I wan't my goddamned plastic bags...

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

Oregon is now contemplating a bill that would ban plastic grocery bags...How am I supposed to bring every item into the house in one go without slinging all the bags onto my fingers...cutting off circulation but using only one trip?Oh...and nobody has actually proven that plastic bags are any worse than paper on the environment.Damn hippies.

[numbnuts240]

How am I supposed to bring every item into the house in one go without slinging all the bags onto my fingers...cutting off circulation but using only one trip?

hahahaahahahaha i was so glad when i first found out that i wasn't the only person who did that.

and i love plastic bags. i use them a good 2-3 more times before i throw them away, and they're usually filled with more trash when i do throw them out.

[drksolest]

hahahaahahahaha i was so glad when i first found out that i wasn't the only person who did that.

and i love plastic bags. i use them a good 2-3 more times before i throw them away, and they're usually filled with more trash when i do throw them out.

ya, bathroom trash, desk trash.... I'm the same! so now what... we have to go buy tiny little trash bags for our smaller trash cans.... ghey!!!

[krash]

those plastic bags are vital for my dog's pooing system.

[RobPaulson]

plastic bags contributed to MMGW. down with plastic bags.

[drksolest]

plastic bags contributed to Man Made Global Warming (MMGW). down with plastic bags.

it's still cold here... down with u!

[RobPaulson]

but mmgw will be the end of us all! by 2012! run for teh hills! the plastic bags is'a cumin!

[drksolest]

oh nossssssssse it gotz meh

[PEZi]

Damn hippies.

[Red coupe]

hahahaahahahaha i was so glad when i first found out that i wasn't the only person who did that.

I think most men will do that.

I HATE multiple trips if it can be avoided.

I have been known to carry 3-4 full plastic bags, a 12 pack of soda, a 12 pack of beer and a large little ceasars pizza up the fight of stairs to my apartment to avoid a second trip.

[Jesda]

those plastic bags are vital for my dog's pooing system.

Seriously. Its either plastic bags or my dog's feces on the ground contaminating the groundwater. I pick plastic bags.

[RobPaulson]

little ceasars pizza

no wai! i can haz? havent had those around here FOREVER. its like dominos, but wai better.

[Red coupe]

no wai! i can haz? havent had those around here FOREVER. its like dominos, but wai better.

Really? We got them a bit out here.TBH they are kinda s***, but oddly satisfying.Plus $5 for a large pizza with no waiting is pretty win.

[breadbox]

OBX doesn't have them anymore. I personally prefer paper bags anyway. The fact that there is way too many bags and no where for them to go.

[93coupe]

Now what is John going to beat of into with such easy clean up?

[Dire91]

What we need is decomposable plastic bags, word.

[tiger-SE-R]

What we need is decomposable plastic bags, word.

They have them. Unfortunatly they cost almost 3 times as much.

and the product that it breaks down into is questionable, meaning organic matter vs plastic pellets. The other issue is that most of the product that the compostable material is made from has a very short shelf life and its not as strong.

quick test

which is more sustainable, a styrofoam cup or a ceramic mug.

Answer: the styrofoam cup. The reason is the amount of heat and power it takes to form and make a ceramic mug. It would take over 1500 uses of the ceramic mug to equal the power it takes to make a single styrofoam one.

[Jesda]

I'm going to smuggle in free plastic bags from Washington. I'll make a killing!

[seang]

I could go on and on about how chemicals in plastic give men erectile dysfunction, and that there is a patch of plastic refuse in the middle of the Pacific Ocean twice the size of Texas and a hundred feet deep, some of which has been there for fifty years. For everything "green" there exists an "anti-green". Oh well, here I am b****ing about it while listening to a radio made from plastic, and typing on a plastic keyboard.

[tiger-SE-R]

one of the most interesting things I used to sell was environmentally friendly matting (rugs). The rug was made from recycled water bottles and dyed with vegetable based inks, and the bottom part was made from recycled rubber tires, but again you get into how much energy did it take to produce the rug......

[Bmore-coupe]

Now what is John going to beat of into with such easy clean up?

Tito's mouth

[C-Kwik]

Oh...and nobody has actually proven that plastic bags are any worse than paper on the environment.

