We reuse ours, too, Rosa. If the stores start charging, the family will probably start calling for us to make more bags for them, eh?

SharonG/Fl

Thus far, only one store in my area charges for bags. On the other hand only one store gives me a 3 cent credit for bringing in one of their re-useable bags. I carry a half dozen of the re-useable bags in the backseat of my car at all times. When I go to the store that offers me a 3 cent credit I take in their bags, otherwise I grab whatever is on the top of the pile. There is a small fee to purchase these re-useable bags but I've been lucky enough to get mine for nothing. My "3 cent credit bags" were handed out at a "Go Green" fair they held here, the others came from when one store was just introducing re-useable bags - each of the first 50 customers received one and the others came from a local bank celebrating a birthday. I don't care, they all work for me. I find it works best for our family if after emptying the bags I fold and take them out to the car right away, thus I'm assured they are always available. That few steps doesn't bother me. Budster.

Walmart hasnt started to charge for their bags so I bring in my own all the time and if I forget to bring them in I tell the cashier that I dont want bags for my groceries..I then bag them at the car..they have never questioned me and always tell the greeters that I have paid for my groceries.....Love my cloth bags...Judy

I wish they would STOP with the plastic bags already!!! They are handy items, but the problems they cause in our environment is a crime!!! I ask for paper when I can,and Ive started taking my own bags...

up here in Canada, Walmart has been selling reusable bags for .99 for awhile now. All the grocery stores do the same as well as several other department stores.

Faye

Here in coastal Georgia we do not even recyle the trash. Savannah is just starting and the mayor fought it as way too expensive to implement.
DH and I have been having a hard time getting used to not recycling. I did not really take to the plastic bottles of water but sometimes I was forced to use them until I bought my own refillable water holder.
I can't break the paper towel addition (maybe just don't want to LOL) but I don't use them as much and I use old socks and cloths to clean with and wash them to reuse. The macrocloths can be used for windows and chrome with just a small amount of water and they look better than the Windexed ones.
None of the stores here or in central Florida offered paper bags.
The irony is that the paper mill (Rayonier) is very close to us and the farmers here grow trees for them, and they have their own tree farms here too.
Rosa

Charging for plastic bags is a good idea, we would have to have a mind set change. I hate plastic bags but get in a hurry and forget to ask for paper or take my own. Those sorry excuses for bags they give at Wal mart fall apart before we even get to our car. If more would charge, we may get angry enough to bring our own each time, and it may even help us that forget.

Rita

I find it works best for our family if after emptying the bags I fold and take them out to the car right away, thus I'm assured they are always available. That few steps doesn't bother me. Budster.

That's the way I do it. I bought my bags years ago to take to our local Aldi's who do not have free bags. You bring your own or pay for them. I have made notes of some of the free online bag patterns people on this forum have discussed, and I plan to make a few more from those patterns. By leaving them in my car, I have found other uses for my rugged canvas ones. I have taken them with me to fruit farms to bag up things like apples, so I wouldn't have to take or pay for bushel baskets, used them for wet laundry in a pinch. In my car, I have one of those bins. In it I keep all things I may need handy. Umbrella, bottle of window washer, roll of towels, my grocery bags. Has come in handy so many times.

You all sound so efficient. I, too, hate those plastic bags-one broke on me last week on the way to the car. Maybe I could make a few cloth bags and keep them in my car. Do you just bag your own groceries? Even though I try to seperate items in to like items they often just pile it all together. I have learned a few clerks I don't go to their register. Sometimes I have quite a large basket ful. I'd have to have many bags. I could use the self check and put them in the bag on the scales then take them out and put them in my bags. Those plastic bags multiply in my storeroom.

Sally

I too wish all stores would completely quit the plastic bags. I am at fault for forgetting to take my own bags so I keep collecting the plastic ones. Most stores offer the reusable ones. If we had to spend 99 cents to get a bag, I would soon remember mine. LOL

I have made a few of my own bags to use up unwanted fabric but I find it more work than they are worth when you can buy them for .99.
Jean

A local city just banned plastic bags entirely. It's kind of an upscale city, so I'm curious to see how that works out.

Bags are so easy to get or make...we've really gotten into bringing our own. Our grocery pays .05 per bag you bring, and another gives you a raffle type ticket for $25 shopping for each bag you bring in.

I keep 7-8 in the back of the car; a few "pretty" ones to use for non-grocery shopping. After emptying, I hang them on the doorknob so I grab them the next time I go out. It took a little getting used to, but now DH even takes his own bags!

From what kind of material are these 99 cent bags made? Petroleum based?

