Unintentional consequences

[owlmoose]

Some time ago, the city of San Francisco outlawed the use of plastic grocery bags. I remember hearing about this at the time, and Whole Foods made the switch awhile ago, but it still came as a surprise when we walked into Safeway last week and the only bags in sight were paper.

It's not so much the carrying groceries in paper bags rather than plastic -- I'm pretty neutral on that, although the Safeway paper bags aren't great; the handles are pretty flimsy. But I use plastic bags for other things, and I know I'm not the only one: we use them to line garbage cans, when traveling, to clean the litterbox. That last thing I'm particularly concerned about. We can use paper bags in most of the other garbage applications, but how am I going to clean the litterbox every day without a plastic grocery bag? The only thing I can think of right now is to buy more plastic bags. Somehow, I don't think that's what the environmental groups who supported this law had in mind.

Well, I'm sure I'll think of something. The results aren't all bad. We went back to Safeway today, and they're giving out a free cloth bag with every $25 purchase. It's pretty flimsy as cloth bags go, but it's still more reusable than paper. So that's a win. I wish Whole Foods would do that, too -- their bags are a lot more substantial.

Comments

[giandujabird.livejournal.com]

Like i.iambe, we have a ton of plastic bags. We need to make several trips a year to recycle them (usually a local grocery store). I do wish they'd recycle them at the curb. Moreover, I wish vendors would encourage the concept of reusing them. I try to bring used ones to stores (eg, bagging fruits and veggies), but what drives me nuts are farmer's markets. Many of the vendors there *insist* on giving me new bags, even as I pull mine out to reuse. I wish they and more stores got into the habit of asking, "Would you need a bag for that?" rather than the usual waste waste waste.

[i-iambe.livejournal.com]

I was at Petsmart buying cat food today when I noticed that she'd put my 7.5 lb bag of cat food in a grocery bag for no apparent reason. I told her I didn't need it and asked her to just reuse it for the next person. She took the bag off and said "oh, I'll just throw it away then" and tossed it in the trash. I asked her why she didn't reuse it and she said it was easier to use a new one.

I stood there sputtering until my BF gently steered me towards the door.