[EviesEarth]

I was wondering.....
I would like to go bag-free at the store. (cloth bags) Right now I ask for paper and some plastic. I use the plastic for trash can liners. I was wanting to know what everyone uses for trash when they do not get bags at the store. Seems kind of silly to buy garbage bags at the store.

[RFL1986]

The grocery stores around my area have started offering cloth bags for .99 cents and our garbage system in my city forces us to buy coloured bags to sort out compost, recycling, and landfill waste so I can't really use the plastic bags for much of anything.
Just the same, Zehrs, an Ontario grocery chain has started a good initiative for cloth bags, selling them and even offering bonus store points for using them at a cashier.

[tater03]

We don't have cloth bags at our store yet. But I usually get the brown bags. Actually I get the brown bags all the time now where you can. I do still use regular trash bags for my garbage that I don't recycle.

[Roguegal]

Here in Phoenix, one store has completely gotten rid of plastic bags. The grocery store offers cloth bags for a reduced price now. When they advertised the no plastic bags, for a week you could get cloth bags free.

[mollyL]

Cloth bags free for a week, that's the kind of thing when businesses stand up and take constructive action that will bring benefits down the road for them.
In Oregon the stores do paper or plastic, and makes it very easy to recycle the plastic bags with bins right in the entrance. All the stores have 99 cent bags also. My sister-in-law sent us a really great Xmas gift last year: canvas grocery bags with long shoulder straps and they are so much less difficult to carry than short straps. If you see some, grab them, they're great!

[EviesEarth]

I think I will purchase some of the cloth bags on my next trip to Trader Joes. I use the brown paper ones for trash.

[Green-Moo]

If you are already composting your kitchen waste, then most of what you discard should be clean waste like plastic wrappers etc. In that case, you could put it straight into the bin & rinse your bin once a week? It depends what your local waste disposal services will accept though of course! Mine empties a big square wheelie bin once a week, so having loose waste in it is no problem.

Although I make an effort to be plastic bag free & always keep alternative bags in my handbag & car, they still sneak into the house so I've never quite got rid of them completely.

Green-Moo

[Angel]

in the UK we don't get the option of paper or plastic, but more and more people are using either cloth bags or re-usable bags. Like Green Moo I was wondering what is going in your garbage bags. Very little goes in mine after I recycle everything and use the kitchen waste for the wormery. At least if you get the paper bags for your groceries they are biodegradable.

[RFL1986]

The option to have paper, plastic or cloth bags is really good. I think that it is definitely a positive change to have started in many stores and the more often this kind of initiative is taken the better it will be in the long run. Really, consumers are just used to plastic bags but there is no real difference in using cloth or paper considering that they're actually much sturdier.

[Lyndsey]

Originally Posted by Angel

in the UK we don't get the option of paper or plastic, but more and more people are using either cloth bags or re-usable bags. Like Green Moo I was wondering what is going in your garbage bags. Very little goes in mine after I recycle everything and use the kitchen waste for the wormery. At least if you get the paper bags for your groceries they are biodegradable.

I saw an article that went through the pros and cons of paper and palstic, and this article concluded that biodegradable plastic bags are better than paper because they save trees. However, more recently, I've heard that the biodegradable plastic bags do not break down as cleanly as we are led to believe and that they create other problems. I cannot remember where I saw the article, so I was wondering if anyone else knew about the potential hazards of some types of supposedly biodegradable plastic bags.