Do you use paper, cloth or the store's plastic bags for groceries?

Ruthanne

Ruthanne

Caregiver
Location
Midwest
I usually try to take my cloth bags with me. Yet, sometimes I forget and get the store's plastic bags. I heard the plastic bags are causing problems for the environment.
 

If I only have a few groceries, I always ask for paper bags. Easier to carry. You can get a lot of stuff in a paper bag. Plus I use paper sacks for a lot of things. Never have thrown one away.

If I have a ton of groceries I let them use plastic. No one seems to know how to load paper sacks. They always start with the round things on the bottom. Some stores only have plastic. :( Not into carrying my own cloth bags. It would take too many. I try to go grocery shopping as seldom as possible. Hate it.
 
I try to remember to take my cloth bags with me. Occasionally, I forget and end up with plastic bags, which I recycle.

Trader Joe's uses paper bags instead of plastic.
 
I've been using cloth bags for as long as I can remember. I purchased a bunch of different colors years ago from Baggu. They last forever and wash nicely. OMG! I just checked and now they are $10.00 each. Yikes. I think they were 3 for 5 when I bought them. They would be very easy to sew.
 
I bring my bags with me. It's been a law in Los Angeles for several years that grocery-type stores can no longer give bags to customers for free. They charge a dime per bag, but the bags they sell are heavier weight so they can be used several times. It took a couple of months to reliably remember to bring bags into the store (sometimes we shoppers would need to to run back to our cars to get them just before checking out), but we figured it out.

It's been a positive change for our city. The oodles of cheapo plastic bag litter has been reduced dramatically and many of us now realize how wasteful single-use bags truly are.

This law was enacted by popular vote. Over a year ago the entirety of California voted in a similar law statewide, so if you come to visit us, please remember bring your grocery bags into the stores!
 
ProsperosDaughter said:
I've been using cloth bags for as long as I can remember. I purchased a bunch of different colors years ago from Baggu. They last forever and wash nicely. OMG! I just checked and now they are $10.00 each. Yikes. I think they were 3 for 5 when I bought them. They would be very easy to sew.
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I got a huge cloth bag last week for 1.50 at Save A Lot.
 
NancyNGA said:
If I only have a few groceries, I always ask for paper bags. Easier to carry. You can get a lot of stuff in a paper bag. Plus I use paper sacks for a lot of things. Never have thrown one away.

If I have a ton of groceries I let them use plastic. No one seems to know how to load paper sacks. They always start with the round things on the bottom. Some stores only have plastic. :( Not into carrying my own cloth bags. It would take too many. I try to go grocery shopping as seldom as possible. Hate it.
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Some cloth bags can be very large, too. I carry about 4 of them to the store along with a few thick plastic bags I use over and over.
 
Krogers has a huge bin to place your plastic bags and they recycle them. I have cloth bags but when I forget them, I bring the plastic ones back and put in the bin.
 
I always take a light, nylon bag for shopping, unless I use self service checkouts then I take the plastic bags provided, (handy for lining my waste bin at home)

Plastic bags are causing big problems for the environment and our supermarkets have started charging for them to encourage customers to use less
 
Here, we have no choice. They are all plastic. I have an inside cat so I use the ones that don't have any holes for when I clean the litter box each day.
 
I use cloth when I shop at Natural Grocers, in Kroger supermarkets, I usually request paper bags, get plastic from other stores. I always reuse all bags for in-house trash or litter box changes....just used a paper one for that today.
 
In Austin, we have no thin, plastic bags given out. They are banned. You have to bring your own bags to most grocery stores, although some are starting to give out recycled paper bags, free.
 
I usually bring a couple of cloth bags. Plastic gets annoying....they use too many....but I like to have frozen things and meats wrapped in the plastic bags. Use them later when I scoop the litter box. I use the plastic bags from produce for lining the small wastebasket in the bathroom.
 
I know that plastic bags are bad for the environment, but they are easier to carry because of the handles plus I recycle every one of them by lining my trash can in the kitchen and using them to dispose of my cat's dirty litter. That assuages my feelings of guilt. I never see anyone using cloth bags. If I didn't need the plastic ones for the litter I would try using the cloth bags for sure. I don't like the paper bags because I've found they attract roaches if kept for too long.
 
I use cloth shopping bags. They want to ban plastic shopping at grocery stores in MA or charge customers a fee per bag, so your plastic bags will not be free anymore. I think plastic can be convenient at times and some people may not have an option.
 
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