They have both paper and plastic. Not sure what they cost because I always bring cloth bags.

I really should use them or just recycle mine ( we do have a bunch of them saved).

I was there today and for the first time I didn't see plastic bags.

I also see a lot of people carrying their groceries out loose or in boxes.

I just wheeled the cart out, opened the car door, loaded the bags, and then returned the cart for my quarter.

I do most of my grocery shopping at Aldi's. LOVE that place.

I noticed that my Fitbit does not count my steps if I'm pushing something. So I now avoid shopping carts like the plague.

I just carry my groceries around in boxes at Aldi. Baskets everywhere else. I do about 90% of my food shopping at Aldi.

I'd never finish shopping if I didnt' use a cart!

They're originally from Whole Foods and I keep them in the trunk of my car.

I thought I read somewhere that Kroger was phasing out plastic bags altogether, but I haven't seen evidence of that yet.

Walmart in other states. They are a very thick, heavy duty plastic and last a very long time. I have lots of them and I think they are worth it. The reason I have so many is that occasionally, I drop by the store and I forgot to put some in the car. If it keeps them out of the oceans, and particularly the cheap, thin, free ones which break on you when you're walking from your car to your front door, I have no problem with it. When they first announced the policy, I thought it was going to be much worse than it's turned out to be. I thought they were going to charge us for those cheap ones that break, or tear on your way out the store to your car. But these are much more durable, and I can use them for lots of things.

Effective 1/1/19. HOwever, all of the grocery stores are not in our town boundaries.

That said, at the library, boro hall, and several local businesses, they are giving away free cloth bags with the town's logo on them to anyone who wants them. You can get reusable bags at grocery stores for $1.

If you (generic) haven't already switched to reusables, you should. Some stores even give you a discount for using them.

They even have insulted reusable.

Stores were allowed to finish their stock.
It's amazing to see people walking with their own bags or using boxes.

People are adjusting rather well.

all we had were paper bags. That was when they actually taught the kids how to bag groceries. I can still pack a bag faster than most kids working now.

I am often amazed at packing these days - not the speed but the thoughtlessness in what they pack where.
Paper bags are back.

There were no scanners, but even I can do it faster than just nearly any of the kids (though some are in their 40’s or 50s).

Now I have to go yell at some kids to get off my lawn.

I just wish the baggers were trained to not put heavy stuff on top of the bread or fresh fruits and vegetables.

I found ways to amuse myself. A lot of customers acted like I wasn't even a person. Sometimes I'd make comments just to see if they were listening. One of my favorite's was telling them that I put their bread on the bottom to save room. It was fun seeing their reactions, always delayed.

(I didn't really put their bread on the bottom.)

you find out who has a sense of humor.

And almost every single time I have to ASK that the baggers put our frozen and/or cold items in those bags. They also tend to scatter similar items across several bags which makes it harder to put things up when I get home. I don't get how stupid the baggers are to not get it.

On the other hand, Publix hires mentally and physically challenged people as baggers and they tend to the best ones, taking extra care to put like items together and the cold things in the insulated bags. I suspect that the managers at Publix actually train those baggers while they expect the high school and college students (the "normals&quot who are hired as baggers to know how to do the job.

I mostly take my re-usable bags but sometimes have to ask for paper ones. I use paper bags to line my garbage cans - no plastic in those, either - and since I am so diligent about taking the re-usable bags with me I sometimes run low on paper bags.

of the grocery baggers competition on his show. Hope you saw those bits because Letterman was a bagger too.

Customer’s car. Less than 5% tipped.

When is the last time a grocery store would pack and take the groceries out to you car and put it in your trunk? 40 years.

Your groceries are bagged, taken to your car and put where you want them. These people are not paid and live off your tips. We tip them $5 for bagging and $5 for taking them to our car. Plastic bags should be banned everywhere.

I do not remember any grocery store taking your items to the car.

