If anything gets DUmmies excited, it's the plastic bags at the grocery store. You know, those bags that have made it about a bazillion times easier to carry your groceries in? The DUmp goes berserk over them!
JDPriestly (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 03:43 AM
Original message
Do you use a lot of plastic bags?
My husband and I have been trying to stay away from them. Recently my daughter gave me several little Chico bags that you pull out of a tiny bag to which they are attached. They fit in my purse. I'm also starting to make some bags from remnants of fabric.
I haven't figured out how to avoid using those awful thin plastic bags into which I usually put each head of lettuce and the like. Any ideas?
The plastic bags are deadly for certain sea life and maybe other wildlife. So, any comments and suggestions on this would be appreciated.
Also, if you have any other ideas about things we can do to save our environment, please share them.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1365022 Raine (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 04:02 AM
Response to Original message
3. I HATE those plastic bags, I seem to end up with hundreds of them
luckily the market has a big bin for recycling them. Everytime I go to the market I dump off a whole load of them.
They are great for smuggling pesticides and leftover paint into your garbage.
I'm not sure if this is a serious
uberDUmbass, or a troll mocking the silliness of recycling:
patrice (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 04:09 AM
Response to Original message
5. What with all of my recycling, I put my big wheeled city trash barrel out to be
emptied by the refuse department only once a month, instead of weekly. The truck doesn't have to stop weekly at my house and then accelerate to continue its route, the extra gas it needs to get moving again is conserved and less diesel particulate matter is pumped into the air.
ejpoeta (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 07:06 AM
Response to Reply #6
9. omg i hate that! whenever i forget my reuseable bags and they will put like one or two things
in a plastic bag and i end up with ten plastic bags when they could have used 3. uggh. it's like, here let ME bag them!!
I love them! They make it so much easier to carry groceries from the garage into the house. The best grocery store innovation since the self scanner.
CrispyQ (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 01:35 PM
Response to Reply #18
60. They don't train the baggers anymore.
Back in the olden days, when I worked at a grocery store, baggers had an entire day of training with an experienced bagger. Now, they just grab what the checker sends first & start loading the bag until it's full & then start the next bag. And the checkers - WTF? Don't send the soft stuff down first!
At the University of Phoenix, you can get a degree in checkout, with a minor in bagging.
Maine-ah (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 07:21 AM
Response to Original message
10. someone on here
was weaving the plastic grocery bags to make larger and stronger reusable bags...I wish I remember who it was.
Hippywife sells 'em at the old folks' home. No sale - no dinner.
Anyone who doubts the DUmp is crawling with nuts, check out the next two posts:
alphafemale (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 11:16 AM
Response to Reply #10
40. Not me but I've done that.
You cut the bags in a spiral about an inch or so wide then just crochet it as you would yarn.
Starry Messenger (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 12:26 PM
Response to Reply #10
49. There's probably more than one of us.
I do this too, with crochet. Anyone interested just google "plarn crochet bags" and will get a ton of hits with pictures and directions.
So, if you were wondering, "How would I do my grocery shopping if I were trapped in some eurotrash country?", here's your answer:
Pooka Fey (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 08:54 AM
Response to Reply #17
19. Where I live, the customer packs his/her own groceries, not the checker
so there's only a small counter space to place your open bag on - no hooks or loops. Every community has their own way of doing things. I don't have a car so I usually bring a wheeled caddy for my groceries - helps walking up the hills on the way home.
If I want to do a huge shopping trip and really load up on purchases - for example if I want to buy a case of wine at a far better price than I pay by the bottle, I need to rent a car. I can only buy what I can carry on foot, which is usually just fine by me and also good for the planet.
If that wasn't goofy enough, how about this:
w0nderer (51 posts) Sun Jun-26-11 12:55 PM
Response to Reply #19
56. another by foot or bicycle shopper
cashiers/baggers/checkers do try to pack backpack or panniers in this area, i have to tell them 'not to'
They keep assuming my bags are only to carry it to the car and with 90 minutes with a full backpack (walking) 20-30 minutes (bike), i want it packed by someone who knows the 'art of packing panniers or backpacks'
balance
weight near center of gravity
equally weighted
sensitive stuff ON TOP
cool and frozen together to keep cold
for the wine and other bulk purchases i've had success in asking if i could can buy a case and have it with my name on it in the back/customer service as i bring it home in batches over a few days/weeks/months
many stores will allow that.
