CEC Give up Plastic Bags July 3---go green challenge

[trymahjong]

Forgo plastic bags on July 3 to protect the environment

by Eduardo de la Garza CEC Newsletter Editor

Plastic bags, the first of which that were created in 1933 in Northwich, England. They were manufactured out of convenience and by 1965, Celloplast, a Swedish company marketed them as a better alternative to cloth and paper bags. The only problem was that these plastic bags made out of polyethylene made their way to landfills and contributed to the deaths of marine animals.   Think of the number of times you’ve come home with plastic bags. You may try to put them in receptacles for future use, but eventually, those receptacles become overrun with hundred of bags you’ll never find future use for. Before long, those plastic bags end up in the trash.   On July 3, you can join the initiative to eliminate the use of plastic bags, even if just for a day. And turn to social media and use the hashtag #PlasticBagFreeDay. In 2002, Bangladesh became the first country to ban the use of single-uses plastic bags. Since then, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland, Mexico City, and Leaf Rapids, Manitoba have banned the use of plastic bags. Hawaii, North Carolina, Italy, China, many countries in Africa, and some states in Australia, India and 127 other countries have implemented some types of regulations.   If landfills are already filled with plastic bags, what can one day of not using bags do? It’s as simple as starting a new habit. Many stores such as HEB sell cloth bags for you to put y—our groceries in. And yes, they come with handles.   By taking the initiative, you help eliminate plastic bags becoming microplastics. Plastic bags also take between 100 and 1000 years to degrade. Fossil fuels are required to make the 100 billion plastic bags Americans use every year. In fact, 12 million barrels of oil are required to meet those needs. Eliminating plastic bag use could reverse the startling fact that by 2050, the ocean could contain more plastic than fish.   If you must use plastic bags, be one of the god ones and take them to a recycling center. Eighty-seven percent of plastic bags never see the inside of a recycling center.   Nationaldaycalendar.com/international-plastic-bag-free-day-july-3 suggests these activities: Commit to cutting down on the use of plastic bags; Save your plastic bags and take them to a recycling center; Use reusable bags for shopping; Educate others on the adverse effects plastic bags have on the environment;  Learn about how plastic bags can harm animals; Encourage your community to reduce its reliance on plastic bags; and Watch a documentary on single-use plastics, such as A Plastic Ocean or Bag It.   However you choose to commemorate Plastic Bag Free Day, know that any behavioral change helps. Cloth bags work just as well as plastic bags — and they don’t hurt wildlife.

[editor]

If you're environmentally-minded, HEB still lets you have paper bags, instead of plastic.

[Pleak]

As does Kroger.    If they have them in stock.   It's hit or miss.

[mkultra25]

We use these (pic is of a different brand, but same concept). They fold flat and easily fit under the grocery cart until you're ready to use them at checkout, and three of them are usually sufficient for a week's worth of groceries. On the odd occasion when we managed to forget to load them in the car before heading out, they've always had paper bags available at H-E-B.

 

[editor]

1 hour ago, mkultra25 said:

We use these (pic is of a different brand, but same concept). They fold flat and easily fit under the grocery cart until you're ready to use them at checkout, and three of them are usually sufficient for a week's worth of groceries. On the odd occasion when we managed to forget to load them in the car before heading out, they've always had paper bags available at H-E-B.

 

I have a couple of those I got from Mariano's markets in Chicago with the big Mariano's logo on the side.  They're awesome.  But only if I remember to bring them with me, which is not often enough.

They're far more durable than they look, so I use them for all kinds of things around the house and neighborhood, otherwise I'd just leave them in the car ready for the supermarket.

I used to have four, but I only have two right now.  I had a garage sale a couple of years ago, and a guy whose name was actually "Mariano" showed up and his friends goaded him into buying two of them from me.  I was just using them to drag things around, and they weren't for sale, but he offered $20 a pop, and I couldn't refuse.

[mkultra25]

23 hours ago, editor said:

I have a couple of those I got from Mariano's markets in Chicago with the big Mariano's logo on the side.  They're awesome.  But only if I remember to bring them with me, which is not often enough.

They're far more durable than they look, so I use them for all kinds of things around the house and neighborhood, otherwise I'd just leave them in the car ready for the supermarket.

I used to have four, but I only have two right now.  I had a garage sale a couple of years ago, and a guy whose name was actually "Mariano" showed up and his friends goaded him into buying two of them from me.  I was just using them to drag things around, and they weren't for sale, but he offered $20 a pop, and I couldn't refuse.

Yeah, they are extremely sturdy. Ours have had several years of regular use, and they still look basically the same as when we got them. We keep them in my wife's car, so in theory they should always be available when we go on a grocery run, but in practice she has occasionally used them for something at work and forgotten to put them back in the car afterward.

They must be popular somewhere, as there is a pretty large selection from multiple manufacturers available at Amazon. I've rarely seen anyone else with similar carriers at the grocery store, but we do get questions semi-regularly from people that notice them and want to know where we got them.