Order online-$25 min-credit card isn't charged until pickup. You park in designated space and they bring your groceries to your car. No tipping allowed. I hate going in Walmart. I was very skeptical that this would work but we've used it several times now and it's great.
Mr Lib is 83 and has dementia so this has solved a very big problem for us. The store is less than 10 minutes from here and he enjoys the car ride. I think some areas have free home delivery as well but I'm not ready for that.

from the local high school come in and bag groceries, hoping for donations to whatever they're raising money for. I let the kids bag my groceries. Once. After that experience, I just say, "No, thanks. I'll bag my own." The loaf of sliced sourdough bread does NOT go in the bag first, kids. Nope.

Of course, the French heard sac when the woman said sack, and they all assured her that they didn't sell bags. Hilarity ensued... but not for the American woman.

And that was over 20 years ago.

We have so many reusable bags now that they're getting out of hand.

On plastic bags. But still mountains of packaging needs to go.

in the Netherlands...took us by surprise the first time, but we got used to it and turned out to be very convenient.

we had to buy reusable bags for the week, but just left them in the rental for the next people.

It's a mess - lovely island - Antigua

me than fewer, heavier bags. So i would have to have many more reusables.

It's a real struggle for me to carry heavier full bags from the car to the house. I simply can't lift too much...

Among other things, the bills assume that all people who shop have cars, and can just keep a supply of bags in the back or in the trunk. I generally do my shopping by bus or on foot. Unless I plan ahead, I don't have the bags I need before I go to the store. I try, I really do, but it's still not a perfect system.

Our stores do no accept plastic bags for recycling. I wish they did, but then I wish Washington state had returnable bottles and we don't have that either.

often a line and the wait for a few cents is just not worth it to most people but the most determined environmentally sane people. It would be better to get the money at the checkout.

Most in European countries do not have cars, especially in the cities, and they seem to manage just fine bringing their own bags for shopping, and have for years. It's really more about not doing "big shops" all of the time but rather buying more frequently and fresher quality on a regular basis.

Some places in the US qualify as food deserts, because there are no grocery stores within the city limits!

My nearest store is just under a mile away. This is pretty walkable for me (or I'll walk there and take the bus home), but the problem is the walk itself. I either have to cross over a 6-lane busy road with multiple types of lights and worry about ducking traffic turning right where the drivers are not looking for pedestrians (I wouldn't even consider this on a dark rainy night), or I have to take a hilly side street with no sidewalks and no street lights, not even a shoulder (I've had to jump in the ditch to get out of the way of cars before). If I had any kind of disability, walking to the store along these routes would not be an option. Further, it's hard for me to shake the memory of when I was shopping on foot and taking the bus home, and was physically assaulted by a man at the bus stop (just a few years back). I hear phantom footsteps every time I wait at that bus stop now.

In general, I support these bag laws, but it's not always as simple for all consumers. There's no one size fits all.

They always accommodate.

I truly hate when my market closes all open "real" checkout aisles in favor of those self-checkouts that make using your own bags more difficult.

There s always some snag, So am switching to a bit more expensive store to avoid the hassle and the rage that they are letting people go for the bottom line costs.

Even better, the cashier and the bagger were both really nice and sociable. It was a pleasant shopping experience, worth paying a little bit more.

People shopped several times per week, getting what they would eat within a couple of days. I know that with busier people today, that is somewhat impractical, but it would help with waste, including plastic waste.

You can sling them over your shoulder so your core is doing the lifting rather than your hands. They also don’t dig into your hands the way plastic bags do. Don’t buy the cheap heavy-plastic stuff at the store. Get some high-quality cotton bags at ecobags.com. You’ll never look back. They’re light, and they’re washable. I have seven of them in the car. They’re about eight years old and still have at least another year or two in them. I wash them every two weeks with the rest of the laundry.

Got tired of multiple trips from the car to the house, so I bought a 2-wheeled dolly. A chest style cooler goes on first, then a large cardboard box on top of that, and the two usually hold all the groceries for 1 trip from car to kitchen.

