Phoenix Looks at Tossing Plastic Grocery Bags
by Kevin Tripp/KTAR
Phoenix might have a future without plastic grocery bags.
City Councilman Greg Stanton said the council is considering ways to phase them out and he thinks people can adapt to the change.
“Almost everyone has included recycling principles into their daily lives,” Stanton said. “The same thing with the use of plastic bags, we’re just going to eventually have to integrate reusable bags into our lifestyles.”
Stanton said plastic bags can’t be recycled.
“When plastic bags are put out in the recycling, people at the recycling plant have to pull them out and put them into the dump,” Stanton said.
Stanton wants to see the bags phased out and replaced by reusable bags and paper sacks.
San Francisco and Taiwan recently passed a ban on plastic bags.
“Many cities around the world have done the ban,” Stanton said. “We’re first looking at working with the industry to come up with solutions before there’s an ultimate decision to eliminate them in our community.”
He said the council plans on working with grocery stores.
“I don’t think you’re going to see an outright ban in the short-run,” Stanton said. “I think you have to give people time to integrate this into their lives.”
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mommybar
posted on May 29th, 2007 at 11:09 am
I had always thrown out the plastic garbage bags, or saved them and used them for throwing out other garbage. Recently I started noticing plastic shopping bags with #2 recycling logo, which imply to me they are recyclable. The bags look the same to me. Are these really recyclable?
reevesderek
posted on June 7th, 2007 at 5:26 pm
Good question! I’m curious of the same. I notice Whole Foods carries an unusual type of plastic bags. I believe this is similar to the type of plastic that you are speaking of, mommybar. I don’t think these are recyclable, but rather they were made of recycled material. I could be wrong, but that’s what I have gathered from online articles. I recently made the switch to reusable canvas or nylon bags. Whole Foods has a great deal on these. While most stores seem to sell these for 5 to 15 dollars, Whole Foods sells them for just a dollar apiece. They’re a decent size too. I’m not one of those Whole Food “nuts,” but stop in every once in a while. It’s worth is for those bags alone!
carla
posted on June 16th, 2007 at 10:31 am
Here in Texas there’s a grocery chain, Central Market, that does accept plastic grocery bags for recycling. Central Market is a subsidiary of a larger chain, HEB.
This site does indicate that Walmart also accepts the bags.
Carla
celesteartist
posted on June 27th, 2007 at 8:23 am
I live in Goderich, Ontario, Canada. Our store has the stacking plastic bins available for shopping. They have canvas handles, are a light as a feather, and are amazingly easy to use. They also pack allot of groceries or other items. I leave them in the trunk of my car and use them in every store I go to. I have even used them to buy all my nursery plants. They can be rinsed with a hose and are totally recyclable if they ever do wear out. The grocery store also gives incentives to use them…although saving the environment is incentive enough for me.
Celeste Resinger
greenmom
posted on June 28th, 2007 at 4:43 pm
Hi~ I started using reusable bags 3 years ago. Someone told me “if we don’t make the trash, we won’t have to worry about where to put it”. I thought that made so much sense. We still have plenty to recycle, milk jugs, soda cans, news papers etc… I got my bags from greensak and love them. It is just too easy not to do.
GreenMom
elandora
posted on June 29th, 2007 at 9:37 pm
I really hope they do this– changes have to come from above. If we have plastic bags nothing will change, but if reusable is the only option, people will do it. And most people are pretty happy to do environmentally-friendly stuff, just less likely to do it if there’s an “easy” option like disposable bags. After I saw “An Inconvenient Truth” I got my mom to switch to canvas bags. There’s even a reusable option for produce bags. I found info here- http://www.circleoflifefoundation.org/action/arts/bag/index.htm and made my own less fancy version out of tulle and ribbon (strips on the side to reinforce the stitching). The drawstring on the top’s not necessary– I just tie it in a knot.
steve1919
posted on August 21st, 2007 at 10:21 am
I went to Ikea and picked up one of their blue bags (recyclable plastic). It cost 57 cents and I can easily carry 20 pounds of groceries with it. It has two sets of handles (hand & shoulder). I think I’ve used the same bag at least 20-25 times so far.
texanbok
posted on October 1st, 2007 at 8:29 pm
I lived in South Africa last year, and they charge you 5c per plastic bag. And this is a country where the majority of the population are low income earners, yet they still charge this fee. At the end of the month , it is amazing how you think twice before throwing away your grocery bags.
sambonder
posted on November 6th, 2007 at 12:10 pm
I just bought a really cool reusable bags from a company called inyourfacegreen.com . Their bags are 100% cotton and fit approximately 2-3 plastic bags. I got them last week and I used the bags at Target, Wal-Mart, and other grocerie stores. I even got five cents for each bag at Basha’s. I swear …when I use the bags I feel like I am making a difference. The bags have cute sayings like “Girls Gone Green” (I use that one for shopping excursions to the mall) and “Plastic or Plastic. Neither” (I prefer to take this bag to the grocery stores).
cinderflower
posted on May 8th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
okay. i have absolutely no problem getting enough totes to put my groceries in and get them home on the bus–plastic, cloth, mylar, i couldn’t care less. what i’m concerned about is whether they’re going to stop manufacturing all plastic bags–specifically the ones used for garbage. because if so, won’t that mean that people will still throw away trash in plastic bags and the plastic will clog the landfills and have a halflife of 50 gazillion years? in that respect, all that has happened is that “free” plastic (yes, i know some stores charge and i have even bought a couple of pounds of bags for $1.50 but that’s still “free” compared to buying Hefty bags) has been removed from the ecosystem? and what about plastic diapers and urinary incontinence pads? and those plastic backed paper chux for hospital beds? do i have to stop using all those? how would any of this really work? it seems to me that if grocery stores gave away free Depends and then stopped manufacturing them, fine, but if people still used them when they paid for them, it really wouldn’t solve much of a problem. personally, i don’t have a baby but i honestly don’t see a lot of people returning to cloth diapers if they have the option of not using them. they’re disgusting when you have to soak them yourself, not nearly as sanitary, babies get rashes from them, and i can hardly see women staying home all day just to wash and dry diapers because that’s what women used to do all day if they had more than one child.
i like to be as “green” as possible but i am concerned about getting rid of my garbage in the least disgusting way possible. (btw, i don’t buy anything in plastic containers like soda or juice. if i have to buy a drink, i get a glass bottle and rewash it and put water in it in the refrigerator. etc etc blah blah blah i don’t need to go on and on about my personal habits. suffice it to say that i am quite conscious of the environment.)