[workinman]

some of these pics are really sad... hopefully America catches up to the countries that have already taken action

PoconoRecord.com: Slideshow: The dangers of plastic bags

[Lyndsey]

I think Paris and Los Angeles have already banned plastic shopping bags. I imagine other cities may be inspired to do so.

[HereToday]

I know that ultimately we must either eliminate plastic bags or we need to find a viable alternative material that will biodegrade safely. In the meantime the cloth bags do quite nicely. Our local library has a nice promotion at their booksales: buy a cloth bag for ten bucks and then fill it with as many books as you want for free.

[stav]

In the UK we are phasing out plastic bags all over the country, and some stores have started charging for them.. also many stores are now offering loyalty points, and discounts if you use your own bags... there has been a huge decrease in bag use in the last year..

[BethT]

IN ontario most stores charge you for plastic bags... but id like to see them all get rid of them... no plastic bags and the option of boxes, i think is a nice comprimise. I would just use my cloth bags either way.

[deltic]

Originally Posted by BethT

IN ontario most stores charge you for plastic bags... but id like to see them all get rid of them... no plastic bags and the option of boxes, i think is a nice comprimise. I would just use my cloth bags either way.

Beth in UK the supermarkets sell very strong bags like ordinary shopping bags. They sell them very cheap to encourage us to use them, so cheap in fact that each time people go to the supermarket people buy a few more bags because they forget to bring the ones they have. Everyone I know has loads of these bags, I try to be really careful about such things but I must have more than 30 bags. I am not sure what the answer is, but there would not be enough boxes for everyone.

[justontime]

That is right Deltic, I have noticed that problem with store shopping bags too, I have to admit that I have far too many bags.

[BethT]

i think the boxes would work for people who forget a bag and dont want to buy one... naturally it would be a slow transition into getting rid of plastic bags completely... people have to grow accustomed to change.

a couple of stores here have boxes, and charge for plastic bags...

works well.

[gissele]

Originally Posted by workinman

some of these pics are really sad... hopefully America catches up to the countries that have already taken action

PoconoRecord.com: Slideshow: The dangers of plastic bags

Yeah. I think in some place action is already has been taken. There is no way whatsoever you can ‘safely’ dispose of plastic waste. Any attempt to ‘get rid of’ plastic through landfills is also dangerous. The only way out of the of plastic is to cut down the use of plastic by following some eco friendly tips.

[deltic]

Originally Posted by BethT

i think the boxes would work for people who forget a bag and dont want to buy one... naturally it would be a slow transition into getting rid of plastic bags completely... people have to grow accustomed to change.

a couple of stores here have boxes, and charge for plastic bags...

works well.

Supermarkets in UK used to do that when I was a child, but now it is seen as a very downmarket thing to do. You would never get supermarkets here to give out cardboard boxes. We did have a supermarket that produced reusable crates, they were good but the supermarket went out of business.