Something like:




There are lighter duty, folding shopping carts available, too. Some have the triple wheel arrangements to make it easier to go up stairs.

and gives you a 5-cent discount if you bring your own bags, or you can choose to donate that nickel to the charity of the week. I collect and save my used plastic bags in my permanent bag, so when I go grocery shopping I just dump the plastic bags in their recycling bin at the door before I start shopping.

My back is so bad that I have instituted the 30 minute rule in the store. I must go through the store and check out in 30 minutes or my back gives out. It take more planning so I can go thru the supermarket without crisscrossing but I inevitably leave off one or two items...it's tough getting old and arthritic...

I wish all stores would give you a discount for bringing in your own bags. It helps them as well as the environment!

They’re being down-cycled. Every plastic bag you get at the store is made from virgin plastic. It’s good to recycle plastic bags, but it’s much better to bring your own bag.

and some bags from a few other places that only use plastic. I do bring my own bag to the grocery store.

That’s what I do as well. But I think that the word “recycling” makes a lot of people feel good about behaviors that are bad for the environment. That’s why the plastics industry loves the word “recycling” so much.

which is used to make lawn furniture and decking, and some plastics can be turned into fabrics and rugs. But I agree that we'd be better off without so damn much of it in the first place.

Most people think that when they recycle something, it gets made back into the same thing. They think they’re not hurting the environment when they accept a plastic bag or buy bottled water. Down-cycling does not reduce the demand for virgin plastic, which is why the plastics industry loves it. And the lawn furniture, polar fleece, etc., ends up sooner or later in a landfill, after depositing small particles of plastic all over the place.

On top of that, a lot of plastic just goes directly to a landfill, now that China is no longer accepting it. People should recycle, but not be fooled into thinking it’s doing all that much for the environment. As long as virgin plastic is cheaper than recycled plastic, recycling will not be a real solution to pollution.

You could bring it back for a buck, or use it again. Just an idea.

I've been doing for close to fifteen years now.

So even if one of those snotty anti-environment types were to sneer (and I've actually heard this bullshit) : "Well, you know, you have to use one of those bags 300 times before there's any environmental benefit!" - I'm covered.

(I don't know where they get these numbers. Or why they'd make such an assertion; every time you use a reusable bag instead of a single-use plastic bag, that's at least one bag that isn't going to pollute the landscape or find its way into the waterways and harm marine life.)

forget and leave my bags in the car sometimes. I recycled all the plastic bags before they switched (storage bags, freezer bags, garbage bags, etc). Like you I prefer carrying many smaller bags than a few big ones. I have recycled all the old one and newer ones too since the stores switched.

You have to put them in the garbage bags! That makes no sense!

In theory, all of the old plastic bags from returns would go there. In practice, the janitor threw them in the dumpster along with everything else.

My school had the teachers get students to recycle all the trash but the custodian tild me that the Recycle dumpster went into the same trash truck as the non-Recyclable materials.

and it’s definitely helped to curb my wastefulness. I still end up buying the 10 cent bags quite often (Mr. Forgetful) but they’re thicker than the old bags were and are more easily used for other purposes rather than just being shitcanned or used for kitty litter.

So they lose 10 cents on every bag. They make it back in other ways, of course. (Plastic shopping bags are outlawed in Eugene, Oregon.) They have reusable bags available for sale, usually about a buck.

Something to think about as you set a cost for plastic bags — you don’t want plastic to be inadvertently cheaper to the customer than paper, or you reduce incentive.

it's a good idea

You either byob or buy one of their fabric bags. So if there's was a tax on bags I'd surely be at my sewing machines making them for myself and others.

I'm ashamed to admit that I'm one of the "lazy me" folk. I do recycle the plastic at the grocery stores. But I should get my butt in gear and get sewing. Than I'd learn something new - I'd learn to sew vinyl. Tricky but not that hard. And who cares how a grocery bag looks so long as it's strong.

My children do the same.

