This is the one that really makes me shake my head.

When they give you a giant PLASTIC cup but make you use a wretched paper straw to drink the contents:

One Photograph Proves the Idiocy of New Jersey Paper Straw Law

Local King Soopers/Krogers now has the traditional paper bags for .03 ea if you need one. I don't need any but picked up 3 just because. I'm sure the overhead all-seeing eye know how many I grabbed. I'm sure they'll come in handy for something, not that we need them for book covers any more. I guess , as a liner, they'll keep meat colder as I finish my errands after the store before I get home.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:
My local grocery gouging outfit went back to paper bags a few years ago. I have mixed feelings on it. I prefer plastic for the same reasons you list in addition to the fact that it's just easier and safer to carry the goods in the handled plastic bags. Several times I've had to pick up my groceries from the parking lot pavement due to the bags ripping. The paper bags are kind of nice, though, to have around as fire starters since I no longer get a newspaper. I suppose I can go either way on it but if I had my druthers I'd just go back to plastic bags. I don't give two shits about the saving the environment argument they use.

As I rarely get any restaurant or fast food, I haven't seen any of the paper straw nonsense...yet.

You can go either way, just tell them you are bisacual..

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Be Green support the reduction in pollution, imagine the volume of trash if we were not a leader in helping the planet!

Get your own personal carry straw, plenty of options out there and the good thing is nobody is touching your straw but you!

Sustainability is important!




Link

I have these straws and they were givin to me.

I enjoy my coffee every day through plastic straws. The skinny stir stick straws are dandy for sipping coffee. Local to me are two companies which make paper bags of all types and, I have watched the machinery which cranks out paper straws. Very fast cycle time.

I quit caring. I do like the nostalgia of non-plastic straws. I don't remember them getting too soggy.

I also like that I live in a place where I don't have to separate my garbage into plastic, paper, clean garbage, and dirty garbage.

The most I do is not throw my Amazon cardboard boxes but go to the recycle bin at the local dump. It saves me from cutting up the cardboard and stuffing them into my garbage.

I like how when Covid started, they wouldn't allow those grocery bags they made people buy before Covid and went back to plastic.

To me, it's a minor nuisance and lets me punch my "green" card (pun intended).

What really bothers me, however, is that Aldi used to sell really good plastic bags for 10 cents each. Then our county passed one of these stupid ordnances where a plastic bag would be taxed 5 cents and Aldi stopped selling the plastic bags.

If you really want to see the height of stupidity, go out to California. The plastic bags in the stores are incredible. I mean these bags will last for years.

Now, why does California have better "disposable" plastic bags than everyone else? I was curious about it so I did some Googling. It turns out that the law reads that reusable plastic bags are allowed. So they started making the plastic bags thick enough to be considered reusable.

It amazes me that this doesn't get more press.

Kroger does that, their plastic bags are awesome, thicker, holds weight better, maybe because here Kroger is 100% home delivery.

Easily used over and over, you could pick up all the dog crap in the neighborhood and never break it...

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Be Green support the reduction in pollution, imagine the volume of trash if we were not a leader in helping the planet!

Get your own personal carry straw, plenty of options out there and the good thing is nobody is touching your straw but you!


Sustainability is important!




Link

We used to run into the straw melting thing all the time when we traveled to scuba dive, and I bought metal straws that come in their own little bamboo sleeves complete with a reamer. We bring them with us every time we travel. They stay with my scuba gear. It works out pretty well. I just keep them in my bag with my phone and wallet when we go out to eat, and pack em back up when we finish our meal. It’s pretty easy to discreetly ream em in my water glass before putting them back in case, or when we get back to our rooms. The bore of the straw is big enough that you can eyeball the inside, and frankly, we don’t drink anything that would gunk them up so badly that a quick water rinse wouldn’t solve. ETA: pretty sure they are stainless, so there’s a level of comfort there for me.
At home, I don’t use them, and usually don’t use a straw to drink my beverage.

They charge at many grocery stores here for use of a plastic bag. I can find plenty of uses for paper or plastic bags, but I do like the ease of plastic for carry out. The paper bags, even with handles, often tear.

The neighborhood grocery store we use has some pretty thick plastic bags . We reuse them all the time for bathroom garbage cans , etc.

I have solved the straw problem when eating out. I always tell the wait staff that I don't need a straw. I am an adult, and able to drink straight out of the glass.
Rod

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Get your own personal carry straw, plenty of options out there and the good thing is nobody is touching your straw but you!

My wife's purse isn't that big, but I am amazed at the amount of stuff in there, including some brightly colored silicone straws, coiled up in a small ziplock bag. She pulls them out when we eat in a restaurant.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
My favorite giggle is getting rid of plastic straws that came in a little paper sleeve for a paper straw that comes in a little plastic sleeve.

Now my head hurts.

And all at the same time we were converting powder laundry detergent in nice recyclable cardboard to big plastic jugs of liquid and doing away with most frozen concentrated juices and putting reconstituted in big plastic bottles on the shelf…

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:
Kroger does that, their plastic bags are awesome, thicker, holds weight better, maybe because here Kroger is 100% home delivery.

Easily used over and over, you could pick up all the dog crap in the neighborhood and never break it...

What's next, personal carry toilet paper?

You can make silhouette targets out of the paper grocery bags.

https://www.instructables.com/...s-from-grocery-bags/

I'm glad everything is still plastic here in Tampa. Every place I have gone that has tried to switch to paper only has backtracked back to plastic within a few weeks. And the grocery bags are still free or at least they hide the cost of them in their markup like a business should.

US Foods, a major USA food retailer, has a retail store across town. I buy stuff there.

I just bought a couple boxes of wrapped straws, normal and long length, just in case. I always keep a few in the glovebox anyway, just in case.
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