Grocery Store plastic bags
 

I am amazed that Florida still allows the use of plastic bags in grocery stores. So many other states have banned it. We now have microplastics (very small plastic particles) in our agriculture soil, ocean and just about anywhere you can think of. There are so many studies that verify the dangers of plastics and I cringe every time I go to the grocery store and see 10-20-30 plastic bags per cart. Just one Publics said they can go through thousands of plastic bags in a day. Here is one link that talks about how serious this problem has gotten. It's our new DDT.How microplastics are infiltrating the food you eat . There are now studies beiing done of earthworms ingesting micro-plastics. ScienceDirect

This will be interesting

Are there more microplastics in the food chain or have we gotten better at detecting them and picked this as the next focus for our hysteria?

It’s not just plastic bags it’s all plastics. We have abandoned recycling in The Villages opting to burn plastics trash to energy.

All Villages trash is transported to the Covanta Lake II, Inc. Energy from Waste (EfW) facility in Okahumpka, Florida where it is burned and turned into energy. This plant produces enough electricity to power more than one million homes annually, while reducing the amount of methane, a greenhouse gas that would otherwise be produced by the trash going to landfills and that is more than 28 times as potent as carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, to zero. The site diverts 21 million tons of waste annually from landfills, while at the same time recycling 1.1 million tons of material, of which 550,000 tons are metals, annually. It does this in an essentially clean manner: Over 99.9 percent of what is discharged into the air is what is typically find in air - water vapor, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. The remaining constituents are well below federal and state standards. (from the Covanta website).

Looks as if our plastics are being put to very good use.

I needed this one. Thank you for posting this topic. The problem is most stores that have adopted paper over plastic, are not giving you the same integrity of paper like when you grew up. Its recycled and has no durability. There are composite 'plastic' bags available also of recycled material that can handle groceries. How many people I see playing 52 pickup in the parking lots of food chains. Ridiculous. And they charge you for the privilege! To me the cost of any bag should be the cost of doing business...borne by the business. Since I feel I'm a responsible person, I look for stores that offer the recycled plastic option....and dont charge. Strictly on principle. And no, I'm all set with bringing my own bags in...

If I don't get my daily plastic fix I go into withdrawal. Just another thing to complain about.

No big deal, just take reusable bags with me into the store.

Commissary’s uses paper to bag their groceries, bags are free, but……..

You TIP the person who bags them.

My guess is those who loathe buying a plastic bag may stiff the person (usually a military teen) who is a volunteer, and tips are their only reward.

We not only have them bag (you will never see a more efficient packed bag in your life) they take groceries to your car load as effectively as their bagging skills.

We tip $10, much more than the .10 everyone is so unhappy to buy.

Then again .10 if I forgot enough bags, or $10 to bag, not a dealbreaker for us

I did not see it as a complaint but more a concern. The Covanta site about trash burning is an interesting read. Apparently, we do not embrace trash burning while Europe does. (According the HuffPost article linked from the Covanta site).

We’ve gotten better at detecting them. Not sure I’d call it hysteria, just clarification on what impact plastic has on us, our environment and future generations.

The oil and gas industry pulled the wool over our eyes by making us believe that plastic was so much better than paper. Here we are 20 years later with all types of particulates floating in our oceans and blood streams. It’s bad for the environment, no matter how you look at it.

Thanks to the OP for posting it. I’ve brought my own bags to the grocery stores for years instead of using plastic ones provided. Europeans have been doing it for decades.

I hope that more people will understand how harmful plastic is to the environment. Future generations will look back upon us and wonder how we could be so stupid.

I hope your not still using Teflon cookware….thats more crap that’s poisoned us….

If they are a volunteer, why would they expect a tip? And why do you feel obligated to offer one? Very generous of you, but seems contrary to the spirit of volunteer work.

Is my 20 year old cast iron skillet ok?

It's probably a legitimate concern, but I agree with your premise that there always seems to be a hysteria du jour. I think the elites like distracting us from their corruption, forever wars and money printing with scary scenarios to concern ourselves with.

Question

Truthfully, I am not concerned about the environment. I use the free plastic bags at Publix and throw them away. But, I am not a snowbird who heats, cools, and maintains two houses year round. I don't have anything against snowbirds, but isn't that worse for the environment than using plastic grocery bags?