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Should you skip individual plastic produce bags at the grocery store?

Should you skip individual plastic produce bags at the grocery store?

You may have noticed that many stores and restaurants are becoming more environmentally conscious by moving away from single-use plastics. Straws are no longer a guarantee with your smoothie and plastic bags might cost you a few cents each at the supermarket. So what about those plastic produce bags available above the apples? Should you pass on those, too? Well, no. Not exactly. If you want to do your part at the grocery store, make sure you bring reusable bags for your larger groceries, but also bring some smaller bags for your individual produce items, as well. You see, not putting your produce in bags and putting it directly in your cart can be a very unsanitary practice. It might seem like the more sustainable choice, but when you put your broccoli or Romaine directly in the cart or on the conveyor belt, your food isn’t just touching that surface…

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How to recycle plastic grocery bags

If you recycle, you probably already know that most communities don’t accept plastic bags in their weekly curbside pick-up bins. This creates a problems for just about every household. After all, even the most diligent of us wind up with a few plastic bags when an impromptu grocery shopping trip breaks out. Throwing bags in the garbage may seem like a solution, but plastic bags aren’t biodegradable, meaning they can take hundreds of years to decompose. The best thing you can do is recycle them. So if curbside recycling won’t accept them, how do you recycle plastic bags? It’s as easy and taking them to a nearby store. National retailers like Walmart, Whole Foods, Target, JCPenney, Kohl’s, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and many regional retailers like Giant Eagle, all offer onsite plastic bag collection bins and boxes. No need to separate where your bags came from, as these retailers will accept…

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Use plastic bags in Kenya and get time in prison

Use plastic bags in Kenya and get time in prisonAP Photo/Sayyid Abdul Azim

If you lived in Kenya, you’d think twice before heading to the store without your stack of reusable shopping bags. The East African nation has made a big push for its citizens to reduce or eliminate plastic bag usage by making the production, sale or use of any single-use plastic bags punishable by four years in jail or up to a $38,000 fine. More than 40 other countries already have similar laws prohibiting or taxing plastic bag users including China, Rwanda and the United Kingdom. One major problem with the plastic bags is they take lots of energy and oil to produce, but are only used once before ending up in a landfill. Since plastics can’t biodegrade, they will last centuries underground. Some estimates say they can take between 500 and 1,000 years to break down. A third of all plastic bags are also ending up in our oceans. The bags are broken down into micro plastics…

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