Seattlest: The Plastics Industry Cares!

TroyJMorris

Sat, 13 Sep 2008 21:08:56 -0800

Produce bags make great doggie poo bags, too.

Katelyn

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:23:14 -0800

I limit my use of produce bags, but I will fully cop to shuddering when produce touches the conveyor belts. EWWW. Good thing I find it easy to forget about all those germs by the time I'm home from the store!

eventer266

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:13:57 -0800

Sure, having a nice tote is fantastic, but it is perfectly reasonable to reuse those awful plastic bags you have around the house now, or even paper bags. I know I grab whatever I have handy - whether that is a "nice" bag or not. Like Charles points out, you can reuse produce bags...and you can reuse paper or plastic grocery bags. I confess I've never been a big user of the plastic produce bags - only for what is absolutely necessary (things like lettuce, herbs, etc) and just wash everything really well. Certainly not every type of produce you pick up needs to be individually bagged, either. Sounds like some people have had issues with cashiers about this but I have never, ever had them say anything to me about my produce bagging habits (or lack thereof).

Charles Redell

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:48:47 -0800

as far as the produce bags go, you can also get a bag when you need one and then wash it (really just rinse and dry) and then re-use them when you go to the store (you can keep them in totes). that's what we do. I'd also like to note that if the Chemistry Council had spent it's $180,000 wisely, it could have purchased plenty of cloth bags to give to the less fortunate that they're so concerned about.

zeeblebrox

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 15:48:15 -0800

They could have invested that money into Big Macs (Or Quarterpounders with cheese, on sale now for $1.50!!!!) and gotten: 120,416 Burgers... which at ~400 calories apiece = ~48,166,168 calories which in turn would feed a homeless dude for about 66 years. Considering that he would probably have a coronary far before the 66 years expired, you could conceivably feed a sizable portion of Seattle's transient community, who are the community's primary consumers (literally) of plastic bags. Plastic bags are fairly low in caloric content, and definitely don't have any of the fringe benefits of a burger (like flavor, protein, the status of eating 'real food' etc.) So let's get out their and make our opinions known. BIG MACS FOR BUMS! BIG MACS FOR BUMS!

TroyJMorris

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:26:31 -0800

Also, bilco, the produce bag is for sanitary reasons. Seminole spreading and all that.

bilco

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:16:39 -0800

Jack: Thanks for the tip. Over 3 bucks a piece is a bit steep, IMHO. The underlying question, though, is why the bag police are after 1 type of plastic bag. You're supposed to bring your own carrying bag to hold all the other plastic bags you get for free at the store.

bilco

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 14:16:23 -0800

Jack

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 12:51:01 -0800

Bilco: There are reusable produce bags out there. Here's an example of what they look like: http://www.whatscooking.info/catalog.php?item=115 We have some of these, but I don't know where my wife got them locally.

ruffhauser

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:18:44 -0800

Along those same lines, why are Macys bags excempt from this? Did they line the right pockets to buy themselves out of this law?

bilco

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:06:13 -0800

I have one question I haven't heard addressed in this whole situation - what about the produce bags? If you're a veg-friendly family, you'll have multiple clear plastic bags every time you go to the store. And don't tell me not to use them - I've had cashiers at Whole Foods tell me they want the veg and fruit in the clear plastic bags. Seattle doesn't want you to recycle these clear bags either - read their rules and regs. So why are these bags okay but the other bags aren't??