into boxes.
For urbanites without cars and transpo by walking, bike, scooter, bus, or subway, using plastic bag alternatives that do not fold up easily such as crates, boxes, coolers does not work. I for one, worked in the past in the city with poor and expensive parking, stopped to pick up a few bags of groceries at a frequent service train stop on the way home (time saver). Using alternative transportation, plastic bags with handles are more portable AND fit Most easily in a briefcase or a purse with limited space folded up whereas the other options do not. Thoughts that escape politicians who always drive.
The new tax in your county, which goes into effect Jan. 1, 2022, will apply to disposable plastic shopping bags at convenience stores, grocery stores and drugstores; money raised from the fee will go to environmental cleanup efforts and to buy reusable bags for low-income residents.
Good reserch into! from my previous posts the county in Northern Virginia where I live not far from DC. As an aside, moved a number of times over the years within that county, but moving out when life circumstances allow (on this sentence, topic to talk elsewhere).
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