Grocery bags

[bloviatrix]

When I was in school, all my book covers were made out of paper bags. (though there probably weren't plastic bags then).  We were poor, but brown paper book covers were middle class; newspaper covers were poor.  Do school books still get covered?

---mh

OMG! I had forgotten all about that. I remember covering my books with the brown paper the evening I would get home from the first day back at school. It was sort of a ritual. That was in the 50s, elementary school. I don't remember doing that when I got to high school.

My mom used wallpaper samples to cover my books, although I preferred the brown paper - you could doodle on them.

[bloviatrix]

Just returned from our weekly major shopping trip to Fairway. Tips - go early, split up and multi-task, use waiting time at the deli counter productively, try to remain calm and civil.

For two people in NYC with no car, we fill the folding shopping cart with 6 bags (paper and plastic).  Another 4 bags of stuff: pet food, paper products, etc come from other places.

I fold the bags neatly (doesn't everyone?) and store them under the sink.  We then use them for our trash, which fills about 10 bags a week. 

So, we're in bag balance. Do others run at a deficit or surplus? (probably a function of time spent folding and crushing).

Thank goodness for efficient checkers and packers. 

Do you yearn for the wide aisles of the suburban market?

--mh

I shop at Fairway uptown and I've noticed that the bags they use at that location aren't nearly as good as the ones available at 73rd st. The plastic is lighter. I've also notice the bags that Gourmet Garage use aren't as sturdy as they used to be. The Shop-Rite bags are the worst. They tear very easily, plus they pack the bags very inefficiently. My current favorite plastic bag comes from the Kosher Marketplace. It's heavy duty and they line it with paper, without asking!

Paper bags get folded and stored in the space between the wall and the dishwasher. The plastic bags get crumpled up and go into, what else but, a plastic bag sitting on the washing machine.

My preference is for the paper/plastic combination. This is perfect for when I'm working in the kitchen and I want to keep a bag near my feet to dump chicken skin or vegetable peels in (we don't have garbage disposals in Manhattan). I also like having paper bags around for when I need to ripen some fruit. My husband likes the paper bags for paper garbage and recyclables. We put our newpapers in plastic bag - the paper is just too precious.

But I find plastic is important as well. I use the plastic bags (always doubled) to line the garbage pails in the kitchen,bathrooms and bedrooms.

I dump the kitchen bags a minimum of once a day, and I'm still inundated with plastic bags. I think they multiply on their own.

edited because I can't spell.

Edited August 10, 2003 by bloviatrix (log)

[grill-it]

Despite the great point re: recycling, I MUST use plastic.

But then again, (like luckyzoe) I'm experiencing a shortfall of plastic bags. I have a puppy, and so I have been finding myself in serious plastic deficit the last couple of months. Now the folks at the office are bringing me their piles of saved plastic bags - and I'm barely keeping up...

I think one of the biggest scams on the market is Glad and Hefty, etc. trash bags.  They have people buying something for the sole purpose of throwing it away!

Here in montreal, a city by-law enforces the use of big trash bags for curbside garbage pickup - the small grocery bag has been outlawed (and its use may result in a 100$ fine!)

BTW, before the pooch it was Paper...

Edited August 10, 2003 by grill-it (log)

[tjaehnigen]

No garbage disposals in Manhattan? Is that for real? As in nobody in Manhattan has a garbage disposal? Eeeek!

We almost always get everything in plastic as it makes carrying lots of bags very easy. Plus, we have four cats and we go through them pretty quickly for litter box detail. Beyond that, we use them for accumulating paper for recycling as well as glass, plastic, tin and more.

[phaelon56]

I'm of the dual use camp - I get plastic for small items and small grocery trips (I live alone, cook no more than twice per week and buy many things in bulk) and get paper bags for reinforcement or just grab some extras. Paper bags get used for collecting recycled paper - newspaper, junk mail, magazines etc and the plastic bags either get used for an extra layer around ziploc'd items to be frozen or go in my handy Ikea bag collector. It's a chap plastic half cylinder about 24" high and8" wide - hangs on the inside of a cabinet door or in a closet and has a couple holes that the bags can be pulled out from. You just stuff them in the top and if it gets overly full I take in the excess to the store for recycling.

My favorite plastic vs. paper story: living in ithaca NY in the early 90's, I'm in the express line behind some incredibly indecisive person who is asked "paper or plastic?" by the clerk. Said person hems and haws with an anguished look and says.... "I'm not cure which one - I'm buying this stuff for someone else and I dont' know which one they use."!