Last edited Wed Feb 27, 2019, 10:22 PM - Edit history (1)

that's the way in most Bay Area counties

10p for a reusable sturdy bag - it reduced plastic bag use by about 85%. Some stores used to give out free replacements when they eventually wore out, but now they just recycle them and you pay for a new one. I wish supermarkets would switch to paper bags, however.

They fold up into these little balls And I use them all the time. I never pay for bags. It's easy todo without. I was in Arizona recently where they gave me a bag and I pulled out my bag and said to fill it instead. They thought I was crazy.

I do not like where a LOT of my money is spent NOW. IF it were 100% used for research and development of environmental friendly plastic, I would not object at all. But I do not trust all politicians to spend my money wisely.

town's concerns. We have lots of towns in CT and no county form of government. However, we are a very progressive state overall and New Haven in particular. And it's nice to live in a town with a fabulous university that cares about liberal causes.

I would support that money being used for environmental projects including cleanups.

for that you get a sturdier bag that can be reused.
The flimsy bags that clog up the oceans are banned.

I like that better than a tax.

There were no supermarkets, just some small mom&pop shops. Most food was sold fresh from the farm or boat at open air markets.

I remember being fascinated watching the old fishermen darning scraps of tattered fishnets that were past mending. They made bags to whatever size the shopper wanted, their shuttles flying through the netting to sew up the edges and knot in wooden handles for carrying. Of course, mom made us kids lug all those heavy bags of groceries home.

I prefer net bags over cloth and I have a bunch of stretchy net bags that expand to hold an enormous amount of food, sometimes making them too heavy to lift.

They do it here in San Francisco, and just about everybody brings his/her own bag. Great way to help the environment and decrease the number of plastic bags thrown into the ocean.

Plastic Bags are BANNED, for quite a few years now. 5 cents for a paper sack, but most people carry re-useable bags. Capitalism survived.

Also, Plastic STRAWS are banned. Go watch a video of a Sea Turtle getting one pulled out of it's nose and you'll be on Team Paper Straw.

I just recycle my plastic bags when I go to the store. It is no big deal if you stick the plastic bags in your car trunk after every shopping trip.

It will disproportionately impact poor people.

Just ban ‘em.

I think poor people care about the environment too. We all live in the same environment, after all, and we all breathe the same air.

... every penny counts. I’ve been poor enough that made a week of meals out of a jar of ragu anf a box of pasta.

bag and brought back to the store the next time they shop

Target offers a 5 cent discount for each bag you bring. So using the bag 20 times pays for itself. (Target is not alone, just the first store that discounts for reusables that comes to mind).

Also many organizations give away free bags with their logo on it. Go to any fair or festival. My town has been giving them out (local businesses, library, boro hall, and I believe they were given to the students at the school) in prep for their (now effective) ban on plastic bags.

When using public transit, the reusable bags hold so much more and are much less likely to break the way the flimsy plastic ones do.

ETA I know what it is like to be broke. I've been broke enough to steal rolls of TP from public restrooms.

I'd rather see stores offer a small rebate per bag if you bring your own.

Poor people are more likely to use public transportation, including many disabled people. All have a hard enough time shopping and affording food to begin with. Making it more expensive or difficult to acquire food adds another barrier for some people who are already having to deal with too many.
Reinforcing biases against particular populations is not a progressive policy. How about retailers be good corporate citizens and absorb the cost of cloth bags which may be reused.

how do they get their purchases home? What they buy will be bagged in one way or another, and carried home some how. So carrying a couple of bags along in the first place really isn't that difficult.

Unless what they buy is magically teleported home.

Then we'll talk. It's difficult to carry them to the store without the wind getting them. Impossible to transport them in mounted containers without having one's personal space invaded. The logistics are extremely difficult, and the assumption that all bodies can perform as defined by non-disabled people is the root of the oppression we experience.

How do you manage at this point? How exactly are you holding an empty bag that it's being tossed about by the wind?

