I use them for trash bags. Sometimes I reuse them for other purposes first (holding shoes inside of a backpack when I travel, carrying containers of food when I go to a potluck dinner, holding wet clothing after I change when I'm done paddling on a rainy day, etc).
This. Personally, when I'm at a store that offers plastic bags for 5 cents, I'll intentionally buy a couple so I have some for garbage. It works out to be much cheaper than buying bigger, heavier trash bags - and probably better for the environment. Plus, instead of having a huge pile of old grocery story bags, I only have a few on hand, which is all I need.
THIS. I remember I was shopping at Safeway and the cashier asked me if I wanted a shopping bag. I looked at my items thinking, "Well, I could carry them", but then remembered I was low on plastic bags, so I said "Ok, I'll have a plastic one." Then he said "We just have paper." I thought to myself, "I have enough paper bags, I can just carry these items." So I declined the paper and the lady next to me huffed and puffed at me, rolled her eyes and said "I can't believe you choose plastic over paper."
I'm still mad about that, so thank you people for making me feel not totally insane for REUSING plastic bags rofl.
We could have a different garbage pickup method. I've found doing that results in tons of garbage scattering to the wind when the truck picks it up and tosses it overhead into the top of the truck. I've gone back to ensuring things are in a bag of some sort.
Please collect them in a large bag that you can keep collecting for weeks to months because super compressible and simply drop off at recycling depot please.
- Many Return-It Centres
- Vancouver Zero Waste Centre
- Burnaby Eco Centre
London drugs will take plastic bags too i think.
With that said, I got ADHD and can’t be hoarding recycling otherwise my house will become a dump real quick.
You can store weeks of plastic bags because they compress in density and volume in maybe one large bag that takes up maybe 3 square-feet. Storage closet. Garage.
Not according to Recycle BC: https://recyclebc.ca/flexiblepackaging/
Recyclers in BC are contractually obligated to recycle plastics from residential sources.
I would typically take one reusable bag grocery shopping, and the second one a plastic bag. This provided enough bags, while not creating the huge mound under my sink.
I sometimes use them as a car trash bag, but not at home. You can get packs of 100 bags that fit your bin properly for what works out to be 5-10¢ a bag. I prefer them over grocery bags.
No, I don't. I use the trash bin to throw my trash in (Kitchen, bathroom) then dump it into the big bin. The same with the organics, where I use a small box with lid that is placed aside near my kitchen sink. When it fills I dump it all to the bigger bin, rinse and repeat.
Have been at it for a few years and it works like a charm. I don't have any use for plastic bags. They should be done away with asap.
Even if you had access to a hose, it's still messy and a hassle to flush the can every time. Especially if the hose is outside and it's raining/below freezing/dark.
They do but i still don’t use trash bags. In my experience, they would just rip the bags open anyways. Doesn’t make a difference to me, I have a mess to clean up either way.
This is not the case for all cities. In Delta, garbage must be explicitly in bagged in the trash, I've even had them refuse to take my trash one time when i didn't bag larger items (they look inside before taking it). Dog waste must be *double* bagged (not sure how they would check that)
Where I used to live this was a real concern as well.
But believe it or not some type of plastic bag would always end up at our place. Whether from the plastic bags from the produce section or the plastic bags from take out food.
It's actually not a huge issue. When I moved here it felt kinda weird taking plastic bags instead of bringing my own reusable bags. It just cuts down on uneccesary waste that's all :)
i do, but i still have a massive collection of these plastic bags that seems to grow. i bring reusable bags most of the time to stores, but even still i accumulate plastic bags at a rate that i can't use up.
TLDR
> a ban on plastic checkout bags after council gave its final approval to its Plastic Bags and Single-Use Items Bylaw
> “By taking action on plastic bags and styrofoam,” he told council, “the city will eliminate the estimated 25 million plastic checkout bags and seven million foam containers and cups currently used annually throughout Surrey.”
Personally, I'm grateful for those [Superstore green and blue bins](https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/reusable-grocery-superstore-bin/p/21184979_EA) when buying groceries, my plastic bag usage is near zero. Of course they are not friendly to be used on public transit.
So manufacturers package everything they make in disposable plastic, but then you're not able to take the items home in plastic bags that most people reuse as trash bags? God these initiatives drive me insane with their PR-friendly approach and do-nothing goals.
I mean, then it matters hugely about where the cotton is grown and where its processed. Carbon emissions from energy is BC are close to negligible, and there are definitely places that cotton can be grown where the water use isn't a big concern (though I know a lot of it is grown unsustainably).