[bloviatrix]

No garbage disposals in Manhattan? Is that for real? As in nobody in Manhattan has a garbage disposal? Eeeek!

Garbage disposals only became legal within the last 5 years. And even then, if I understand the law correctly, only certain buildings are eligible. I assume new construction has them, but the pre-war buildings definitely don't.

[tejon]

I use cloth bags that I take to the store - they're much stronger than paper or plastic, and I don't end up with a pile of bags to deal with at home. Always get funny looks when I do it, though

[Callipygos]

I use cloth bags that I take to the store - they're much stronger than paper or plastic, and I don't end up with a pile of bags to deal with at home.

I've been getting back into the habit of using my string bag, too. But I do save paper bags, as I get them, for paper recycling.

Speaking of recycling, because confession is good for the soul...I'm sorry, but aside from the paper, I actually don't. I'm supposed to, I know, I'm breaking a law by not doing so with plastic and glass, but:

Look, in my defense, Bloomberg has made recycling such a bizarre issue in this city -- first we DID have to recycle plastic, glass and metal, then suddenly he STOPPED recycling on plastic, or glass, or metal (I think it changed a couple times), then a year later, he changed back again, and NOW he's instituting recycling on SPECIFIC DAYS, depending on which neighborhood you live in, day of the week, month of the year, etc. Seriously, I was just mailed a huge map of New York City divided up into little teeny-tiny chunks which would denote what the exact date of recycling pickup was in my area depending on my exact street address.

I'm going to raise hackles here, and I freely admit this is horrible of me, but to truly get recycling to work, you need to make it WAY less complicated for John and Jane Q. Publics.

And, because none of the above has anything to do with food, I'll stop there.

Edited August 11, 2003 by Callipygos (log)

[bushey]

My bags are usually in a surplus state. Unless, of course, I absolutely NEED to use one, then it's a deficit situation.

We use a combination of paper, plastic and paper-in-plastic, depending on how heavy the groceries are any given week. The majority of paper bags go into the bi-weekly paper recycle bin, with a few saved for our can and bottle deposit stash (we go to the bottle shop when we have 6 or 7 full bags) and art projects/book covers. The plastic bags get stuffed into an empty tissue box in a through-the-handle-loop formation so they can be dispensed easily. These get used for poop scooping, wet bathing suits in the camp backpack, carrying extra shoes to work, etc.

[alkonin]

always plastic, as it's much easier to smoosh things around to fit in the basket of my scooter that way. the best-quality plastic bags i've found here in philadelphia come from esposito's and essene. both are big, heavy-duty bags that are saved until we have a proper use for them.

[KNorthrup]

I have fabric bags, but if I'm stopping at the store on the way home from work, I don't have them. (My commute is by foot so I can't just keep the bags in the car.) Usually get plastic for the classic kitty litter reason. Some markets are paper only and those get used for accumulating junk mail etc for recycling. We used paper bags for book covers. Also to save money, Sunday comics for wrapping paper.

[tjaehnigen]

I sometimes shop at a store close to my community that has lots and lots of apartments near/around it. When I buy soda in the 2-liter bottle size, this store always either double bags them or puts paper inside of plastic ones (with respect to the soda bottle bags). All other stores I have ever been to just put two bottles any old way into the plastic bags. Must be because most of the apartment dwellers walk home with their purchases, methinks.

[KateW]

You guys must have tiny litter boxes, or really big plastic bags, because the plastic bags we get would only hold like a quarter of the kitty litter in our one box. That's why we use paper bags for that.

[beegew]

We use both. (Since we have two ancient pick-ups, paper bags line up nicely in the bed, as opposed to plastic rolling all over.) A paper bag opened inside a plastic, to keep leaks from goobering up the garbage can. Then, when it's full, you just grab the handles, yank it out, and off to the trash can. Extra plastic goes back to whatever store has a recycling bin for them. Unfortunately, the city and county here have no recycling, and, while the NAS Pensacola center takes plastic, newspapers, and sometimes aluminum, nobody does glass. The paper will break down quicker in the landfill then those dang Hefty bags with a tie-tie. (They'll be digging those things up, still full, a hundred years from now.)

Beege {:^)

[tjaehnigen]

Re: Kitty litter... We use scoopable litter, hence a full blown refresh of the litter is not necessary with every 'cleaning'.

[Laughing Goddess]

Did y'all see the story about how Ireland's stores now charge shoppers for bags?

http://www.msnbc.com/news/946646.asp

Seems like a good idea to me, though I do use the plastic ones for kitty litter. If they change the situation in the US, then I would have to buy bags to get rid of the kitty litter!

