The smallest encounters with strangers keep life interesting.
Did you report what you saw and about him taking the bags? I would have.

Where was that snitty little employee to snatch the bags from him?

Ha, funny stuff.

Marie, I should have gone inside the building to report it, but I'll try doing it on the phone. Car person that I am, I can describe the guy's vehicle to them.

Good question, Katlan. LOL

I notice when I ask for paper bags for the groceries, (because I forgot to take my bags in with me) that they fill them very full. They obviously aren't going to use any more than neccessary. I'm always afraid they will tear open, they are so heavy.
If you report it, maybe they will be able to put a stop to it.

I don't understand why plastic bags are allowed. The impact they have on the environment is terrible. Birds get caught in them, there are huge masses of them in the ocean clumped together along with assorted garbage down in areas of the caribbean. Why doesn't the EPA ban them outright? One grocery chain here in Manitoba will give you paper bags, but only if you ask for them, and more often than not they say they don't have any. They seem to resent giving them out.

That fellow taking them out of the recycling is probably reselling them. There! Now I am getting off my soap box. Thanks for listening.

My crazy update gets even crazier. I called the recycling center to report the guy taking the paper bags, and was told they actually prefer the magazines and newspapers to be dumped loose into the bin. So he was happy about the guy snatching the bags. I told him to change his website, because that's where I got the instructions to place these items in paper grocery bags.

Dex, I agree with you about plastic bags. The marine life issue alone should be enough to justify a ban.

and was told they actually prefer the magazines and newspapers to be dumped loose into the bin.
Well, I was just thinking along the lines of them not wanting the papers 'left in' plastic bags when recycled. When I take my few papers to recycling, I put them in recycled plastic bags, and then dump the contents into the paper bin, and add the plastic bag to their plastic bag recycle bin.

I told him to change his website, because that's where I got the instructions to place these items in paper grocery bags.
Yep, very misleading. I'd be interested in knowing if the employee updates the site with some better instructions.

It seemed rather crazy to me that with all the efforts to recycle these days that your recycling center would request that the newspapers be brought in in paper bags, when those of us who recycle use cloth bags for groceries. The few times I get plastic bags I use them for garbage (can't compost here) and I'm sort of up the creek when I find I don't have anymore bags. I'm old enough to remember when we used to wrap our garbage in newspapers!

We're lucky enough here to have curbside recycling so we only have to place the newspapers in the box. However, even before we had curbside and I would shlep all my stuff to the recycling center I never had to put the newspapers in anything, just dump them in the container.

I applaud you for your efforts.

Thanks, Maxmom and Chemocurl. I'll bet the website doesn't get updated.

It's pretty easy to understand why most stores prefer to give out plastic instead of paper bags when you figure the paper bag costs 10-20 times what a plastic bag costs. And people grab fists full to take with them and complain about the store prices! Stores tried using the grocery tote boxes and they'd wind up in peoples' basements. Selling bags is resisted in many stores so they have to eat the cost or not provide them. Reusable bags are being resisted by many people too which seems silly to me.

We used to bundle the newspapers - tied with twine. Seems to me to be a preferable choice to bags anyway.

A little recycling story: Back when recycling first started here I called the City to see if peanut butter jars could be recycled if they were washed out. According to the information they sent out, it wasn't clear. The lady on the phone argued with me that "they're so ISHY to clean out people don't want to clean them so you might as well throw it in the garbage!" Uh, that's not what I asked Martha... I asked can it be recycled if I clean it? "Well yes, I suppose..." Geez.

Although I didn't like the increased cost, I do appreciate the "no sort" recycling we have now. Biggest problem is the additional "dumpster" cart to hide since, here, it's prohibited for them to be seen from the street.

And time was you would put leaves, twigs and such in bags at the curb and tie up branches for yard waste collection which is now prohibited so now there's yet another cart to hide!

We have curbside recycling blue boxes that the city picks up. Every other garbage day we can put out yard waste in yard paper bags and trash cans that have the yellow Yard Waste sticker on. They get picked up and composted by the city and every year (it's on now) we can go and fill up containers, pick-up trucks, trailers, whatever we want, with free compost.