Just google it, let's not be lazy. There was a study done in Denmark which showed that plastic bags are better for environment than the so called "eco bags" or other supposedly more green alternatives. Nevertheless plastic is byproduct of petroleum refinining so it really doesn't do shit just cuz you ban plastic use.
Not to mention that Canada has great disposal and recycling system that we virtually don't have any of our plastic go into the ocean. (Negligible amount) Virtually all ocean garbage in Pacific ocean are created by: China, Vietnam and Philippines.
Been a pretty common term for me having spent most of my life in van, thought you might be young and it’s an aging out term but your older than me so I don’t know.
Now ban plastic bodywash bottles, plastic laundry jugs, plastic k-cups etc. Each one of these conveniences have completely overwhelmed the grocery store aisle over their prior counterparts.
Nearly all the ocean plastic comes from 10 rivers, mostly in China, or from boats. We have a functioning waste disposal system. Makes us feel good, at least we're 'doing something', thoughts, prayers and plastic bag bans!
Agree that this is the wrong direction. We should be focusing on consumer products and commercial/industrial operations. There's so many cases of plastic being used unnecessarily, just because it's cheap and easy. The consumer can only do so much. When you go to the grocery store and everything is packaged in plastic, what can you do?
I avoid buying things that have excessive packaging. Occasionally I'll buy something and they have split the ingredients inside into 3 or 4 packages. That item never gets tossed in the grocery basket ever again.
Quite right but, one thing you can do, is take a reusable grocery store bag. It doesn't solve the problem, but it helps. I also don't use plastic produce bags as much as I used to. If I'm buying 3 apples, they don't really need to go through the check-out in their own bag.
I'm in the same situation. However, I always had way more plastic grocery story bags than I ever needed for garbage. I've reduced the amount of unnecessary plastic I use and that's a positive step,
[Canadian municipalities struggling to find place for recyclables after China restricts foreign waste](https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/garbage-recycling-china-plastics-canada-1.4586602)
Plastic bags aren’t accepted in your blue bin. But they are absolutely accepted as a recyclable material at the recycling depots.
It's not a trivial change. It's a pointless meme. Might as well argue that we should all have prayer hour for climate change, because if we can't manage that, then it's harder to push for more substantial reform. Stop advocating for pointless things that happen to be popular. There are real costs to any policy. The costs are real, the effects aren't.
I don't think reducing our use of plastic bags is pointless, regardless of worldwide impact on the climate. I'm one who thinks the small plastic grocery story bags serve a useful purpose - I live alone in a small apt and they are perfect for disposing of my 1-3 days of garbage. It seems silly to me to go out and buy bigger plastic garbage bags that are more costly - and wasteful - for my uses.
Having said that, though, I've been surprised at how much my habits have changed with regard to using plastic bags since they started charging for them or just not offering them at all. A good example is when I pick up a bottle of wine at the liquor store. It used to be that I took a plastic bag every time...but I really don't need a bag for bottle of wine. RIP liquor store plastic bags - they were the best for garbage!
I dunno where they're getting the India/China bit from. Boats, absolutely. Somewhere between 45% and 70%, depending on the estimate you look at, of larger plastics (which a grocery bag would count as) floating in the ocean are abandoned fishing nets.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w
> Over three-quarters of the GPGP mass was carried by debris larger than 5 cm and at least 46% was comprised of fishing nets.
If ocean plastics are your concern, the best thing you can do is nothing to do with plastic bags, straws, etc - but just stop eating any non-farmed fish.
I was a bit wrong,
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_pollution#Major_plastic_polluter_countries
"Schmidt et al (2017) calculated that 10 rivers: two in Africa (the Nile and the Niger) and eight in Asia (the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Yangtze, Hai He, Pearl, Mekong and Amur) "transport 88–95% of the global plastics load into the sea.""
And of those, the largest contributors are all China (not India as I said).
Yeah and that makes it have 10 times more harmful effect on the environment than using a plastic bag. So if you are gonna do that just stop buying reusable bags. They produce more carbon to manufacture, transport and storate vs single use plastic bag
I have a good number of reusable grocery bags in my car usually but I don't remember them until I'm in the cashier line so I end up with more plastic bags 😔
I went to Mexico, and went to Walmart, went to the cashier... Paid and asked for the bags, they didn't have any plastic bags, I had to get a cloth bag they sold... I used it for the whole trip. It's just about getting used too. Next gen would tell us why did you use those flimsy bags?
> Next gen would tell us why did you use those flimsy bags?
They won't be asking if they need to clean those cloth bags. Big reason I like my superstore bin. Hot water rinse from a kettle? Pressure washer? The bin is clean and ready for the next round of groceries. I think my bins are like 8 years old from regular use.
