Bagging Rights

I happened to receive this email tonight after having a little discussion about Paper and Plastic Bags. A caller on Sirius Patriot, earlier today, mentioned that he recalls several years ago when people used to use paper bags for their groceries/shopping but environmentalist groups started the push away from using paper (Save The Trees), and tada - mass plastic bag use was born. Now of course, plastic is known to sit around for eons and is blamed for a lot of environmental issues, so now those groups are pushing to use recycled or reusable bags... okay, so what will be next? And are we just supposed to ignore the past, and ignore the fact that Environmentalists were the ones to push towards using PLASTIC in the first place?

And may I just point out that whether you use paper, plastic, or fabric bags - they were all created using PETROLEUM products, whether it is in the materials, the processing, transportation, factory, dyes, etc,,, and we fill them with items that are only available due to their heavy reliance on Petroleum products at EVERY STEP???? Ikea itself selling no end of products created using oil, in a giant building made entirely of materials available due to Petroleum, and every item transported to the various stores in gas or diesel-guzzling trucks... Is this not hypocracy at it's highest level? Look around the shop, look in their catalogues, and then decide if using a fabric shopping bag is going to make any major impact on the environment with such large masses of petroleum-based products piled in every corner. Seriously,,, it is really starting to drive me insane. Save The Planet - Don't Use The Plastic Bags We Forced You To Use When We Decided That Paper Bags Were Bad, Use THIS Bag That Was Made In A Greased Machine And Brought To You In A Semi-Trailer. Okay,,,, yeah,,,, good idea!

What Seattle plans to do, for example.

As for me, I choose to reuse my plastic bags as much as possible. I use them in the house for my smaller garbage bins instead of buying a box. I take a wad of them with me to the store (when I remember, sometimes I forget). I use them for many many things and very rarely throw them away unless they are icky, or were used to bring Meat home from the store).... I have purchased many fabric bags from stores such as Safeway, The Bay, Superstore, IGA, and so on - but guess what? Almost all of them have rips and tears after only a few uses. I swear I have bad bag karma or something. I do not overfill them because I have 3 young children to bring into the house as well, and don't feel like carrying a horribly heavy grocery bag at the same time as hauling a baby into the house. Yet, the bottom has ripped right out of 3 bags from 2 different stores, the handles tore off two others, and there are random holes in over half of the bags I have left. How nice! I paid for these bags, between $1 and $2 each, and they are crap. So now I just use them for random trips out with baby, to throw a few diapers and wipes into. That's my Bag Lady Story, what's your's?