Walgreens and Paper Bag

[SJGUSMC21]

This morning I had to run down to Walgreens to get my oldest daughter some throat lozenges. I was PLEASANTLY SURPRISED that when I was ready to check out a PAPER bag was used to bag my stuff. Absolutely freaking awesome! To hell with plastic bags, they should immediately be banned (well grandfathered in so manufacturing and stores can start adjusting to them).

So, don't mistake me for a a 'Hug a tree and singing "Kum ba yah" ' type of man. I am far from it. However the use of plastic in bullshit like cups, utensils, and ESPECIALLY bags is harming our planet, there is no doubt about that. I care for my children's sake and their children as well. I remember when 'Green Peace' was considered a 'Terrorist Organization' (and for the most part, they were) but now look at what they do. Ever watch whales wars? Don't think it is still on. It was great...sad, but great. You want us to go the way of the Dinosaurs...just much faster? Kill the ocean. That'll do it just fine.

So, KUDOS to Walgreens (and any other store that is doing this) for taking a step in the right direction. Now, lets bring back paper cups and glass bottles. Those are steps in the right direction....IMO.

Disclaimer: I live in Texas. EVEN if I wanted to hug a tree, you ever touch a Live Oak much less hug one? Not going to happen.

 

[bp2008]

The town where I do most of my shopping banned single-use plastic grocery bags last year. The grocery stores also started charging a fee for each paper bag you need, I guess as an incentive to get reusable bags. For a couple weeks during the transition they were giving out free reusable bags.

 

[bp2008]

The bag fee (in my town, not specific to walgreens) is kind of hilarious now because since COVID they make you bag your own stuff if you bring in your own bags. Granted we usually bagged our own stuff anyway, but now grocery store bagging is almost always done by the customer.

 

[fenderman]

This morning I had to run down to Walgreens to get my oldest daughter some throat lozenges. I was PLEASANTLY SURPRISED that when I was ready to check out a PAPER bag was used to bag my stuff. Absolutely freaking awesome! To hell with plastic bags, they should immediately be banned (well grandfathered in so manufacturing and stores can start adjusting to them).

So, don't mistake me for a a 'Hug a tree and singing "Kum ba yah" ' type of man. I am far from it. However the use of plastic in bullshit like cups, utensils, and ESPECIALLY bags is harming our planet, there is no doubt about that. I care for my children's sake and their children as well. I remember when 'Green Peace' was considered a 'Terrorist Organization' (and for the most part, they were) but now look at what they do. Ever watch whales wars? Don't think it is still on. It was great...sad, but great. You want us to go the way of the Dinosaurs...just much faster? Kill the ocean. That'll do it just fine.

So, KUDOS to Walgreens (and any other store that is doing this) for taking a step in the right direction. Now, lets bring back paper cups and glass bottles. Those are steps in the right direction....IMO.

Disclaimer: I live in Texas. EVEN if I wanted to hug a tree, you ever touch a Live Oak much less hug one? Not going to happen.

Plastic bags are not doing any damage to our planet. Idiots who throw plastic bags into the ocean cause some damage. Most people reuse plastic bags and the ban will simply make them go out and buy a bunch. I will never lug around reusable bags which have to placed in a nasty cart. It takes 4 times the energy to make a paper bag. Plastic bags weigh less with affects recycling and waste energy and costs. There are much easier more efficient ways to conserve. Also consider the many many low income folks who need to walk their groceries home and will be subject to these silly fines.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

You and I will just have to disagree. I walked with paper bags when I was a kid and teenager. We re-cycled glass containers...worked for us.

 

[sebastiantombs]

I'll chime in with paper bags have a habit of breaking and, as Murphy predicts, always at the worst possible moment. Plastic bags can tear, but not all that often. If people either reused the bags or disposed of them properly they wouldn't be much of a problem at all. The reusable bags are just a big PITA in every way, they get dirty, both dirt and bacteria, and are a pain to carry/use when you just need a few items. Here in the Great Nanny State Comrade Murphy, and the apparatchik, have decreed no more plastic bags already, but put that off due to the CCP Virus.

 

[tigerwillow1]

To hell with plastic bags, they should immediately be banned

Most people reuse plastic bags and the ban will simply make them go out and buy a bunch.

I'm somewhere in the middle on this. Before the start of 2020, most of the stores in Oregon were required to have paper bags available on request, and that's usually what we took, and we re-used all of them for garbage bags. There are some situations where a paper bag doesn't cut it, like with drippy food waste or the byproducts of a DIY oil change. Starting this year in Oregon, plastic bags were banned and stores were required to charge for paper bags. When we ran out of the store bags for garbage I bought a roll of the smallest plastic bags Costco carries. They're a lot bigger than the single use plastic bags, and we use them where we previously used paper bags, so the net result for us is the ban is causing more plastic to go to the landfill. I looked at buying a bunch of paper bags and they're way more expensive.