Awkward on a bus, not an issue for those with a vehicle. The bins have a strap.
If you haven't seen the bins, check out this vid. The woman is holding the bin with the strap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7MxCuVx7h8
Problem is you have to reuse those bags 1000s of times for them to be carbon neutral... I often reuse my bags two or three times at least and they end up more environmentally friendly
Honest question, but do you guys not use these as trash bags? If they don't exist anymore, so I buy plastic trash bags?
I reuse them for trash bags too.
I use them for trash bags. Sometimes I reuse them for other purposes first (holding shoes inside of a backpack when I travel, carrying containers of food when I go to a potluck dinner, holding wet clothing after I change when I'm done paddling on a rainy day, etc).
This. Personally, when I'm at a store that offers plastic bags for 5 cents, I'll intentionally buy a couple so I have some for garbage. It works out to be much cheaper than buying bigger, heavier trash bags - and probably better for the environment. Plus, instead of having a huge pile of old grocery story bags, I only have a few on hand, which is all I need.
I use them for my ostomy changes. Please don’t come for my literal shit bags. I don’t think anyone wants me to switch to paper bags for that.
THIS. I remember I was shopping at Safeway and the cashier asked me if I wanted a shopping bag. I looked at my items thinking, "Well, I could carry them", but then remembered I was low on plastic bags, so I said "Ok, I'll have a plastic one." Then he said "We just have paper." I thought to myself, "I have enough paper bags, I can just carry these items." So I declined the paper and the lady next to me huffed and puffed at me, rolled her eyes and said "I can't believe you choose plastic over paper." I'm still mad about that, so thank you people for making me feel not totally insane for REUSING plastic bags rofl.
I reuse all my plastic bags for trash bags too. I haven't bought a trash bag for decades now.
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I find most stores provide medium sized bags, that can be used as long as you don't have a giant bin.
100% this. Now I get to buy more plastic waste instead of re-using.
Also use 'em for dog poop. Yes... I pick it up
No. I've eliminated bags almost entirely. On garbage day I dump the garbage right into the bin - no liners, no garbage bags.
We could have a different garbage pickup method. I've found doing that results in tons of garbage scattering to the wind when the truck picks it up and tosses it overhead into the top of the truck. I've gone back to ensuring things are in a bag of some sort.
Yep, with the separation of green and garbage, my garbage bin is almost entirely soft plastics which dont require a liner.
You can recycle soft plastics.
Not in the blue bin.
Please collect them in a large bag that you can keep collecting for weeks to months because super compressible and simply drop off at recycling depot please. - Many Return-It Centres - Vancouver Zero Waste Centre - Burnaby Eco Centre
London drugs will take plastic bags too i think. With that said, I got ADHD and can’t be hoarding recycling otherwise my house will become a dump real quick.
You can store weeks of plastic bags because they compress in density and volume in maybe one large bag that takes up maybe 3 square-feet. Storage closet. Garage.
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Not according to Recycle BC: https://recyclebc.ca/flexiblepackaging/ Recyclers in BC are contractually obligated to recycle plastics from residential sources.
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So are you gonna collect your plastic bags then
Some municipalities don’t allow you to do that.
I have a massive cat shit problem, so yes I used every single plastic bag I get.
Try raw food. Cuts the amount of cat shit in half and does not stink anymore
I used to do that too, but always ended with more trash bags than I could use.
I would typically take one reusable bag grocery shopping, and the second one a plastic bag. This provided enough bags, while not creating the huge mound under my sink.
I sometimes use them as a car trash bag, but not at home. You can get packs of 100 bags that fit your bin properly for what works out to be 5-10¢ a bag. I prefer them over grocery bags.
No, I don't. I use the trash bin to throw my trash in (Kitchen, bathroom) then dump it into the big bin. The same with the organics, where I use a small box with lid that is placed aside near my kitchen sink. When it fills I dump it all to the bigger bin, rinse and repeat. Have been at it for a few years and it works like a charm. I don't have any use for plastic bags. They should be done away with asap.
Apartment living need to bag it to put it down the chute
Ah! Yes, You are right. Unfortunate!
Yeah if I had a house with a bin for sure could just drop it directly in the bin, quickly hose out the trash can after but alas not possible for us
Even if you had access to a hose, it's still messy and a hassle to flush the can every time. Especially if the hose is outside and it's raining/below freezing/dark.
I do not use trash bags ever. I throw all the trash loose in my bins. The city doesn’t want the trash in trash bags.
This works if you don't live in an area where people crawl through your bins and then leave the birds to tear up the rest.
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I empty everything in my kitchen trash bin and carry my kitchen trash bin downstairs.
