What to do with an old bag

[tvashtarkatena]

I use old grocery bags for slings. Saves me a lot of $$$.

 

Anybody wanna go climbing?

[fenderfour]

Yes, but I will use my rack.

[archenemy]

The link ScottP posted was great--thanks for that.

It is a good idea to have more education around this--I didn't know all that stuff. And asking me to take a P Chem course before saying what I think about environmentally friendly options is as funny as me expecting people to take programming classes before they complain about their computers.

[tvashtarkatena]

I use old grocery bags for slings. Saves me a lot of $$$.

 

Anybody wanna go climbing?

 

Breaking strength: 22 fN (fig Newtons)

[chucK]

fig newtons!

 

I recycle our plastic grocery bags right away by using them as garbage bags for the kitchen garbage. Never have to buy the boxes of plastic garbage bags. Having a small kitchen garbage pail (that you need to take out every night) also seems to help in the summer to control the inevitable fruit fly-festation.

 

Tangent: You guys know what I'm talking about by "fruit fly-festation"? Anybody found anything that works to decrease the fruit fly population in your homes during summer months?

 

 

[archenemy]

Yes, first, leave out either a half glass of white wine or else apple juice with a bit of vinegar in it and they'll drown.

 

Also, if you have houseplants, sand the tops of the soil with about 1/4 inch of fine sand. The little buggers breed in these, so cut them off at the pass.

[catbirdseat]

Soon you will have a bag that looks and functions like a plastic bag, but it will be made of biodegradable corn starch.

[jaee]

Anybody found anything that works to decrease the fruit fly population in your homes during summer months?

 

Pet bat.

[archenemy]

Soon you will have a bag that looks and functions like a plastic bag, but it will be made of biodegradable corn starch.

By that time, I'll call it a clostomy

[tvashtarkatena]

But when will Papa have a bran new bag?

[snoboy]

According to this analysis, plastic is more environmentally friendly and fossil fuel efficient than paper, particularly if plastic recycle rates continue to go up (they currently lag behind paper recycling rates). This is what I would have suspected, considering how much less material goes into a plastic bag verses a paper one.

 

Paper verses plastic

 

Take your own reusable bags, of course, is the real message here.

 

Thanks for that info (sources.) I had long thought that I had heard this arguement, and found it beleivable. I couldn't back it up though, and lately it has become relevant as our town council passed a resolution yesterday to make our town plastic bag free... The solution being offered is reusable bags, not paper, but I wonder if it will up the usage of paper bags.

 

Soon you will have a bag that looks and functions like a plastic bag, but it will be made of biodegradable corn starch.

 

We already do don't we???

[cj001f]

Why not just require people to be charged for plastic bags (or better yet, proportionally on the energy conservation of their bag of choice)

[underworld]

and tax them more if they drove to the grocery store...based on what they drove. discounts to walkers and bikers, right.

 

where does it end?

[cj001f]

and tax them more if they drove to the grocery store...based on what they drove. discounts to walkers and bikers, right.

 

where does it end?

 

Well, tax the fuel. Make them pay proportional to resource consumption - better than the market distorting subsidization occurring now - which will just have some big government savior action in the end.

 

 

[fenderfour]

State tax on gasoline is currently 35 cents/gallon

 

I think there is a federal tax too, but Uhh.. I'm too dumb to know it.

[tvashtarkatena]

The problem with fabric grocery bags is they exude a certain smugness, particularly when they have a picture of Mother Earth or the PCC logo on them. You just can't pad around silently and softly enough in your Birkenstocks to live up to their unbending expectations of sanctity.

 

There must be a market for other kinds of grocery bags. Black leather studded Harley bags, Patagonia Silite bags, Victoria's Secret lace bags, bags that say "My other bag is a Shitzu", NASCAR bags, "BUSHIT" bags.

 

Will grocery bags become the new bumper sticker?

[sk]

The problem with fabric grocery bags is they exude a certain smugness, particularly when they have a picture of Mother Earth or the PCC logo on them. You just can't pad around silently and softly enough in your Birkenstocks to live up to their unbending expectations of sanctity.

 

There must be a market for other kinds of grocery bags. Black leather studded Harley bags, Patagonia Silite bags, Victoria's Secret lace bags, bags that say "My other bag is a Shitzu", NASCAR bags, "BUSHIT" bags.

 

Will grocery bags become the new bumper sticker?