I realize I've never been wheelchair bound (although I was on crutches for six weeks when I was very pregnant, so I know a little bit about not being able to do regular things) but this is something you are dealing with all the time. There are plenty of bags to use that fold up fairly small and can be put in a pocket, or perhaps tucked into a carry thing attached to the chair.

Perhaps I seem heartless, but the basic thing is that if you're already going to and from stores, however it is you're doing that, adding a couple of fold-up bags to the mix somehow doesn't seem that onerous. And you can still choose to pay 10cents a bag if it really is completely out of the question to bring along your own bag. You are still going to be getting home with whatever you've bought, something you presumably know how to do.

I honestly don't see where disability factors in here.

You have not experienced the liberation they provide to a person who wants to wheel to the store a few blocks away, or drive/roll to the bus stop. Particularly when wind is blowing or when picking up a little speed. All the while using armrest controls or manually maneuvering ones body via a chair.
Imagine having to manage the bags while driving. A wheelchair user performs their personal transport with 2 limbs. It makes carrying objects more difficult than for someone using four. I would think that this might have become apparent when you used crutches.
Forcing them to do it both ways makes it more cumbersome than it is to carry bags home when they have enough weight to sit in a person's lap without blowing away.

their own bag if you don't want to 'tax' people.

Is wrong with that.

Personally I think plastic bags should be banned altogether. But if a 10¢ tax per bag gets people to move away from plastic bags and use re-usable cloth bags so be it.

No plastic and the paper ones cost 10 cents

Canvas bags have become the norm, I was already doing that anyway

It seems to work fine, some people were really mad about it though

I do occasionally see people walking out with a pile of items in their arms

But imagine how much plastic trash we've collectively saved!

Oh, and if you're worried about carrying them, i.e. People without cars, look up Chico bags, they fold up really small and can live in your purse.

for bringing your own.

I like them. they also have a line that is for disabled folk who need someone to pump the gas for them. That's us...

Approved by voters and implemented a week or two after the election.

No biggie, I usually buy just a bag at a time so it fits in my hands and hoodie pockets.

Always carry a couple of bags in the trunk, almost always don't bring them in.

My wife has some good Trader Joe bags, I think they sold them for a buck or two, last forever.

I noticed Costco doesn't give out boxes, maybe you have to ask. Again, no biggie, load the stuff up in the back and drive. May take an extra trip to the car to unload.

They make state specific ones and whenever I'm in a new state, I am sure to get that state's.

Will have to look in back of the wifes car to see if she only has CA bags.

Whoever designed them has a sense of humor. I'm in NJ and the NJ one has a playlist with songs like "Corn to Run" and "Living on a Pear" on it. The NY one says "give me your tasty, your scrumptious, your muddled mint and lime yearning to breathe free, the refuse of artificial preservatives at your Trader Joe's store. Send these, the organic tempeh tossed to me, I lift my plate beside the golden orange."

(THe NY one is currently sitting in my living room loaded with pussyhats for the next protest).

at least most of the time! I have so many reusable bags it's not funny, more than I need, really. My favorite ones are the humungous Costco bags that I got years ago. Saves several trips in from the car and they are strong.

CA doesn't really recycle those thin bags anymore. China doesn't want them.

They charge us a nickel for paper ones. There are still plastic options for produce but they cause trouble so we try not to use them.

I’m awful at taking my own but I use the hell out of those paper ones and recycle or compost them.

until March 1, 2018, I walked to my local grocery with my bags, 2 or 3 times a week. Unfortunately, Walmart forced my store to close.

It's a town tax. Other towns are moving in that direction. I think Boston has done that, but maybe not yet.

Per bag. I’m not sure if this goes towards recycling but my guess is it is prolly just making the state richer. I have used my own bags mostly for quite a while now but I still use the plastics sometimes and then use them for garbage bags after. I have tried the biodegradeable garbage bags but they are useless, they fall apart as soon as moisture hits them or over time and they are very expensive.

I suspect many of the recycle programs lie about what happens from things people at the centers have told me. Due to these issues and too many crazy demands from our county about our recycle and brush pick up I think I may not recycle plastcis anymore since it creates more emissions anyway.

local gov't. was just too progressive or something, and killed all local laws on bag charges.

