Am I the only one that reuses plastic bags as trash bags?
this post was submitted on 20 Jun 2025
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Trash and kitty litter. Theoretically paper or reuseable bags would work better for the environment, but I haven't figured out a replacement trash bags yet.
We banned single use plastic bags. So the grocery companies started using EXTRA THICK PLASTIC claiming it was 'reusable'. Arguably have been polluting even more since we made that switch.
Hopefully we will finally rid ourselves of plastic grocery bags.
They are re-usable but so were the old ones. A lot of people re-use these bags for various things like trash can liners.
Honestly this whole thing went off the rails when plastic bags were introduced. "Paper or Plastic" was an oft asked, and ridiculed, question a couple of decades ago.
The trees used in the manufacture of paper bags come from cultivated forests so nothing was really being saved PLUS if we'd stuck with paper bags it would have boosted recycling, specifically paper recycling.
Well intentioned interference is what created this mess. We should have left things as they were.
I wonder to what extent this is actually popular. I have a stereotype in mind of small but vehement and politically active groups getting laws like this passed while the majority of voters is opposed but not opposed enough to vote for the other party, but maybe I'm biased because I find the plastic bag ban where I live (not Oregon) so annoying. But not so annoying that I'd vote for a Republican because of it.
I thing getting rid of plastic sacks is good and we shouldn't have ever had them anyway. They only came into being due to misguided and low information efforts to "Save Trees" by getting people to stop using paper!
Just ban plastic bags completely and bring back paper. Then charge for the paper bags if necessary in order to incent re-use.
We can still pay $10 for a box of plastic bags that we put in our trash cans. We just can't have free ones when we buy groceries, right? Can anyone explain the difference in these bags to me please?