I really hate initiatives like this... because, they miss the forest for the trees.
People do not have much knowledge about what goes into making a product and all the waste that entails.
An example:
Don't use paper or plastic bags, bring reusable bags.
For the same energy involved in shipping (weight), plastic (bags or cloth) and manufacturing, you can have 100 of those cheap t-shirt bags, or you could have one reusable bag. Do you really use the reusable ones 100 times each? (And i am probably underestimating the amount of cheap bags you can get)
Don't buy food wrapped in plastic.
Stores have to keep food away from the germs of people. A thin layer of plastic is the cheapest, and cheapest to the environment. There is nothing cheaper, including comparing it to the energy used to heat water to clean reusable containers.
Further, we are looking at only the end goods.
The choice between paper and plastic bags looks a lot different if you knew the horrible chemicals that are used to turn wood into pulp.
What we really should do is have a high temperature, dual stage burning power plant at each land fill. Turning all the plastic bags back into clean energy. (because it takes more energy to truck the plastic back to the plant then it saves in reusing the plastic)
This all sounds suspiciously like corporatist propaganda. I'm curious where you get your numbers on the cost per use of disposal bags (which can be recycled but rarely are) and permanent bags. I have had the same canvas grocery bag for nearly ten years. If it tears, I see it up. I fully expect it to last another ten years or more.
Also, how do they turn plastic bags into clean energy? I have never heard of this before(not surprising though, I learn awesome new things all the time) is there an article you could link me?
Very easily. It is because i manufacture things, and know the prices and costs of manufacturing. You can go online and order t-shirt bags. See the prices, and compare.
A canvas bag is definitely nice. I have the same backpack i have been using to collect groceries for decades. The bags sold in stores are plastic cloth. And not as durable. Further, i have seen people throw them out because they got something spilled in them. And spills are more common then we would like.
The cheap plastic bags that i have acquired have all been used instead of buying thick plastic trash bin bags.
I believe the term to look up is "high temperature rocket stove" or a two stage rocket stove. But basically, it has a vortex burning secondary chamber where the temperatures get up to a couple thousand degrees, burning everything. Efficiencies are very high and pollution is very low.
You use a similar thing for burning garbage.
But, wouldn't you know it, the govern-cement won't let it happen.
You see, the garbage department is over here, and the power company is over there, and we can't have them intermingling.
Ah rocket stoves I'm familiar with. But it seems to me your last statement just confirmed what the original post was pointing to.
We can blame the government and the system or recognize that each of us has the power to change those systems and little bit with our choices. You prove this is with your own grocery getter. If enough people cease a practice then that practice becomes impractical, irrelevant, and unnecessary. The few holdouts that still take the bags will have no choice but to follow or else learn to juggle.
The problem is one of awareness and apathy. Changing those two things requires education obviously for the next generations and reprogramming for current ones.
Additionally as a minimalist (like hardcore as shit with literally everything I own in a backpack for the better part of a decade minimalist) I have no problem pointing out that in much of the "developed" world people use way too much shit. Television and Internet ads, pop culture, parents and friends condition people to equate their identity and value to things. This is a major flaw in the system and hurts all of us in the long run.
Our obsession with status through materialism has potentially cost us great advancements in knowledge and understanding.
Miss the forest for the trees? I think you're the one missing something. Get a bag and reuse it for years. What's so hard about that? Pay for a bag (plastic/paper) (plastic/paper) in a grocery store, throw it out, or pay for a bag that can be used hundreds of times a year, for years to come. I've had mine for over 5 years, still using them. Some are made of plastic, some are made of cotton or other material.
No, food doesn't have to be wrapped up. All the fruits and veggies... yeah they need to be wrapped when they aren't... lol. Look at that orange, can't have it with it's skin on, we need to peel it and sell it to you in a plastic container... yup... good use of resources. Nature already covered it up. Beans don't need to be put in plastic. Cauliflower. Broccoli. Yet some stores sell it with plastic, and some don't.
Sure, maybe some things need to be kept fresher so the store makes money, and maybe "don't buy food wrapped in plastic" seems like an absolute, but you can choose to look around and put pressure on stores to change their way of selling food. One store here, Loco, has nothing wrapped in plastic, while other stores do. It's possible to change.
I haven't been in a store that has wrapped produce. New one to me.
But i have seen stores selling meat, poultry, sushi and sandwiches covered in plastic wrap.
Good for you, using the same bag for years. Most people i have watched sorta collect bags, and throw out if they get soiled.
What i hate is people insisting that i have to buy the expensive plastic bags, because it will save the environment. While i know that more energy went into expensive plastic bag then all the cheap bags i would use. More energy means more waste to the planet.
It is not that i don't care about the environment, i do. And i make less trash than anyone i know. I repair and fix more things than anyone i know.
However, don't tell me (and force me) to do things that i know are more harmful to the environment, because... i don't know, because they sounded good when you heard them?
Paper mills are awful, smelly, chemical filled places.
Paper really shouldn't be used for bags. The only better thing about paper vs plastic is that paper breaks down under soil. Else, we are just paying more energy for less.
And as i responded to another reply. We should be burning all the trash to make energy.