HP, the Muggle Environment & Plastic Bags

[kkersey_austin]

JLyon wrote:

> I will continue to always ask for a plastic bag. It comes with a  
> handle, it is made from petroleum (one of the great substances the  
> earth provides), and I can use it for my garbage.

Ah, petroleum. I grew up in an oil town; my father's field is polymer
chemistry. Plastics are wonderful!  However:

> Much more useful than any thing the tree huggers can come up with.

Hmmm. Really?

1. Biodegradable plastic bags: Functionally indistinguishable from
petroleum-based; more expensive but if you really prefer plastic bags
and are going to use them for garbage they are worth a few cents more. 

2. Cloth bags: Never break, even when wet or overloaded. Can put more
groceries in per bag (if you want to minimize number of bags) and you
can get them with shoulder straps. Handles are much more comfortable
(plastic ones dig into my hands) especially when carrying heavy items
like milk or canned goods. Not expensive and last forever. Ikea sells
huge reusable plastic bags for next to nothing, so do many grocery
stores; the insulating ones are very nice for the hot climate I live
in. Some stores give you a nickel back for bringing your own bag.

3. Backpacks (the student kind, not the camping kind!): especially
good for those walking or biking to the store.

4. Cardboard boxes. Most grocery stores have plenty of these if you
ask. Can be reused - my seven year old loves to build robots, forts,
armor, etc. with them, and when he is done I put them under a layer of
mulch as a weed barrier in garden paths (brown paper bags often meet
the same fate). Can be recycled (our city has curbside pick up).

5. No bags. I can put small things (e.g. chocolate bars) in my purse
and large items like laundry soap or gallons of milk don't need bags -
especially if they have their own handles. I keep a collapsible
plastic box and/or a cardboard box in my car trunk so that I can put
loose items in a clean place where they won't roll around. Some stores
I shop at - Costco, and, when I'm in Oklahoma, Aldi - don't have bags
at all and just load your purchases back into your cart (smaller items
can go into a cardboard box). Books? If I am buying so many that I
can't carry them out without a bag, I am *way* over budget! Now, if I
am trying to sneak a purchase out of the bookstore without my child or
husband seeing it, a plastic bag is generally too transparent anyway,
so either a paper bag or just asking for a piece of packing paper to
wrap around it is preferable. 

6. Bring back and reuse otherwise disposable bags. We do this
sometimes but you really have to watch for holes and tears.

We still seem to bring home a lot of plastic bags; I'm really bad
about forgetting to put the cloth bags back in the car or forgetting
to bring them into the store with me. I take them back to the store
for recycling, and I'm always amazed how many we end up with. Things
are really changing here in Austin though, as the city is threatening
to ban or tax non-biodegradable bags (large stores only). The grocery
stores are much stingier with their bags in the last few weeks.

http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/04/17/17bags.html

Oh, and about the book 7 purchase: I'm not going to let anyone put
even a few millimeters of plasitic between me and that book come July 21!

Elisabet, who realizes that last made her sound a bit like Brooke Shields