So, Culver City has banned plastic bags. Well, the plastic bags that stores put your purchases in. I’m not sure if I will have to pay to get one now, or if they are completely banned, but I am less than happy. Why? We reuse them as trash bags. They are the perfect size for daily trash. We have a large trash can that a wedding guest gave us when we first married. It didn’t take us long to realize that we didn’t make enough trash to fill that can before the stench chased us out of the house. Literally, it took us two weeks to fill that trash can up with trash. Even with the lid on, the stench of rotting food permeated the house. It’s also where we deposit the cat poop/pee when we clean out their cat box. (I know a lot of dog owners use them to pick up after their dogs, too. Hopefully, it won’t mean an increase of land mines in my yard.)
I asked one of the farmers at the farmers’ market what they were going to do, seeing as how they use biodegradable, green plastic bags. The farmer said, “We’ll probably do what we’ve been forced to do in Santa Monica: use produce bags.” Those plastic produce bags are made of oil products. Of course, depending on the manufacturing process, the biodegradable, “green” bags may not be much better for the environment. (Info on this. And, believe me, I would rather this work.)
But we’ll need plastic bags regardless, so we’ll have to buy them instead. Is that really stopping the number of plastic bags out there? I don’t know.
And yet we have no issues with this:
Baci, Italian chocolate
This is delicious, Italian chocolate. (Baci means “kiss.”) But it’s a large box for 21 pieces of chocolate. You’ll see what I mean in the next photo.
This sandwich plastic bag holds more than 21 Baci chocolate “kisses.” That box above is 18″-24″ long. It’s truly a stunning box, but what am I going to do with it? It doesn’t really have a use beyond holding these yummy chocolates. The chocolates are so precious they have their own little spot in the container.
Is this likely to end up in the oceans? Probably not. It will end up in my recycle bin, just like hole-y plastic bags. How much more energy does this take recycle than the bag? And is all of it recyclable. Why is this okay and plastic bags aren’t?
So, I’m frustrated. The ignorance, and hypocrisy, of this plastic bag ban is maddening. I’m still not sure what we are going to do. Obviously, we are going to have to come up with something else. Just what is still a mystery.
From my perspective: Down the street from me is a Walmart. Across the street from the Walmart is a wall of plastic bags created by blowing loose in the street until hitting the hedgerow. Many times I’ve walked that bicycle lane and retrieved the plastic bags from the shrubs. Only one way those bags get there, and that’s by customers letting them loose in the parking lot. I applaud you, Marci, for re-using your plastic bags but the majority rules, and it appears the majority of people are not so considerate: they do need laws to control them.
Oh, I see this, Stephe. I’m just tired of being punished because of other people. We live by a high school. Kids drop trash on our lawn even on days when our garbage cans are out. It’s not the vast majority of people doing this either. I know a lot of people who reuse the garbage bags. As is usual, it’s the few who ruin it for the many.
It’s very sad that people are so lacking in basic sense and consideration that they cannot hang onto their plastic bags, or recycle them. Most WalMarts have recycle bins somewhere in the store to return plastic bags. We re-use our plastic bags in the trash containers around home, use re-usable bags for most shopping, use paper bags to recycle newspapers in.
Good luck finding an alternative, Marci. Maybe paper bags will make a comeback?
The issue with paper is they leak, Christi. People drop trash all of the time. They throw their cigarette butts out the window; they drop their candy wrappers on the ground (think Halloween); they can’t seem to be bothered to find a trash can, even if it’s only two steps away from them. And, yes, I know I’m making a case for why no plastic bags. I get it. That doesn’t stop me from being frustrated. We will still be using plastic bags, but we’ll just be buying them. That’s the only difference.