Can't speak to making plastic bags from an energy perspective, but oil is likely one of the "ingredients" used to actually make it. Plastics in general are recyclable, but few people actually recycle them. They have a few good secondary uses, but that generally still ends up with plastic bags in our landfills rather than recycling plants. While landfills and waste management facilities to actively recycle, sometimes, extracting the plastic bags are not cost effective. So much of it likely end up in the landfills.

With paper bags, again, I'm not sure of the amount of energy required to make them. But the source of paper is renewable and ultimately its biodegradable in a relatively short timespan. So paper bags that don't make it into recycling won't have as much impact as waste.

The big push with moving away from plastic bags are actually a move towards reusable bags. A lot of grocery stores around here actually push it and provide small discounts for each bag you bring in. Its not perfectly convenient (I have a couple of resusable bags, but I tend to forget to bring them with me often), but there is merit in it and in some cases a bit of consumer incentive.

which is more sustainable, a styrofoam cup or a ceramic mug.

Answer: the styrofoam cup. The reason is the amount of heat and power it takes to form and make a ceramic mug. It would take over 1500 uses of the ceramic mug to equal the power it takes to make a single styrofoam one.

I'd speculate that this is only the case if you look at it from the front end. But a proper analysis would account for all the energy required to also transport the cups from manufacturer to consumer (perhaps even the materials to make them) and in the case of the mugs, to wash them. And in the end, one would need to calculate the cost of waste and its environmental impact costs. I have no idea what the end result would be but taking a single aspect of the life of a cup and mug is a limited analysis.

I'd imagine 1500 styrofoam cups take up more room than a single mug in our landfills. I recently stood at the top of what has been referred to garbage mountain out here. It merely looked like any one of our hills that surround it. But from what the waste management facility says, it used to be a valley. Apparently National Geographic did a program on it as well. Pretty advanced facility with a lot of good environmental engineering but the sheer scale of it blew me away. And they don't handle all the waste in the area. In fact my neighbor works for another landfill which I went to him with to dump some garbage and while being much smaller than garbage mountain, was still damned big. Trying to reduce some of this load would be helpful. Garbage mountain is actually not far from where people are. This means it is going to be restricted as to how big it can get and they will have to move soon. The waste management company is in the process of making it so that the trash is hauled off on a train to a location much further out. Since we can not continue to throw trash in our own backyard indefinitely, I think that the cost of waste will be growing. Hell, we used to pay for an extra trash bin here (we have the automated trucks that require special trash cans) and got rid of it due to cost. Its hard to fit our weekly trash in the single bin. I'm a long way from making significant impacts on my overall waste, but plastic bags can be a start. Reduction of waste on the consumer end as a trend would reduce the load on our waste management companies.

[krimsonviper]

I'm going to smuggle in free plastic bags from Washington. I'll make a killing!

There's your little kiosk. Plant one in a mall close to their border.

[Black on Gold]

There's your little kiosk. Plant one in a mall close to their border.

^^This

[Chaotic_Warlord]

I use plastic bags for everything; cleaning the litterbox, trashbags for the car, carrying my lunch, hell if I'm in a hurry I've been known to use them as quick little overnight bags. Plus they are great for waterproofing stuff when you're out camping. If where I lived banned plastic bags I don't know what I'd scoop my kitty pee and poo into.

[krimsonviper]

To Bad Cop/No Donut:What's going on with your process man? You've been waiting for forever and a day man. I don't like cops, but I like you, and I'm disappointed for you!

[Dattebayo]

Philly isn't in a budget crisis, they are just full of fat cops taking up too much space in the offices.

[krimsonviper]

Poor Brandon.

[s0m3th1ngAZ]

I myself use reusable cloth bags my mom got me...but I just can't believe the amount of bannings that are going on lately.One other aspect is that you need less material to hold goods with a plastic bag. IE using a full paper bag to hold a bag of cookies and a bunch of bananas doesn't make sense.I love my plastic bags...no matter the nerve damage from loss of circulation.

[Dattebayo]

We should use animal hide bags instead. I vote for whale skin or seal. It's organic!