Plastic to reusable cloth: Mainers urged to switch

[jpak]

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=150377&ac=PHnws

San Francisco banned them. London may, too.
Ireland charges a fee to use them, and so do Denmark and Switzerland.

Now, Mainers may soon join the global assault on the ubiquitous plastic grocery bag.

A lawmaker from Bar Harbor wants Mainers to switch from the thin plastic bags to reusable ones that aren't as harmful to the environment and don't contribute to our addiction to oil. And he's got the attention of the grocery industry, which is pledging to help create a bring-your-own-bags ethic in Maine.

Rep. Ted Koffman, a Democrat and co-chairman of the Legislature's Natural Resources Committee, said a fee of 20 cents or so, added to each plastic bag, could help shoppers make the switch to reusable cloth bags and help pay for the development of inexpensive alternatives, such as plastic made out of Maine potatoes instead of oil.

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[HereSince1628]

1. Ok, I'm confused, wouldn't potato-plastic bags would be banned, too?

So the "inexpensive alternative" would be sold out of state? Or when it gets to market does the plastic ban expire for potatoplastics?

[jpak]

3. Ahem....

You see potato, they see potential, as a bioplastic

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=111088&ac=phnws

Carpeting made of potatoes? Chairs upholstered with potato fabric? Mouthwash bottles made of spuds?

It may sound like a postmodern art display, but these all could be economically feasible uses of Maine potatoes, according to a report issued Tuesday by the University of Maine.

The report by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center concludes that Maine's potato industry could become a producer of bio-based plastics made from potatoes, joining the growing bioplastics industry in the United States.

Bio-based plastics are made from starch from plants rather than from crude oil. Other countries, such as the United Kingdom and Japan, already have begun to use potato-based plastics technology to create such items as "spudware," or plastic silverware made from potatoes.

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:)

[China_cat]

8. Look in any yarn shop today

We're getting lovely yarns to knit/crochet, etc with from things like bamboo, aloe vera, soy and corn. Why not potatoes.

Although I have done an experiment and found that the thin plastic bags, when used to pick up dog droppings and then buried, DO start to fall apart and disappear within a month. The same is not true of dry trash in the bag, though.

[jpak]

9. Why not hemp??

Organic Maine Potatoes sold in *reusable* organic hemp bags (with handles)

:thumbsup:

[China_cat]

10. Get the law changed and hemp would make a great alternative.

For a lot of things.

[whistle]

5. You know, I bought 5 lbs of potatoes in a sealed printed paper bag

...last week that had a web panel on the from and sides for ventilation made from some type of natural material, might have been paper cord. There was no plastic used in the packaging. Of course, the packaging had to be discarded when the potatoes were gone, but I could see where this packaging material would be completely biodegradable.

[HereSince1628]

12. I think the article said they'd make plastic bags from potato-based plastics

The notion of cellulose based polymers isn't news although making grocery bags of the polymer may be, I don't know.

What struck me was they were gonna ban plastic bags and charge for their continued use to encourage transistion...then they rationalized that the money could be used to invent alternatives to plastic bags--that is the potato-based polymer bag...which is technically plastic--the thing they are trying to ban. Hence my confusion: Why use the plastic bag ban to create a plastic bag of alternative origins, particularly if the new plastic bag is banned in the state that raised the money to develop it?

[whistle]

2. My mother used cloth bags for groceries back in the 1940s as I remember

...along with a two wheel pull cart made of light steel wire rods and a handle to pull it by. There was a small independent grocery store, an IGA as I recall, just around the block from where we lived. There was also a larger A&P store about six blocks away where my parents would do the weekly shopping, but those cloth carry bags would always come with us. My parents also would go to the farmer's market across town once a week to get fresh food items and the cloth bags would be used for those shopping trips as well.

[Cassandra]

6. I just bought a wheelie bag...

from reusablebags.com. I have cloth shoulderbags but my back was bothering me from the weight of what I was putting in there, so when I'm going to the Greenmarket to buy squash and other heavy stuff, I can take the wheeled bag.

[RC]

4. I like plastic because it is more sanitary and I have numerous uses for them.

Who knows what or where other peoples cloth bags have been or what they have been used for before being laid out on the check out counter. Never getting washed. Hauling other people's pet hair home in the trunk of my car is the least of the problems.

[NMDemDist2]

11. if you're that concerned about other people's bags

i'm sure the cashier would wipe down the bagging area for you

:banghead:

[RC]

13. How do the people here thinking cloth is better feel about

plastic trash and leaf bags? What about where city ordnances and apartment house rules require plastic bags to keep the trash from flying around.

Among other uses I use grocery bags as wastebasket liners. try that with cloth. Plastic grocery bags are good for carrying out wet garbage.
It is a cheap way to haul stuff to pass on to someone else, with no worry about trying to get your bags back.

Cardboard totes didn't work for most of the same reason cloth won't. High on the list is they are just plain not sanitary after a while.

If you feel so strong against plastic, ask for paper, it's recyclable.

[NMDemDist2]

16. paper is better for sure

I have a bunch of canvas bags I use shopping religiously

and yes, they get run through the washer on a regular basis

I only get a few plastic bags once in a while for hubby to use in his semi truck as a garbage bag

wish I didn't have to do that, but since he changes trucks all the time, I can't get him a permanent one

[rosesaylavee]

7. Our local grocery - part of a regional chain here in Chicago

is now offering canvas bags for a $1. Printed on them is Earth Day every Day.

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. We use cloth shopping bag at hannaford's and shaw's but

hubby never brings them into other stores. I really wish he would. I will keep after him about this.

[momophile]

15. we keep a stack of canvas bags in the trunk of the car

just for grocery shopping. if we use them in Safeway, Albertsons or King Soopers (Kroger), we save probably 8 plastic bags per visit.

I've wondered what it would take here in Boulder County to ban plastic bags at grocery stores...

[NMDemDist2]

17. and most grocery stores give a 5 cent credit for each bag you use

my Albertsons does anyway