[RFL1986]

We have ours in the backseat of the car so every time we're grocery shopping they're right there. It makes it harder to forget. As soon as you get into the habit it's not hard at all.

[Mick]

Its messy but if your indoor anbd outside garbage cans have no holes in them...You could just go bag free for your garbage?

[horselover]

We can't do that here. The city has some stupid policy now that you can only use one garbage can. If that's the case, we won't have access to it, so need to use our own.

It sucks.

[stav]

Thing is RFL, that sometimes I go to the local supermarket on my own and on foot. Why use a car to go get 3-4 items from 10 mins down the road? As you say it's just a question of getting into the habit.

[horselover]

We have a store across the street, but it's very expensive, and the next closest store is about a mile away. We like to stock up on groceries, so we'll alway drive.

[Turtle Girl]

both plastic bags and paper bags have downsides. Lots of chemicals are ued in manufacturing paper bags, and that can almost make them a worse choice. Biodegradable plastic bags are still petroleum based and still bad for wildlife. They do break down, but they don't disappear. I think cloth is the way to go -- and make it from organic crops!

[stav]

TG, the use of cloth bags has increased dramatically over here, with some clever marketing and design, making them 'chic' and a must have item..

As always with a trend like this, once the initial fuss has passed, there will be those that dump the idea, but I think that with most people, it will be one of those things they get used to, and will stick to long term. Many places are making concious efforts to reduce the use of plastic and paper, so finally.. we are going in the right direction.

As with any real change, it will take a long time, but we are getting there!

[Craig]

We've started using BioSolo bags for our garbage...they aren't "certified" compostable so we can't use them in the organics bin in our region, but they are degradable and we figured it's better than using regular plastic bags. They are pretty cheap and since we use a larger garbage can in our kitchen the grocery store bags are too small anyway.

For the bigger black bags, we've started using Seventh Generation recycled bags.

[horselover]

They sound better for the environment than normal bags.

[Craig]

Originally Posted by horselover

They sound better for the environment than normal bags.

Yeah, I'm not sure how well they would actually degrade in a landfill environment, but I figure they would have to break down quicker than regular plastic.