3 ms·

Reading the comments here is a bit scary. Is taking the same 4-5 plastic bags back to the supermarket each week not super common everywhere?

rohit2412 7y ago
Or cloth bags. Seriously, they are stronger, hold more stuff and hurt less because of sharp edges. All you need to do is just carry them
- athenot 7y ago
  Even better are foldable bins made of cloth—I think mine are reinforced with cardboard or semi-hard plastic inside. They stay open when loading with groceries, and don't roll around in the trunk of the car.
- CelestialTeapot 7y ago
  I use cloth bags, too. But, ignoring the marine dumping problem, cloth bags can be the worst.[1] You would need to reuse each thousands of times to be worth using over LDPE bags. 1. https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotton-totes-might-be-worse-than-plastic/ https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotto...
  - A2017U1 7y ago
    That's more an indictment of cotton than reusable bags. Other materials are fine.
ForHackernews 7y ago
Not in America, it's not.
gambiting 7y ago
Of course not. I don't know where you live that it is. Where I'm from(Poland) you'd commonly go to a shop without any bags and just pack everything into single use plastic bags every time and then just throw them away. It's only started changing recently since shops started charging money for bags, but I don't recall ever going to a shop with our own bags for shopping - I think I'd even go as far as say that it would be weird to do so.
- swarnie_ 7y ago
  UK here - You used to collect a few hundred bags under the sink/stairs years ago and maybe use them as trash bags around the house. After the new laws came in requiring you to pay for them the culture change around reusing bags was pretty abrupt. Now going to the shops without a few bags in arm just seems...weird?
  - jackjeff 7y ago
    UK here - I just pay whatever they want me to pay for the bags. I can almost never remember to bring them to the shops. And if I do, I forget them in a car anyway. It used to be 0.05 GBP per bag, now 0.10GBP. If it gets any more expensive I'll just go for the full home delivery life style. Going to shops sucks anyway and I won't miss it.
CelestialTeapot 7y ago
I'd say it depends. Some grocery stores use plastic bags so thin that they rip or tear just getting the groceries to the car, rendering them non-reusable.
butteroverflow 7y ago
Where I live, they sell everything in plastic bags. I buy everything I can in bulk, but still go through 2-5 bags each day. I wash them with small amounts of water and reuse as much as I can, it's still close to a thousand bags per year -- good luck keeping up with that. Absolutely no recycling here, too. It all goes to the landfill, along with lithium batteries and laboratory chemicals. How about some fun examples of the stuff my friends have found on the landfill: a jar of mercury, a 1.5L of nitric acid, an ampule of bromine, some other stuff I fail to remember. Ah, the joyful realities of living in the third world.
avtar 7y ago
One would hope so but evidently not :( I've been trying to exercise more and use exercise videos on YouTube when I can't make it to the gym. People featured in fitness videos usually advocate for drinking more water but then it's crazy to see the majority of them reach for plastic water bottles while they're in walking distance to kitchen sinks in their own homes or studios. I just assume most U.S. and Canadian cities provide suitable drinking water via utilities.
- aerostable_slug 7y ago
  Municipal water in the US is typically pretty tasty. San Francisco water is so good that I don't understand why anyone wouldn't be happy with tap water there.
josefresco 7y ago
Our local supermarket has a bin to recycle these bags. Most probably don't use it, but we do! Certainly is better than single-use paper.
- BrandonMarc 7y ago
  I prefer single-use paper. I put my recycleable materials into the paper bags, then toss that into the (single-stream) recycling dumpster - the paper is recycleable after all (and is often made of recycled paper). Back when we went to the recycling facility in person, we would pre-sort and still use the paper bags. I suspect, when used this way, paper beats plastic, environment wise (of course, there are better alternatives, like personal canvas bags, but that's another story).
  - josefresco 7y ago
    I used to think this as well, until I heard on public radio from a few recycling experts that paper bags actually are worse than properly recycled or disposed of plastic bags. These are not my sources, but you can easily find references online that back this up. http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplastic.html http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplastic.html https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-scienc...
sushisushisushi 7y ago
In the US, many retail stores will give you a plastic bag for a small item that you can carry in the palm of one hand. It's just automatic, without any thinking involved. Some places have enacted a fee for single-use plastic bags, which abates the problem by encouraging people to purchase multi-use canvas bags or use paper bags, and by forcing retailers not to automatically provide plastic. But for the most part, it's a total free-for-all.