I always take bags to the store, even the pharmacy....and usually keep a spare in the side passenger door pocket in case I forget.

Here in Northern California, we have been doing it for a year or so. Took me awhile to remember my own bags. I would always leave them in the car. Now I have a stash of really cute reusable bags. I even use mesh bags for my produce. Not a problem at all.

Just instituted the plastic bag ban a few years ago. You wouldn't believe the gnashing and grinding of teeth!

Since then it has seemed to work out well. Of course my concern was initially with people that may not be able to afford the bags but in the long run it seems to be working. If you cannot afford the bags you are able to take your groceries out bag less which a lot of people do.

In my own observation it appears that a lot less of these plastic bags are clogging sidewalks and roadways after the ban was installed.

Unfortunately, the city was sued and now the bags are no longer against the law. However, most of us have gotten used to the ban and bring our own.

I won't lie, it was difficult at first, but it's now like second nature.

If you don’t bring your own bag, you have to buy one.

Unfortunately they still sell the plastic ones. I long ago got in the habit of bringing cloth bags to the store, so it comes naturally to me here.

I did buy a bunch of Tesco’s plastic bags to take back because they have the Welsh dragon on them.

But would the tax also apply to the bags for produce and meats or just the check out bags? I normally bring my own bags but still wrap meat in the bags provided and bag my fruits and veggies.

I think it is those white plastic bags used at checkout.

I've been using cloth and other reusable bags for close to twenty years now, but I'll admit I don't always remember. And I never had them at my office, so if I grabbed a snack and a drink at the CVS for lunch or if I picked up a few things for later I would usually wind up with plastic bags. Now they charge ten cents, but the bags are sturdier. I've bought two of the ten cent bags in the past month, because I've forgotten my own bag and had too much to carry back. It has definitely made me more conscientious. And while I often refused a bag before anyway now I make a point of not getting the bag unless I really need it or know i can use it for some other purpose soon. Not because the ten cents is expensive, but just because the extra step and cost remind me that it's worth the effort not to be wasteful.

I bring my own reusable bags or ask for paper if I forget to bring reusable. But most shoppers unfortunately still aren't environmentally conscious. While I have no problem with the tax I think the better option would be to just ban the plastic bags altogether. Shoppers would figure it out pretty quickly and it is no big deal to bring your own reusable bags.

Rest of the lazy bastards.

them to the store when you shop again. So if you use five bags, that 50 cents. Period. I can't see it hitting the poor hard and it helps the environment we ALL live in. I am truly confused here so help me out...

They charge for bags. You can buy them, bring your own, carry your groceries loose, or use the boxes the food was shipped in. People learn to survive.

since they're the ones most likely not just to purchase things that need to be bagged (groceries can be bagged, flatscreens can't), but also to have fewer options of transportation and the like (ever tried to carry a box of diapers and jars of baby food in your hands on a bus?)

Here in CA there is an exception carved out for EBT users--perhaps there will be the same in CT?

What these plastic bags do to animals and birds is frightening.

I'm hoping that kids today are taught about these threats to the environment in school and can talk about it with their parents.

No walking involved?

That is not to say there isn't a problem in need of a solution, or that sacrifices are not needed. The problem is that the same 10 cents--which must be paid by the consumer unless there is an exception--will affect a poorer person more that a wealthier one, especially if said poorer person would need more bags (because they would buy more stuff needing bags).

to my Stop and Shop in the Westville section of NH (a middle class neighborhood that is very diverse and a great place to live). So yes, the public buses serve the public using the supermarket where I live.

full of groceries? Have you ever tried to get on public transportation with them?

I’ve been poor. And I had my own reusable cotton bags when I was poor. Two sturdy bags were all I needed as a single person. Sure, they cost money, but they were much easier to carry. And many stores will give you a five- or ten-cent credit per bag for bringing your own bags.