Instead of having the city get our newspapers we take ours and my parents to the Humane Society. They have a large dumpster that Abitibi picks up, and pays the Humane Society. Papers are supposed to go in there loose, but there are often plastic bags full of papers.

Several groceries have been asked to charge a nickel for each plastic bag that we order: many are doing it: they keep the money. Some suggestions have been that they donate the money to a charity.

Others pile the emptied cases by the door and people can pick them up to carry their groceries out ... but one such store recently renovated ... and stopped putting those cartons out.

So ... I'm considering taking the largest box/produce tray that I can find at home, with me into that store and tote it around as I shop, getting into the way of some store staff, to let them know how I feel about that decision (they've heard me, verbally, previously).

ole mischievous joyful

We have a recycle pick up here, every 2 weeks. At first, it as one bin with paper and cans/jars separated. Then, you had to bundle your paper and cardboard separately and put them in a cardboard box. Only, the pick up crew would dump the box cardboard box, then leave it on the lawn! I asked why they didn't take it, and was told it would have to be broken down so they don't take up too much room, and they don't have time to break down every box.

Now, we have two boxes. Blue for jars and containers, red for paper goods.

As for groceries, we purchased grocery bins that we place in the cart to fill, then bring home. I also use re-useable bags, but truth be told I prefer the bins. They hold more but are easier to carry, for me. If you want a plastic bag at most stores, they cost anywhere fro 5-10 cents each. I don't believe anyplace around here carries paper any longer.

Dances.

I was reading this wonder why in the H*LL would you need to put the stuff in a paper bag just to dump it at the recycle bin? This is what I'm thinking maybe the deal could be, where we live you are supposed to put paper and magazines etc into a paper bag for pickup at your house. They give us bins and they pick up a couple times a month. At the recycle bins were you take them, you just toss them in there loose.

Dances, what are these "grocery bins"?

This is what Dances is referring to Kat. We can buy these as well as the reusable bags.

Yes Kat, those are them! (thanks Jasdip!). Those are from a store called Zehrs or The Great Canadian Superstore (same owner). There are other bins from other stores as well that I have seen. I have a black one from Food Basics around here somewhere - probably holding toys downstairs LOL.

They have straps (two lengths on mine, actually), and also molded handles in the sides. The carts at that store or gianormous and shaped differently, they can hold one bin on a top level, two on the lower level, and one more underneath at the front.

I used to try and keep one bin empty, with the idea that I can drop my filled bins on the conveyor, and the cashier could ring the items from one bin and drop them in the empty, and so on. Seemed very efficient to me.

However, the cashiers were getting repetitive strain injury from doing that so now they ask that you remove the items from the bin and place on the belt. Of course, we have to pack our own items down at the other end.

The bins nest nicely, and I find they stay cleaner than the bags do. I also find the bags tend to tip over in the car, whereas the bins do not.

Dances.

I'd like to say, "Bin there - done that"!

But can't, being as how I've been too stingy to buy the bins, preferring instead to pick up an empty carton or, preferably, produce tray that the staff that load the shelves have placed in bins out beyond the check-out lines, in some of the discount grocery stores - but one, when renovating recently, stopped putting them out, as most of the major grocery stores do not (trying to go uppity, I guess).

That's the one where I'm considering taking in trays picked up from other stores.

One store that doesn't charge a fee per bag has fairly large yellow bags, with a stylized pic of a tiger's head on it ...

... maybe I'll have to take some of them with me to the stores that charge a fee per bag, to hang draped over the cart as I do my shopping.

I agree with Dances - that the bags tend to flop over, in the car.

ole conservationist - plus mischievous joyful

What an odd twist to the recycling saga. It's a good thing your paper bag reclaimer doesn't live near our place in Milford. The recycling containers there are single stream so everything (except aluminum cans) gets dumped into a huge container. You'd never be able to reach inside to retrieve something unless it was nearly full. But by then everything is wet or has broken glass on it. I wonder how long ago the recycling department decided that you didn't need to use paper bags....

In the words of the wise Kermit...it's not easy being green.....

Yup, Maire . . . Kermit nailed it.