Even the hobo has that huge Buick trunk.
Tesha (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 09:10 AM
Response to Reply #12
22. In America, IKEA sells bags identical to these in a small and large size.
They're relatively cheap, something like $0.50.
We've got a large and a small, but they don't
stand up open as easily as some other bags we've
bought.
I think DUmmies woould love to use burlap feed bags. They hold a lot, and can easily be recycled into attractive casual wear.
uppityperson (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 02:40 PM
Response to Reply #44
75. I just got a beautiful Super-U one with veggies on it. Am always looking for nice ones
to give people for presents in the USA. Carrefour is great, love that store.
Carrefour is sooo much better than those stupid American stores.
Shagbark Hickory (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 03:12 PM
Response to Reply #58
82. Your "socialist" bags are not socialist at all. They're "capitalist" bags.
Penalize the consumer for using the bags, maybe nobody will notice that the reusable bags are made from 100 times more plastic and after 100 or so uses, when they are ripped or no good anymore, it's really no net savings of plastics and it really doesn't result in any less solid waste.
It's like having the regulatory bodies overlook that the majority of energy is consumed by corporations in manufacturing but spend all their time making sure consumers can't use high output light bulbs.
I never understood the bag craze. Who are we kidding with that?
tpsbmam (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 05:07 PM
Response to Reply #82
103. My bags are made of recycled materials (mostly bottles) or heavy cotton (the majority of my bags) and have gotten HUNDREDS of uses over a decade+ of use and they'll last another decade+, the cotton ones will outlive me. Where the hell are you getting your information?
Lie. Ten years ago not even the worst moonbat lunatics were carrying their own bags to the grocery store.
Did you ever wonder how a nutcase fills her day? A couple of them answer that question:
pipi_k (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 11:23 AM
Response to Original message
Those plastic bags they give you in CVS or wherever...I saved up a bunch of them and cut them across from side to side creating loops. Then I took those and looped them together, one by one so they looked like a "chain".
I then used a larger size crochet hook and treated the resulting chain of loops like yarn. Made a nice plastic tote bag (simple single crochet stitches) with handles. It's way stronger than the original bags on their own. If you wanted you could even use a strand of some kind of string or other coarse yarn along with the plastic bag "yarn" to make it even stronger.
OK so I'm thinking those real thin translucent bags that you put fruit/vegies in at the supermarket, you could probably do the same thing. Cut across from side to side...maybe strips about 1 inch wide, loop them together, and use just like regular yarn. Even if the plastic "yarn" strand broke before being crocheted, though, it's still no biggie. Just tie it to the rest of the ball and it's fine and the resulting knot looks sort of cool. In fact, you could knot each strand individually for a "nubby" look.
Another option would be to create one long strip of plastic "yarn" by starting at the top or bottom of the bag and cutting a single strip on the diagonal...like peeling an apple so the peel is unbroken. Then you wouldn't have to put the loops together, but seeing as it would be a single thickness, you might want to add a strand of acrylic yarn to make it stronger.
csziggy (1000+ posts) Sun Jun-26-11 02:51 PM
Response to Original message
77. You can make your own produce bags from old T-shirts
Of for smaller items that might get through the holes: http://www.marthastewart.com/266942/good-thing-t-shirt-...
And here is a mesh produce bag made from scraps: http://etownhooks.blogspot.com/2009/10/scrapppy-reusabl...
My worst problem with plastic bags are the Ziplocks I use to store bread. So far I have not found a bread box that will hold my oversized home made bread loaves for less than $50. We use 2 gallon ziplocks for them but can't re-use them because of mold problems. That is another worry with using a breadbox - we'd need one we could wash thoroughly so a home-made wooden one would not work. If anybody has a suggestion for bread storage that is easily washed and dried that will hold a 12-14" long by 6-8" tall by 6-8" wide loaf of bread, let me know!
Most of our other food storage has been transitioned into using re-usable containers. And we have to deliberately get a few paper and plastic bags at the grocery store so we have them to line garbage cans and other uses around the house. Otherwise, we use our re-useable grocery bags for almost everything.