 

they have those they are called purses

[Mr_Phil]

State tax on gasoline is currently 35 cents/gallon

 

I think there is a federal tax too, but Uhh.. I'm too dumb to know it.

 

And too dumb to google it.

 

18.4 c/gal

 

Washington has the second highest state gasoline tax in the nation.

[sobo]

State tax on gasoline is currently 35 cents/gallon

 

I think there is a federal tax too, but Uhh.. I'm too dumb to know it.

 

WA State tax on gasoline and diesel fuel is currently at $0.34/gallon.

 

Federal rate is $0.184/gallon as of 2005.

[cj001f]

State tax on gasoline is currently 35 cents/gallon

 

I think there is a federal tax too, but Uhh.. I'm too dumb to know it.

 

And too dumb to google it.

 

18.4 c/gal

 

Washington has the second highest state gasoline tax in the nation.

 

I'd wager the demand curve is fairly flat between current prices and current prices - 52.4. Add another $1 or $2 and see what happens. And perhaps cut other taxes at the same time to keep revenue relatively constant

[AlpineK]

Recyclable plastic bags, which I find in every grocery store here, require less energy to make, less energy to transport, and less energy to recycle. Ignorance is bliss!

 

This is what I've always figured. I always get plastic unless I need a trash bag then I ask for paper. You can put more junk in a paper bag than one of those plastic jobs

[fenderfour]

State tax on gasoline is currently 35 cents/gallon

 

I think there is a federal tax too, but Uhh.. I'm too dumb to know it.

 

And too dumb to google it.

 

18.4 c/gal

 

Washington has the second highest state gasoline tax in the nation.

 

Yeah, I can only hold so much useless knowledge in my head at one time. I must have forgotten about that fancy Google thing.

[Recycled]

Obviously reusable bags are best, particularly when you get the 5 cent refund for using your own bags at many grocery stores. That adds up to about $20/year for our family, as well as the resource conservation and pollution reduction benefits.

 

As pointed out, plastic bags are next best IF they get recycled. Unfortunately, well-meaning but uninformed retailers such as MEC think it's a good idea to use biodegradable bags in retail applications. It's not - the biodegradable plastic contaminates and weakens the standard poly bag feedstock if they enter the recycling stream. You don't want your recycled lawnmower wheels to photo- or biodegrade because the film plastic they were made from was contaminated with degradable plastics!

 

You'll probably be hearing more about the differences in biodegradable vs. poly plastic bags in the near future. Foodwaste composting program promote the use of specific biodegradable bags for containing foodwaste, while poly bags are a real problem. The reverse is true for regular poly bag recycling at grocery stores.

 

The world is getting more complicated...

[tvashtarkatena]

The problem with fabric grocery bags is they exude a certain smugness, particularly when they have a picture of Mother Earth or the PCC logo on them. You just can't pad around silently and softly enough in your Birkenstocks to live up to their unbending expectations of sanctity.

 

There must be a market for other kinds of grocery bags. Black leather studded Harley bags, Patagonia Silite bags, Victoria's Secret lace bags, bags that say "My other bag is a Shitzu", NASCAR bags, "BUSHIT" bags.

 

Will grocery bags become the new bumper sticker?

 

they have those they are called purses

 

I'd like to see the purse that can hold 4 40oz Old English 800s, a five lb chuck roast, 8 oz of gorganzola, a jar of Wine Snacks, a gallon of milk, and a Family Size box of Captain Crunch's Peanut Butter Cereal...my standard grocery haul.

[fenderfour]

The problem with fabric grocery bags is they exude a certain smugness, particularly when they have a picture of Mother Earth or the PCC logo on them. You just can't pad around silently and softly enough in your Birkenstocks to live up to their unbending expectations of sanctity.

 

There must be a market for other kinds of grocery bags. Black leather studded Harley bags, Patagonia Silite bags, Victoria's Secret lace bags, bags that say "My other bag is a Shitzu", NASCAR bags, "BUSHIT" bags.

 

Will grocery bags become the new bumper sticker?

 

they have those they are called purses

 

I'd like to see the purse that can hold 4 40oz Old English 800s, a five lb chuck roast, 8 oz of gorganzola, a jar of Wine Snacks, a gallon of milk, and a Family Size box of Captain Crunch's Peanut Butter Cereal...my standard grocery haul.

 

You forgot the pepto... I almost shit my pants reading this list