Bagging the groceries

I recently noticed they have an informational pamphlet at Earth Fare about the environmental advantages of plastic bags over their paper counterparts. The true solution to this debate is to offer no bags at all to the customers—or in the case of the demanding yet uncaring yuppie, charge them a dollar a bag for each one used.

Perhaps the Aldi solution of allowing people to use empty cardboard boxes to cart away their overpriced health food would help reduce waste. I don’t know—maybe Alan Ditmore has it right and population control will solve this problem and many more.

— Joseph Crawley
Asheville

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19 thoughts on “Bagging the groceries

  1. Traveleh

    All the options you mention are just six of one and half a dozen of another. If god did not want us to ravage the earth, he wouldn’t have made us such greedy guts.

  2. “The true solution to this debate is to offer no bags at all to the customers”

    Then why don’t you open your own grocery store and do just that? — Dear.

  3. Ashevegasjoe

    He also wouldn’t have given us alternatives to being greedy gluts. It’s a choice– not a god given directive

  4. travelah

    Ashevegas , don’t confuse the new “Travelah” with the modest “travelah” .. The new one? well, she is just coming out of her house under the bridge in the wee hours of the morning .. nuff said lol.

  5. Ashevegasjoe

    I would never be so presumptive as to confuse the irrational “Traveleh” with the intellectually superior “travelah”. Clearly this is an attempt at libel

  6. travelah

    Ashevegas …. I am humbled and to think I almost skipped my wheaties this morning.

  7. moontime

    “Population control?” It scares me that eugenics is becoming mainstream again, this time wrapped in the seductive cloak of “saving the earth”. If you believe in population control, start with yourself.

  8. moontime

    PS for those who do not realize that eugenics never went away please see the film Endgame by Alex Jones.

    Genocide & depopulation quotes
    http://www.whale.to/b/genocide_q.html
    http://www.fdrs.org/quotes_on_population_control.html

    Top Scientist Advocates Mass Culling 90% Of Human Population
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/030406massculling.htm

    Professor’s “Kill 90% of Population” Comments Echo UN, Elite NGO policies
    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/april2006/040406_b_depopulation.htm
    (He got a standing ovation by the way)

    In order to stabilize world population, we must eliminate 350,000 per day.
    -Jacques Yves Cousteau

    “A total world population of 250-300 million people, a 95% decline from present levels, would be ideal.” – Audubon magazine, interview with Ted Turner, 1996

  9. caringdude

    who produced this ‘informational pamphlet’?

    what is the agenda of the organization?

    My guess is they are a spin-off of some big chemical company. I am from Montana and I always choose paper over plastic. Why? Because I support the local shrinking timber industry. Also timber is a renewable resource. To bad that our federal government mismanages those resources. Result being massive forest fires and the NFS getting a bigger budget. Its the bloated bureaucracy that needs fixed along with your idea that killing people(population reduction)is a solution. Let us promote healthy debate and not promote mass killing!

  10. travelah

    caringdude … excellent points. Forest resources are renewable and it should be pointed out as well that bag grades of paper (kraft) like all other types of paper do not use old growth timber. Kraft paper also uses a high content of recycled fiber. In addition to being biodegradable and recyclable the natural resource impact is considerably less than petrochemical by product processing needed to produce disposable plastic bags. … such is the short-sightedness of much of the “green” community.

  11. Ashevegasjoe

    as a member of the “green” community I use reusable bags. I keep them in my car and don’t have to mess with plastic or paper. Travelah, your short-sidedness is mind numbing. The “green” community doesn’t suggest recycling plastic bags, but rather not using them at all. It’s simple, easy, and affordable. Why use paper or plastic? Because you’re lazy or forgetful. As long as power comes from coal, the only thing worth recycling, in terms of net pollution, is aluminum. I recycle what the city picks up because it’s easy, and it makes my girlfriend happy, but if you want to be “green”, recycling plastic and glass causes more pollution than throwing it away (due to the refineries and trucks needed). You can make the arguement about landfill space, but in terms of air and water quality, much of recycling is a joke. Get in the habit of bringing cloth bags, it’s really easy, and really works.

  12. travelah

    ashevegasjoe, you are a minority among the minority. The paper industry has been “assaulted” for years over the issue of recycle fiber with demands for minimum content ranging from 10% to 100%. The drivers associated with the pressure have been from green environmentalists. If you are representative of “green environmentalism”, then it would be appropriate to state that the movent you associate yourself with is to state the least, schizophrenic. Now, I have no problem with cloth bags having used them myself as well. I also have no problem with brown kraft paper bags either. Perhaps you might explore how much envoronmental damage was done in order to provide the cheap electronics in your houisehold including the computer you typed your post on. Let’s see some consistency in your commitment, eh? Can it now be said that green environmentalists view those who use paper bags to be shortsighted and lazy? How algorish of you. Ha!

  13. Ashevegasjoe

    I said I was a member, not a representative, though it doesn’t really matter. The community we speak of is huge, with many groups and sub-groups. To say that is is “schizophrenic” implies that it is out of control and in need of medication. This could be said of extremists in any movement, even if the movement as a whole is rational and quite sound. But, way to use words that stir up emotion and paint the other side as ludicrous rather than engage in civil debate. I also didn’t call people that use paper bags “shortsighted”, but “forgetful”. Maybe, “ill-informed”, or “ignorant”, would be more appropriate. You say that you yourself use cloth bags, so where is our arguement. Everyone could (as they do in Ireland), with little effort. The fact that we don’t seems a little lazy. How g.w.ish of you! Ha HA!

  14. travelah

    I could agree that it is out of control and needs a shot of reality. Now as for what you stated, it is above and pretty easily read. If your view is not representative of the “movement” in particular those who have pushed recycled fiber for 20 years, then perhaps schizophrenic is too harsh. However, if your view is predominant then I don’t think I’m being harsh at all. It is called hyperbole and it sways opinions.

  15. Ashevegasjoe

    the only hyperbole is your use of the word schizophrenic, if that’s what you meant, then I concur. I don’t intend to sway anything, lest I catch a breeze, I only speak my mind

  16. travelah

    It is not your opinion that is the target of hyperbole. It is a much bigger issue.

  17. Alan Ditmore

    Thanks JC for the endorsement. On the day I read this, I actually forgot to tell a cashier “no bags please” in time and ended up with the first plastic beg I got is several months. I hate to make them take everything out when I am too late.
    But I save my limited letter space for contraception and zoning.

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