Reusable Bags
More Junk
https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/reusable-bags-grocers-walmart-1.7178439
A couple of years ago Canada banned the manufacture of single use plastic bags. Vancouver banned their use by stores. That worked for me.
At about the same time Vancouver instituted a program to separate organic waste from garbage. Everyone was given a plastic compost bucket and our building has special bins for organic waste. My method is to line the bucket with a plastic bag then empty the bag into the organic bin and then throw the bag away into the garbage bin.
At least I was using the bag twice. I saved surplus bags under the sink and they were piling up faster than I was using them. Now, 2 years after the ban, I probably still have a 10 year supply under the sink.
Actually, I rarely accepted plastic bags for years before the ban because I'd carry my purchases in a backpack. When I was a kid my grandmother had a nice wicker shopping basket that she took to the market. Between the time of her basket and my backpack came the time of supermarkets that you drove to and that kind of forced the use of single use bags.
Plastic bags are wonderful little inventions. Waterproof, light weight, strong, cheap, durable and adaptable to many secondary uses. I've used them as shoe liners on wet days to keep my feet dry. And of course when you are using billions and billions of them they have an ecological impact since they are so durable that they never go away and they pile up, like under my sink but on a massive scale.
Heh - now I'm getting clogged up with paper bags. I use them for non-organic garbage so at least they get used twice but they come in much faster than they go out,
A big plus for paper bags is that they do degrade in the environment in a fairly short span of time. The fly in the ointment is that paper bags cause up to 70% more pollution (air) and 50% more water pollution than plastic bags. Furthermore, the process of paper manufacturing emits 80% more GHG emissions. Paper bags consume up to 4 times more energy than plastic bags (during the production process). (thanks google)
When I go shopping in my neighborhood I notice that most people have their own bags. Lots of backpacks and shopping carts on wheels. There are paper bags available for 25 cents or re-usable bags for a couple of bucks.
Now we have food delivery services like Instacart. They are a tad expensive but super convenient. You choose your order online and then pay online and a shopper picks up the items and brings the order to your door for a modest tip.
And of course they bring the order to you in a reusable bag and now the reusable bags are piling up. They are much bulkier than paper bags and way way bulkier than plastic bags.
When I've considered the issue for deliveries I thought that having the shopper bring things in a plastic bin and transfer things from that bin to my own bag at the door. That way the very act of delivery wouldn't pile up junk in the environment. Turns out that Loblaws in Ontario is experimenting with that kind of system.
With Instacart, 3 parties are involved in the transaction. The store would like to minimize it's costs by sending orders in empty cardboard boxes. Win win for them. I think the shopper prefers a reusable bag over paper because it's stronger and has a handle. And I end up with more junk with every order.
Sigh - still and all - packaging in general involves a lot of junk.
What do you think?
I present regular philosophy discussions in a virtual reality called Second Life.
I set a topic and people come as avatars and sit around a virtual table to discuss it.
Each week I write a short essay to set the topic.
I show a selection of them here.