As I travel so far in the heat of summer, I have coolers and cooler bags to handle all the stuff that should stay cool. From my working days, I picked up quite a few totes at conferences. I also find them at Good Will. They need to be pretty sturdy.

calliope, that is a good question. I just looked and there is not a tag sewn in them, but there was a removable tag that probably said. The Walmart and Sobeys bags have kind of a waterproof coating but the Superstore and Canadian Tire bags are a black fabric and I'm sure they were called 'green bags' and are made of something recycled. I think they are a great idea and mine are sitting by the back door waiting to go back out to my car.

Faye

I saw a sign for some of those bags at a grocery store here that said that they were made from 60% recycled plastic bags.

I take big canvas ones to the grocery store - I can get a whole cart's worth of groceries in two, AND the straps are long enough I can carry them in the house over my shoulder.
Anjea

About time!
The problem with paper bags is that they are very polluting to make. Wood sounds green, but I read on the internet that paper bags are NOT the answer. Bags have been paying here for a couple of years. It's just like when I was a child now. You take your own bags shopping.No problem.

I used to have those fabric net bags. They folded up into nothing, yet were quite strong. When we lived in France, when I was young, they were the typical bag one carried for shopping. When I would go to England to visit my kids, before they moved here, I was quite disappointed to find plastic bags being the norm in stores there too.

Anjea, I can get a whole shopping trip worth of groceries into three of my bags. I have counted store packers using up to twenty plastic ones to pack up the same amount of food.

It's a mind set I guess to make the change. I agree that those plastic bags are not great. But when I do a monthly shopping trip (most cost effective for me) I walk out of the store with two shopping carts full of bagged groceries. I would have to carry in a cart-full of empty fabric bags to have enough to fill with all those groceries!

I'm not sure what the answer is for me...will have to think on it.

Bringing plastic bags back for your next shopping trip along with some fabric ones will reduce the bulk of bags. They don't take up much room. Use them until they break.

At target, they sell large tote bags that fold & snap closed & smaller tote bags that zip up. And then they sell the standard size that grocery stores sell. I love the big one.

My last shopping trip was small, but the bagger stuffed 1/4 of a cart of stuff into 2 bags (cashier gave me credit for 4) They were a bit heavy, but I managed. The bagger could have lightened the load a bit. I'm finding that one of my reusable bags is getting a hole in it...probably from toting around multiple 2ltrs in one bag.

If my trip is a onsie purchase, I often tell them not to bag it.

What irritates me about plastic is:
1. They rip.
2. Because they rip...the stores double bag stuff w/out question.
3. They roll around in my trunk & I end up having to tie them shut (which makes it harder to bring multiple bags in the house). (Reusable bags are more secure)
4. I take more trips from the car to the house.
5. they are inconvenient to recycle.
6. They don't fit over the shoulder.

What I LIKE about them:
1. I have a trash can frame that supports the plastic bag handle style so that I can reuse them.
2. Need something for litter box use.
3. They are available when I forget my reusables.

While reorganizing my sewing room I rediscovered several canvas bags that I had accumulated over the years from venders etc. I picked out the biggest and what seemed to be suited to shopping and started using them. They hold more then the plastic bags and are stronger. The problem I find is that the clerks haven't developed a system that works to pack them even though the stores promote their use. I have asked for their imput but as yet not found it very satisfactory. As to packing myself--I don't think so-not when they charge for the service they give. We keep foldable boxes in the car that keep bags inplace nicely, and close when not in use.
As it still a learning curve I keep the bags between the front seats of the car to remind me to take them in, hopefully that will not always be necessary. The only one that charges here is Aldi but several offer reusable bags to purchase. Having had some really bad experiences with plastic I think cloth is the way to go. Jayne

You are right, the ones from Canadian Tire and Superstore are made from recycled materials. I have one I am going to recover with a quilted fabric square just to rid myself of the odd biker logo on the front. What can I say, my niece handed it to me with a "here I know you will use this somehow". I have used it but hate that biker design on the front. Better me use it than it gets tossed out with the trash. Budster.

I received this from a friend. I can't I really thought of how bad they were before. Now I'm going to look into buying some "green bags."

Vicky

Here is a link that might be useful: The Danger of Plastic bags

That link sure makes us look bad, doesn't it - determined to not use any plastic bags in the grocery stores, I made 5 rather large, sturdy canvas bags from a pattern found on the Web, and have been using them for weeks now. I keep them in a small box in the backseat of my car. So far I've had very positive responses from checkers in the stores. Only negative to using them is they do hold alot, and the checkers and sackers tend to fill them to the brim, making them kinda heavy to lift out of the cart, etc. Sometimes I have a handful of items left over after they've bagged my stuff, and I tell them to just leave the things loose in the cart - I'll finish sacking them in the car - and I put those items in the box that I keep the sacks in! I think I'll start recycling other plastics too - milk jugs, etc. The planet is becoming one large garbage dump!