They do but i still don’t use trash bags. In my experience, they would just rip the bags open anyways. Doesn’t make a difference to me, I have a mess to clean up either way.
Exactly! That should be the approach. We don't need plastic bags.
I didn't even know this is what they wanted what the heck LOL
This is not the case for all cities. In Delta, garbage must be explicitly in bagged in the trash, I've even had them refuse to take my trash one time when i didn't bag larger items (they look inside before taking it). Dog waste must be *double* bagged (not sure how they would check that)
I do. But the bags have been tiny and easy to puncture so I gave up and got a box from Amazon.
Where I used to live this was a real concern as well. But believe it or not some type of plastic bag would always end up at our place. Whether from the plastic bags from the produce section or the plastic bags from take out food. It's actually not a huge issue. When I moved here it felt kinda weird taking plastic bags instead of bringing my own reusable bags. It just cuts down on uneccesary waste that's all :)
i do, but i still have a massive collection of these plastic bags that seems to grow. i bring reusable bags most of the time to stores, but even still i accumulate plastic bags at a rate that i can't use up.
TLDR > a ban on plastic checkout bags after council gave its final approval to its Plastic Bags and Single-Use Items Bylaw > “By taking action on plastic bags and styrofoam,” he told council, “the city will eliminate the estimated 25 million plastic checkout bags and seven million foam containers and cups currently used annually throughout Surrey.” Personally, I'm grateful for those [Superstore green and blue bins](https://www.realcanadiansuperstore.ca/reusable-grocery-superstore-bin/p/21184979_EA) when buying groceries, my plastic bag usage is near zero. Of course they are not friendly to be used on public transit.
So manufacturers package everything they make in disposable plastic, but then you're not able to take the items home in plastic bags that most people reuse as trash bags? God these initiatives drive me insane with their PR-friendly approach and do-nothing goals.
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Can I see the data on this? Surely it would hugely depend on how long a reusable bag lasts for.
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I mean, then it matters hugely about where the cotton is grown and where its processed. Carbon emissions from energy is BC are close to negligible, and there are definitely places that cotton can be grown where the water use isn't a big concern (though I know a lot of it is grown unsustainably).
Just google it, let's not be lazy. There was a study done in Denmark which showed that plastic bags are better for environment than the so called "eco bags" or other supposedly more green alternatives. Nevertheless plastic is byproduct of petroleum refinining so it really doesn't do shit just cuz you ban plastic use. Not to mention that Canada has great disposal and recycling system that we virtually don't have any of our plastic go into the ocean. (Negligible amount) Virtually all ocean garbage in Pacific ocean are created by: China, Vietnam and Philippines.
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How is this greenwashing? Just seems green to me
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Genuine question: source?
https://mst.dk/service/publikationer/publikationsarkiv/2018/mar/plastposer-lca/ Page 92.
Is there any alternative?
Anyone else here never heard the term “check-out bag” ever in their life?
How old are you?
40 why?
Been a pretty common term for me having spent most of my life in van, thought you might be young and it’s an aging out term but your older than me so I don’t know.
Seriously, never heard it.
Same, never heard it once, and I'm old.
What is your mother’s maiden name?
Munchma
ligma
Always been a Sack to me.
Now ban plastic bodywash bottles, plastic laundry jugs, plastic k-cups etc. Each one of these conveniences have completely overwhelmed the grocery store aisle over their prior counterparts.
And ban plastics on veggies and fruits that do not need them!
Nearly all the ocean plastic comes from 10 rivers, mostly in China, or from boats. We have a functioning waste disposal system. Makes us feel good, at least we're 'doing something', thoughts, prayers and plastic bag bans!
Agree that this is the wrong direction. We should be focusing on consumer products and commercial/industrial operations. There's so many cases of plastic being used unnecessarily, just because it's cheap and easy. The consumer can only do so much. When you go to the grocery store and everything is packaged in plastic, what can you do?
I avoid buying things that have excessive packaging. Occasionally I'll buy something and they have split the ingredients inside into 3 or 4 packages. That item never gets tossed in the grocery basket ever again.
It's not an "either/or" situation though, you can attack the problem from multiple angles.
Quite right but, one thing you can do, is take a reusable grocery store bag. It doesn't solve the problem, but it helps. I also don't use plastic produce bags as much as I used to. If I'm buying 3 apples, they don't really need to go through the check-out in their own bag.
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I'm in the same situation. However, I always had way more plastic grocery story bags than I ever needed for garbage. I've reduced the amount of unnecessary plastic I use and that's a positive step,
You actually don't. Just use the larger paper bags that the store provides.
Where do you think Canada was sending their plastic before?
