I'm not convinced about reusable grocery bags

[Jacob]

Is this a preminiscient post? I've never seen anyone use reusable grocery bags except for in France where they just didn't offer grocery bags. Over there we had to take our backpacks with us to carry the stuff home.

I've never seen anyone use one either. And I can't imagine carrying 10 or so reusable bags into the wal-mart to hold all my groceries.

[Uncle Ted]

RF, it looks like you have no choice about plastic bags now. Your local government is now protecting you from plastic bags.

[NorthShoreCoug]

For those of you against plastic shopping bags, what is your primary driver? Energy of production? Space in landfill? Something else?

My primary driver is my mother, a child of the depression, who taught me thrift. She would wash out the plastic bags that bread came in and use them to pack lunches in, or as garbage bags in the car, or ....

In my house, the plastic bags from the grocery store are used to carry lunches for myself and my children, as trash can liners, as trash bags in the car on trips, as grocery bags at Aldi's, and I'm sure there are a few other uses. Oh, I know a great use for them. When I take down my Christmas lights, I put each string of lights into a separate plastic bag. Then when it is time to get them out the next year, they aren't all tangled together.

[RobinFinderson]

RF, it looks like you have no choice about plastic bags now. Your local government is now protecting you from plastic bags.

Since we are kind of married to our reusables until they disintegrate, it will be a while before this measure actually affects us. I would like to see the scientific analysis they considered before making this choice, but I doubt they considered anything at all. Reusable really SOUND like the best choice. I just haven't been convinced that they really are the best choice.

[NorthShoreCoug]

Since we are kind of married to our reusables until they disintegrate, it will be a while before this measure actually affects us. I would like to see the scientific analysis they considered before making this choice, but I doubt they considered anything at all. Reusable really SOUND like the best choice. I just haven't been convinced that they really are the best choice.

We (people, the gov't, other organizations) do this all the time. We often jump on the latest "save the earth" bandwagon without any real knowledge of the costs/benefits of such a move.

I remember fifteen years or so back, the greenies were concerned about all the diapers that were filling up our landfills. So diaper services became all the rage. I asked several people who joined in the trend if they had ever seen even a rudimentary analysis of the costs/benefits. "No, but it SOUNDS good" was the general response every time. So I'd ask, what about all the materials and energy used to manufacture the trucks that go around town collecting and then delivering the clean diapers? What about the gas costs of driving those trucks? What about the additional resources that are used to launder the cloth diapers? Etc., etc.?

I don't know which is best, but neither did they. The same is true of the ethanol movement today. Rising food costs, the massive amounts of water it takes to produce ethanol - is it really worth it? Who knows?

I have a friend who sincerely believes we are in the grips of a large, multi-generational, worldwide conspiracy to control the world. I think its more likely that this "conspiracy" exists simply for the pure entertainment of its purveyors. Instead of sitting around thinking how to grasp economic and political power, they sit around dreaming up outlandish hoaxes and scares to foster upon humanity. Then they use their money, power, and prestige to get the media and gov't leaders to spread their theory, and they then sit back and amuse themselves by watching the reaction of the masses to their schemes. Let's see, global cooling this week, global warming next week, then the dangers of smoking, alar, acid rain, the need for ethanol, air bags, pet rocks, this fashion, the dangers of air bags, child predators, radon, second-hand smoke, Big Macs, too much sugar, too much fat, not enough antioxidants, the list goes on and on and on...