Or maybe I could get rid of the kitty litter in old cereal boxes? Hmm, I don't eat that much cereal.

Anyhow, it wouldn't be a big adjustment if we did it here -- we'd all just have to get used to keeping sturdy shopping bags in the car.

[NVNVGirl]

I use the plastic bags for the kitty litter (sometimes I need to double them since a lot of them are sort of hole-y) and I use the paper ones (love the Trader Joe paper bags with the handles) for recycling...then take them to the garage where recycling bin is and dump and reuse if possible.

For the person who thinks the plastic garbage bags by glad and Hefty are a ripoff....we live in a Planned Urban Development (country club) and we can put out as many bags of garbage as we want as long as they aren't over 50 lbs each. I have animals and large parrots and I am very happy to donate to the Glad/Hefty coffers....No way do I want to be hauling 4 different garbage containers in and out and in and out....it's all in your perspective I think. In normal circumstances, I don't think I'd be buying so many plastic bags for garbage.

[Suzanne F]

My answer: neither. I have a liner in my shopping cart, and use the "pack it yourself" lane at the Pathmark, so I just fit everything in without any bags at all. Only if I have overflow do I need to use a plastic bag. If I let them pack for me, they'd use one bag per item, or so it seems.

When we get bags from smaller shopping trips, they are usually plastic -- it's hard to find paper in the stores I frequent. These are used to line trash cans, or wrap clothes and shoes being packed for trips, etc.

In my building, we just told everyone to keep separating out their recycling the same as always, when the city cut down last year on what was being collected. Our super preferred it that way, and didn't mind pulling out what wouldn't get picked up. So now that more is being recycled, we still have everyone trained.

As for garbage disposals in NYC: they are limited to only certain neighborhoods. Personally, I'd rather have drop-off composting sites all over (instead of just at Union Square on Greenmarket days).

Edited August 19, 2003 by Suzanne F (log)

[elyse]

I'd rather have drop-off composting sites all over (instead of just at Union Square on Greenmarket days).

[slkinsey]

No garbage disposals in Manhattan? Is that for real? As in nobody in Manhattan has a garbage disposal? Eeeek!

Garbage disposals only became legal within the last 5 years. And even then, if I understand the law correctly, only certain buildings are eligible. I assume new construction has them, but the pre-war buildings definitely don't.

AFAIK it's not strictly true that old buildings can't have them by law... It's just that the plumbing in many of these buildings simply can't handle garbage disposals, so many co-op boards have decided to disallow them. I believe that the prohibition against garbage disposals was originally intended to reduce the amount of organic waste in the NYC sewage system, although someone may have better information than I.

Going back OT, we like to reuse our bags whenever/however possible. Usually this is for garbage. Our ferrets, however, love to play around in crinkly, crunchy, loud paper shopping bags.

[bloviatrix]

No garbage disposals in Manhattan? Is that for real? As in nobody in Manhattan has a garbage disposal? Eeeek!

Garbage disposals only became legal within the last 5 years. And even then, if I understand the law correctly, only certain buildings are eligible. I assume new construction has them, but the pre-war buildings definitely don't.

AFAIK it's not strictly true that old buildings can't have them by law... It's just that the plumbing in many of these buildings simply can't handle garbage disposals, so many co-op boards have decided to disallow them. I believe that the prohibition against garbage disposals was originally intended to reduce the amount of organic waste in the NYC sewage system, although someone may have better information than I.

Please educate me. What does AFAIK mean?

It seems there is a City Councilman who is trying to introduce into law a bill requiring all restaurants and greengrocers to install commercial garbage disposals as a way to keep the rat population down. The argument against the proposal is that the city's sewers can't handle the liquified goop.

[tommy]

Please educate me.  What does AFAIK mean?

as far as i know.

Edited August 20, 2003 by tommy (log)

[bloviatrix]

Please educate me.  What does AFAIK mean?

as far as i know.

Thanks, the brain isn't working well tonight.

[tommy]

Please educate me.  What does AFAIK mean?

as far as i know.

Thanks, the brain isn't working well tonight.

don't worry. this comes from 18 years of staring at computer screens and having discussions with people who may or may not exist. you don't want that. trust me.

[bloviatrix]

Please educate me.  What does AFAIK mean?

as far as i know.

Thanks, the brain isn't working well tonight.

don't worry. this comes from 18 years of staring at computer screens and having discussions with people who may or may not exist. you don't want that. trust me.

So are you a person? A dog? Or just a figment of my imagination?