The combination of the plastic ban and required charging for paper bags has turned into a comedy. At the beginning of the year, the brainwashing was to use only reusable bags. Then when covid hit, the brainwashing was to not use reusable bags. Right now, some stores allow reusable bags, some allow them only if you pack them yourself, and others prohibit them. Some stores charge for paper bags, some don't. It's a friggin mess, an all too common outcome of political meddling.

This is a smaller scale repeat of what the dems did with obamacare. If the Oregon dems would have just banned the single use plastic bags it might have worked out ok. But they had to push harder to coerce use of reusable bags, making what they were trying to fix even worse. With obamacare, I agree some things needed fixing and wish they would have done just that. But again, they threw in all the BS liberal utopia crap, making the healthcare system and a bunch of other things worse than they were.

 

[TonyR]

I'm all about replacing styrofoam packing peanuts and formed styrofoam blocks like what's used in boxes for shipping flatscreens, small appliances, etc.
Back when I had my LLC and received a dozen or more PC's, monitors, etc. every week, it was such a PITA to break it all down and put into bags, especially in winter when the static was bad it would take so long and was so aggravating.....the pieces would cling to you like Rosie O'Donnell clings to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

I like the peanuts made out of air-whipped wheat paste and packing blocks made out of formed paper byproducts. When I lived in N. CA from '74 to '04 somewhere in that time frame the City of Bezerk-ly outlawed styrofoam cups and packing peanuts and I must say, in light of all their ultra-lib stuff (even then), I think it was a great idea. Even though the little air bags are great (we call 'em 'Redneck Ski Belts" around here) those air-whipped, wheat paste packing peanuts are cool....put one in your palm, add a dab of water (or spit if you're a real man) and rub your hands together and..ta da! Gone!

 

[samplenhold]

the pieces would cling to you like Rosie O'Donnell clings to an all-you-can-eat buffet.

Glad I was not taking a drink when I read that!

 

[vandyman]

If you really want to got rid of something. I say the plastic water bottle is the worst.
As far as Styrofoam goes, there is a foam that is made out of potato starch and will melt to nothing when water is added.
I reuse the plastic bags. Example ; I keep them in my truck for trash. Don't be an asshole and throw your shit out the window.

Sent from my Pixel 5 using Tapatalk

 

[sebastiantombs]

Yeah, a cup made out of the potato starch stuff would work out really well....NOT.

Seriously, if people weren't such pigs and slobs the problem wouldn't exist or be reduced to a very minor problem at the very least. There's a development behind me and if we get a wind out of the south I have to do a sweep for plastic bags blowing into our yard. Is it so much "work" to throw a bag into the trash can? Must be for them.

In May of 2022 our dictatorship has decreed no more plastic or paper bags. I never knew paper was a landfill or pollution problem. I guess they know better being such astute scientists.

 

[TonyR]

As far as Styrofoam goes, there is a foam that is made out of potato starch and will melt to nothing when water is added.

That's probably what the packing peanuts that I mentioned in post #8 were made from. Great idea, IMO.

 

[biggen]

Paper bags are harder to handle, poor for anything that gets wet, and more expensive. I order several thousand dollar worth of plastic bags per year for our business. I'd have to double or triple that dollar amount if I was forced to switch to paper.

So I'm a staunch "Hell No" on any plastic bag ban. I like plastic. I like plastic straws, bottles, etc...

 

[samplenhold]

I like plastic. I like plastic straws, bottles, etc...

Mr. McGuire: I just want to say one word to you. Just one word.
Benjamin: Yes, sir.
Mr. McGuire: Are you listening?
Benjamin: Yes, I am.
Mr. McGuire: Plastics.
Benjamin: Exactly how do you mean?
Mr. McGuire: There's a great future in plastics. Think about it. Will you think about it?

 

[Arjun]

Takes 400 years for plastic to decompose. Wonder what happens with all of those condoms and tampons.

 

[SJGUSMC21]

tampons = sewer rats

 

[LeahHodges]

I guess it’s the only way to get rid of plastic addiction. I think addiction is the correct word to use here. Tbh, I have a small Instagram business. I make homemade sweets like dried fruit or marmalade etc. So, I always use craft paper bags only. I’ve got a buddy working in interplas.com, so he advised me on them. The first thing that made me think of getting rid of plastic in my life was a pelican that got stuck in a bunch of plastic waste. That was the most terrible thing I’d ever seen with my eyes. So, it was the day I decided to get rid of plastic. It’s said, if you want to change the world, change yourself first. That was what I did.

 

[Arjun]

I welcome glass bottles

Something should be done about condoms as well....they always clog up municipal sewers and sewage wastage plants

 

[TonyR]

Something should be done about condoms as well....they always clog up municipal sewers and sewage wastage plants

PLEASE don't tell the 'gubbermint'....they might just require future condoms to be made out of recycled paper products. Oops!

 

[Arjun]

PLEASE don't tell the 'gubbermint'....they might just require future condoms to be made out of recycled paper products. Oops!

That’s going to OUCH