Some stores here do. Walmart is notorious for charging 10 cents a bag.

Albuquerque voted last night to ban the ban.

This was plastic bags reaction with the news.....

Aldi is 25 cents a bag or any free box you want.

I am not a fan of Aldi but it's not a bad policy same as the quarter to use a cart

it gets people to put away the cart or not use one or pay for it

if you take the box then they don't have to dispose of it

I have acquired quite a few decent sized fabric bags that stores give away during certain promotions. They work good for groceries

I wonder how much oil goes into the production of plastic bags and other crap wrappers that are not necessary. I remember meat came in butcher paper now its Styrofoam with plastic on top not fresh, eggs in plastic, candy and tools good lord, you need tools to open the tools you bought.

Remember paper milk cartons ? Glass or paper was how you bought your milk

Still have paper milk cartons here...I use them to start trees from seed...I also stuff them with paper bags - they make great fire starters!

I know a lot of guys that put fillets in the paper milk cartons, top them off with water and freeze them. They stack real nice that way

^^Yes they do

It may use more energy to reuse bottles, Gather, haul to bottling plant, wash and clean old vs new?

Cans, right now there is value in aluminum cans, they do get recycled and reused. Steel is also one of the most recycled materials out there.
I would guess that the energy usage for plastic vs paper varies form region to region. Lots of paper mills in the area the paper bags might be more environmentally friendly, gotta truck in the bags and haul them to a mill for reuse/recycling maybe not so friendly.

If the concern was the environment why not just go to cloth bags.
Keep them in your car, they are there when you go shopping.
Have the stores charge a buck a bag for those who don't want to use cloth bags.


If the concern is the environment the there are tons of things that could be done. Like reducing packaging/shipping materials or use reusable materials instead of disposable materials. Used to be that way years ago.

In the long run the reality of it is if we as a society we decide that we want to use more environmentally friendly ways it'll cost us more and reduce our standard of living.
I wouldn't have an issue with that if we could see an improvement in quality of the world around us. If it ended up with our politicians just getting richer and big business getting bigger, no thanks.

The problem with cloth or reusable bags is they don't get washed often or they are forgotten.
How much energy water detergent etc is used to wash the bags.

There's so many uses for plastic grocery bags. We use them in many ways.
Can't use paper bags for book coverings anymore since books are online.

how much other food comes in plastic ? not just the carry out bags. everyone jumps on the ban plastic bags bandwagon but then opens their food in plastic containers!

Ya ever wonder why the stores and fast food joints put their name on the sacks? They know they'll be blowing down the streets and it will be free advertising.
Walmart and even Family Dollar stores charge you for sacks now in some states.

57# Kraft bags (old fashioned grocery bag) was $79.00 for 500 here today, a few months ago it was $54.00 for the same bundle, a year ago $43.00, and it's only going to get worse.

They all charge for the bags just some show it to you in an attempt to push reusable bags you bring in. The others add the cost into the products going into the bag so you don't see it plainly.

Price of groceries unless you spend alot you mite not need a bag

I agree with you. Just take a cardboard box with you. Cardboard boxes are fairly easy to find.

One of the first things I noticed the first time I went to AZ is that the entire state is covered in plastic bags to some degree. Every fence, tree, shrub and any other object that could hold a bag, held one. This is especially true in the Tucson area. You would think that the sun would destroy them like it does to the water bottles, but it seems to not affect them so much. The food containers, at least, do not blow for miles on the wind. I would not mind seeing both reduced.