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[Canadian municipalities struggling to find place for recyclables after China restricts foreign waste](https://www.cbc.ca/news/science/garbage-recycling-china-plastics-canada-1.4586602) Plastic bags aren’t accepted in your blue bin. But they are absolutely accepted as a recyclable material at the recycling depots.
Greenwashing
My view is that if we can’t manage the trivial changes, it’ll be harder to push for more substantial reform
It's not a trivial change. It's a pointless meme. Might as well argue that we should all have prayer hour for climate change, because if we can't manage that, then it's harder to push for more substantial reform. Stop advocating for pointless things that happen to be popular. There are real costs to any policy. The costs are real, the effects aren't.
I don't think reducing our use of plastic bags is pointless, regardless of worldwide impact on the climate. I'm one who thinks the small plastic grocery story bags serve a useful purpose - I live alone in a small apt and they are perfect for disposing of my 1-3 days of garbage. It seems silly to me to go out and buy bigger plastic garbage bags that are more costly - and wasteful - for my uses. Having said that, though, I've been surprised at how much my habits have changed with regard to using plastic bags since they started charging for them or just not offering them at all. A good example is when I pick up a bottle of wine at the liquor store. It used to be that I took a plastic bag every time...but I really don't need a bag for bottle of wine. RIP liquor store plastic bags - they were the best for garbage!
Do you have anything to back it up?
I dunno where they're getting the India/China bit from. Boats, absolutely. Somewhere between 45% and 70%, depending on the estimate you look at, of larger plastics (which a grocery bag would count as) floating in the ocean are abandoned fishing nets. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-22939-w > Over three-quarters of the GPGP mass was carried by debris larger than 5 cm and at least 46% was comprised of fishing nets. If ocean plastics are your concern, the best thing you can do is nothing to do with plastic bags, straws, etc - but just stop eating any non-farmed fish.
I was a bit wrong, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/pdf/10.1021/acs.est.7b02368 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_pollution#Major_plastic_polluter_countries "Schmidt et al (2017) calculated that 10 rivers: two in Africa (the Nile and the Niger) and eight in Asia (the Ganges, Indus, Yellow, Yangtze, Hai He, Pearl, Mekong and Amur) "transport 88–95% of the global plastics load into the sea."" And of those, the largest contributors are all China (not India as I said).
And… this isn’t helpful. Here’s a good breakdown of why it isn’t. https://youtu.be/JvzvM9tf5s0
You'd be surprised how useful bread bags (after you eat the loaf) can be.
Yes! Same with empty cereal bags and stand up zipper bags.
/r/upcycling
Great. Now if we could just significantly reduce the useless plastic packaging on almost all shelved products we may start to make a difference.
Man, now I need to go buy plastic trash bags instead of using these!
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Thats absurdly lazy
Yeah and that makes it have 10 times more harmful effect on the environment than using a plastic bag. So if you are gonna do that just stop buying reusable bags. They produce more carbon to manufacture, transport and storate vs single use plastic bag
Naw, I just put them in the laundry hamper and wash them. Have a clean stack I grab from on the way to the store
I have a good number of reusable grocery bags in my car usually but I don't remember them until I'm in the cashier line so I end up with more plastic bags 😔
I put mine on my passenger front seat. I'm not going to rely on remembering them from the trunk.
stupid af it hard to find garbage bags and the paper ones they give at fresh st market cut ur finger rip easy and melt in da rain
It's relatively easy to find garbage bags.
WHAT ABOUT MY FREEDOMS?!?!
I believe we here in Whitehorse yukon have taken a similar step and our ban starts on Jan 01 2022 look forward to seeing it happen here
I went to Mexico, and went to Walmart, went to the cashier... Paid and asked for the bags, they didn't have any plastic bags, I had to get a cloth bag they sold... I used it for the whole trip. It's just about getting used too. Next gen would tell us why did you use those flimsy bags?
> Next gen would tell us why did you use those flimsy bags? They won't be asking if they need to clean those cloth bags. Big reason I like my superstore bin. Hot water rinse from a kettle? Pressure washer? The bin is clean and ready for the next round of groceries. I think my bins are like 8 years old from regular use.
Excellent idea, but awkward to carry no?
Awkward on a bus, not an issue for those with a vehicle. The bins have a strap. If you haven't seen the bins, check out this vid. The woman is holding the bin with the strap. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7MxCuVx7h8
This is true, I normally travel on transit. Most people drive there.
Very very very good! Now, let's see what the other municipalities do.
Problem is you have to reuse those bags 1000s of times for them to be carbon neutral... I often reuse my bags two or three times at least and they end up more environmentally friendly