Are You Ready to Shop Without Plastic Bags?

 

The environment and climate change are things I worry about. The talk about the jury being out on global warming is just really silly with all the scientific evidence from leading scholars to demonstrate the planet is in trouble. We have problems here and we need to solve them. But some things I really wonder about such as retailers with their upcoming new policies on bags. Are you ready to shop without plastic bags?

In some parts of the country I have heard that some stores won’t give shoppers bags. They said on the news you have to bring your own. I wonder how this will actually work. Isn’t it possible that some retailers will do anything to help their bottom line? And cutting the expense of bags is one of them.

On the other hand, don’t they see how this may play out? Ok. The big retailer say no bags. So you bring your own and then the problem is solved? What if you just stopped to browse and saw something you wanted or remembered you needed and are bag-less? What are you going to do then?

Customers react differently to shop without plastic bags. Even though you might be bag-less, you may just buy the product and march it to your car or bus stop. However, you always could drop it, damage or ruin it from the weather if it suddenly decided to pour to losing it if the product was lightweight to extreme wind. Being bag-less with one item is one thing, but would you be willing to juggle several items just to get to the car or bus stop?

Then again, a customer may decide against that purchase completely.

Another way customers may handle the no bag policy is by whipping out their smart phone in a store such as Target to order the item or items and have it sent to their home. Actually my mom would do this just to make sure the local delivery driver of the store has a job. In fact, both my mother and I never go to self-checkout for the same reason just to help big retailers do away with sales clerk positions.  We leave products if we can’t find a human person to check us out.

So what sort of environmental impact did that Target purchase really have from an online purchase? One less bag and so much more in spent fuel, the box, and invoices making even more for the landfill from buying the product or products online. But rest assured this will happen for some customers ready to shop without plastic bags!

Other smaller stores might see they have an advantage. There are going to be a lot of people who need things and want a bag. They don’t want to be chasing down some bottles of shampoo and some cans of peas inside the car. Some will expect a bag. And can’t they be recycled?

Besides paper bags, some stores will be selling reusable bags like Giant Eagle in my area. For the most part, these “green” bags are made of polyester or nylon. Each of these bags will cost a customer 99-cents each. You also have the option of paying 10-cents for a paper bag. Also, this store will be giving one bonus perk per reusable bag. Does this imply that if you bring in your own reusable bag (not bought from their store) that you will get one bonus perk?

I wonder how this bag-less policy will work for the home shopper that buys at a grocery store like Giant Eagle? Will they be required to buy so many bags that fit their order?

Customers already pay high prices for food and products. Now we just have another fee to take what we buy home. When will it ever end? If they want to encourage our business and reusable bags, why not just provide them for free? After all, this is an extra revenue source now that will be coming to them.

Landfills should be seen as the perfect place for biodegradable like paper to decompose. So once that paper is buried deep enough in the landfill there is not enough oxygen for the microbes to eat the paper anyway.

Wanting to help the environment is great. You also might want to read my post on 11 eco-friendly habits for the home. It would be super if we could walk to where we needed to go and get rid of our cars too. But really do you expect that to happen? We have to do what we can to be green. We also need to recognize that some things will still happen like driving and figuring a way to take what we buy home with us.

I plan on shopping at stores that plan to still give bags for free. Otherwise, I will be more selective on what I buy, which will probably save me lots more money.