Toshbaf

More cities are banning plastic bags. This is turning me into a thief. Before, I never took the plastic laundry bag in hotels. I don't like them because they sometimes look old. I use them to put clothes in them. I used to use grocery store bags.

Occasionally, I will shop in grocery stores in another city. Now I have to look up if plastic bags are banned.

Chicago - 7 cents per any plastic or paper bag (2/1/2017) (plastic bag ban ended 2016)
New York - 5 cents per plastic bag 2/15/2017
Seattle - plastic bags banned, 5 cents for large paper bags
California - plastic bags banned

Houston - no ban
Philadelphia - no ban
St. Louis - no ban

kennycrudup

Reusable plastic bags are $0.10 in CA statewide now, only the thin single-use bags are banned.

I wonder what the state is doing with the bag-tax $$; I don't know about you guys, but I neither remember to bring the reusable bags back on my trips to the grocery store, nor have I stopped throwing them away.

stut

It's been in force for a few years here (and far longer in several countries I travel to) and you get used to it.

Personally, I prefer the canvas bags that fold in on themselves - always have one in my coat pocket.

ibrandsguest

Tax increases do not justify theft from hotels.

davie355

I'd get used to it, but the small trash can in my bathroom will always need a bag.

I always reuse plastic bags as trash bags. If I can't get these for free as byproducts of grocery shopping, I'll have to pay for actual trash bags, which is a net zilch for the environment and a net loss for my wallet.

gfunkdave

I used to save my plastic grocery bags and use them to dispose of soiled kitty litter. Portland (PWM, not PDX) charges $0.05 per bag so now I use trash bags for litter. We keep several reusable grocery bags in the car for shopping. It works out fine.

sethweinstein

You beat me to it. I also use them as trash bags. I find the canvas ones generally too big, and I like to stuff everything into a backpack (I live in NYC and walk to the store, sometimes a mile or so depending on what I'm shopping for). The plastic ones are perfect for that.

I thought there was talk of not putting the charge into effect in New York, at least not immediately. But I haven't researched it in a while.

I always forget that I'm going to get paper when I'm in California, and the paper ones are dreadful because I can't sling them over my arm.

Seth

kennycrudup

"Theft"? You certainly can't be talking about that cheap little plastic bag that's on a hanger in the closet?!

krazykanuck

I live alone, so I don't generate much trash. Plastic grocery bags work well as my trash bags. When I wind up with too many of them I'll recycle them.

matrixwalker2012

This is what I think is one of the most shortsighted aspects of that bag ban. Before, those plastic bags were reused as trash bags such that I hadn't bought trash bags for years. Now, i have to pay for plastic bags to throw away, and when i have to pay for something that I throw away, I'm not going to buy the fancy good for the environment trash bags that cost a fortune. I'm buying cheap. Net zilch for the environment and negative on my wallet.

Jaimito Cartero

Theft is a pretty strong allegation.

paperwastage

not really... I see plenty of people not reusing those bags (my local supermarket has bins for people to recycle such bags and those bins aren't empty)

I do repurpose them as trash bags, but some don't/can't (house owners need to put trash out in large 10+gallon bags for collection. of course they can still use them as animal waste bags)

kilbornr

There are two environmental issues going on:
1) The energy used to make the bag
2) The trash impact of having the bag end up outside the normal waste stream (i.e. in rivers and oceans)

Plastic bag bans are actually a negative for #1 since the thin bags are far more energy and resource efficient than alternatives (even reusables which often required 10x to 100x more energy than a thin bag)

For #2, reusable bags are a positive and this is the main reason why the bag bans are in effect.

Yoshi212

Living in Brooklyn I stop by the store 2-3 times a week doing small purchases that often go in the small plastic bags or just toss the items in my messenger bag. For a "big shop" where I go to a full grocery store and stock up on stuff I bring the smaller blue Ikea bag that holds 2-3 paper bags of groceries plus some other stuff easily. The Trader Joe's brown paper bags get reused as recycling disposal.

CDTraveler

I first encountered a fee for grocery bag in the Netherlands well over 20 years ago. Since then I've been gradually working toward not using store bags whenever possible. If you go to enough conferences/fairs/events you can easily accumulate a supply of good quality reusables for free.

On those times when I forget my reusables and end up with grocery store bags, they go straight into the bag for bag recycling because they're now so thin and flimsy that most of them have holes in them by the time we get the groceries unpacked. Wouldn't dare put kitty litter in them! Those bags would likely split and spill unmentionable stuff across the rug on the way to the garbage can. Kitty litter goes into a covered trash can lined with a heavy duty trash bag that can hold several days' worth plus extra trash without splitting.

One of the most useful reusable bags that I have is a lightweight nylon one that folds up very small. I often put it in a pocket when I'm going out and not sure if I'll be doing any shopping. I have an extra one of those I keep in the pocket of my rollaboard now so it's handy when I'm traveling.

I'd like to see the actual numbers on that. Does your theory take into account that the thin bags are so thin, so flimsy, that baggers usually double and sometimes triple bag groceries with them?