rohit2412 7y ago

Or cloth bags. Seriously, they are stronger, hold more stuff and hurt less because of sharp edges. All you need to do is just carry them

athenot 7y ago
Even better are foldable bins made of cloth—I think mine are reinforced with cardboard or semi-hard plastic inside. They stay open when loading with groceries, and don't roll around in the trunk of the car.
CelestialTeapot 7y ago
I use cloth bags, too. But, ignoring the marine dumping problem, cloth bags can be the worst.[1] You would need to reuse each thousands of times to be worth using over LDPE bags. 1. https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotton-totes-might-be-worse-than-plastic/ https://qz.com/1585027/when-it-comes-to-climate-change-cotto...
- A2017U1 7y ago
  That's more an indictment of cotton than reusable bags. Other materials are fine.

ForHackernews 7y ago

Not in America, it's not.

gambiting 7y ago

Of course not. I don't know where you live that it is. Where I'm from(Poland) you'd commonly go to a shop without any bags and just pack everything into single use plastic bags every time and then just throw them away. It's only started changing recently since shops started charging money for bags, but I don't recall ever going to a shop with our own bags for shopping - I think I'd even go as far as say that it would be weird to do so.

swarnie_ 7y ago
UK here - You used to collect a few hundred bags under the sink/stairs years ago and maybe use them as trash bags around the house. After the new laws came in requiring you to pay for them the culture change around reusing bags was pretty abrupt. Now going to the shops without a few bags in arm just seems...weird?
- jackjeff 7y ago
  UK here - I just pay whatever they want me to pay for the bags. I can almost never remember to bring them to the shops. And if I do, I forget them in a car anyway. It used to be 0.05 GBP per bag, now 0.10GBP. If it gets any more expensive I'll just go for the full home delivery life style. Going to shops sucks anyway and I won't miss it.

CelestialTeapot 7y ago

I'd say it depends. Some grocery stores use plastic bags so thin that they rip or tear just getting the groceries to the car, rendering them non-reusable.

butteroverflow 7y ago

Where I live, they sell everything in plastic bags. I buy everything I can in bulk, but still go through 2-5 bags each day. I wash them with small amounts of water and reuse as much as I can, it's still close to a thousand bags per year -- good luck keeping up with that. Absolutely no recycling here, too. It all goes to the landfill, along with lithium batteries and laboratory chemicals. How about some fun examples of the stuff my friends have found on the landfill: a jar of mercury, a 1.5L of nitric acid, an ampule of bromine, some other stuff I fail to remember. Ah, the joyful realities of living in the third world.

avtar 7y ago

One would hope so but evidently not :( I've been trying to exercise more and use exercise videos on YouTube when I can't make it to the gym. People featured in fitness videos usually advocate for drinking more water but then it's crazy to see the majority of them reach for plastic water bottles while they're in walking distance to kitchen sinks in their own homes or studios. I just assume most U.S. and Canadian cities provide suitable drinking water via utilities.

aerostable_slug 7y ago
Municipal water in the US is typically pretty tasty. San Francisco water is so good that I don't understand why anyone wouldn't be happy with tap water there.

josefresco 7y ago

Our local supermarket has a bin to recycle these bags. Most probably don't use it, but we do! Certainly is better than single-use paper.

BrandonMarc 7y ago
I prefer single-use paper. I put my recycleable materials into the paper bags, then toss that into the (single-stream) recycling dumpster - the paper is recycleable after all (and is often made of recycled paper). Back when we went to the recycling facility in person, we would pre-sort and still use the paper bags. I suspect, when used this way, paper beats plastic, environment wise (of course, there are better alternatives, like personal canvas bags, but that's another story).
- josefresco 7y ago
  I used to think this as well, until I heard on public radio from a few recycling experts that paper bags actually are worse than properly recycled or disposed of plastic bags. These are not my sources, but you can easily find references online that back this up. http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplastic.html http://www.allaboutbags.ca/papervplastic.html https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-science/paper-plastic.htm https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/green-scienc...

sushisushisushi 7y ago

In the US, many retail stores will give you a plastic bag for a small item that you can carry in the palm of one hand. It's just automatic, without any thinking involved. Some places have enacted a fee for single-use plastic bags, which abates the problem by encouraging people to purchase multi-use canvas bags or use paper bags, and by forcing retailers not to automatically provide plastic. But for the most part, it's a total free-for-all.