Kroger to buy Albertsons?

[jakeroot]

In actual practice, most plastic bags are not recyclable.  The stores don't take them back (except my dry cleaner takes back the big plastic garment bags), curbside recycling doesn't take them, even at a recycling center they don't want them because they don't have a plastics recycling number on them.  I use a few for garbage of various sorts or to hold a book or magazine when I'm walking outside, but that's not nearly all of them if I just accepted the plastic bags stores give me for groceries.

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.



Plastic abounds here in Japan, no bans that I am aware of.

[Bruce]

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

Restaurants still use the flimsy plastic bags, as well as styrofoam packaging. Even in Seattle proper.

[Scott5114]

Does anyone actually prefer plastic bags? Even before there started being a push to ban them in some places, I was always kind of annoyed by them since they tear so easily if you put more than one or two items in them. I remember walking up the stairs to my last apartment with like twenty of them in my arms since I didn't want to make the trip any more times than I needed to and thinking to myself how much easier it would be if it were all in four paper bags or whatever.

[hotdogPi]

Does anyone actually prefer plastic bags? Even before there started being a push to ban them in some places, I was always kind of annoyed by them since they tear so easily if you put more than one or two items in them. I remember walking up the stairs to my last apartment with like twenty of them in my arms since I didn't want to make the trip any more times than I needed to and thinking to myself how much easier it would be if it were all in four paper bags or whatever.

Paper bags around here don't have handles, even though handled paper bags do exist. In addition, a tiny rip in a paper bag is more likely to expand than a tiny rip in a plastic bag. (I still try to avoid plastic bags.)

[kalvado]

Does anyone actually prefer plastic bags? Even before there started being a push to ban them in some places, I was always kind of annoyed by them since they tear so easily if you put more than one or two items in them. I remember walking up the stairs to my last apartment with like twenty of them in my arms since I didn't want to make the trip any more times than I needed to and thinking to myself how much easier it would be if it were all in four paper bags or whatever.

One advantage of plastic bags is they are somewhat leakproof (some of them). I reused quite a few for cat litter box cleaning. Can easily take 2 bags a day.
Another one, they are light. Compartmentalizing travel bag with "one set of clothes per plastic bag" didn't add any weight but allowed for much better management of space.
_spelling

[kphoger]

Does anyone actually prefer plastic bags? Even before there started being a push to ban them in some places, I was always kind of annoyed by them since they tear so easily if you put more than one or two items in them. I remember walking up the stairs to my last apartment with like twenty of them in my arms since I didn't want to make the trip any more times than I needed to and thinking to myself how much easier it would be if it were all in four paper bags or whatever.

For a large shopping trip, I hate plastic sacks.  This is mainly because I hate ending up with 850 bags in my car, none of which will actually stand up and stay put while I'm driving home.  But if I'm only buying a few small items, then I think a big paper sack is a huge waste (especially considering, as I said, the environmental toll of producing them), so I'll go for plastic instead.

When it comes to reusing them, each has its place.  Plastic is useful when you need something leakproof:  lining a wastebasket, dumping moldy food into, etc.  Paper is useful when transporting things:  bottles of soda and/or snack foods to a party, for example.

[kphoger]

One advantage of plastic bags is they are somewhat leakproof (some of them). I reused quite a few for cat litter box cleaning. Can easily take 2 bags a day.
Another one, they are light. Compartmentalizing travel bag with "one set of clothes per plastic bag" didn't add any weight but allowed for much better management of space.

A great re-use for plastic sacks is to keep them in the car for cleanup.  Need a place to keep your Wendy's trash?  Did your kid puke all over himself, and now you need a place to contain his stinky clothes?  Did your baby have a diaper emergency, but you're in the middle of nowhere?  Did you go to the swimming pool or the beach, and now you need to keep your swimsuits and towels from soaking the upholstery?  Etc.

[kalvado]

One advantage of plastic bags is they are somewhat leakproof (some of them). I reused quite a few for cat litter box cleaning. Can easily take 2 bags a day.
Another one, they are light. Compartmentalizing travel bag with "one set of clothes per plastic bag" didn't add any weight but allowed for much better management of space.

A great re-use for plastic sacks is to keep them in the car for cleanup.  Need a place to keep your Wendy's trash?  Did your kid puke all over himself, and now you need a place to contain his stinky clothes?  Did your baby have a diaper emergency, but you're in the middle of nowhere?  Did you go to the swimming pool or the beach, and now you need to keep your swimsuits and towels from soaking the upholstery?  Etc.

Well, I don't have that extreme cases, but I use Amazon bubble-wrap envelopes for periodic car cleanups... Anything that is delivered in a plastic bag, actually - abet those are usually smaller.. 

[J N Winkler]

I typically keep several plastic bags in the trunk of each car for use in emergencies.  For example, in Selma, Alabama, I stepped in dog mess while walking backward to try to get a good angle on the Edmund Pettus Bridge for a photo, and wrapped a plastic bag around my shoe to avoid tracking feces onto the car carpet.

[Scott5114]

For a large shopping trip, I hate plastic sacks.  This is mainly because I hate ending up with 850 bags in my car, none of which will actually stand up and stay put while I'm driving home.  But if I'm only buying a few small items, then I think a big paper sack is a huge waste (especially considering, as I said, the environmental toll of producing them), so I'll go for plastic instead.

In that particular case I usually just avoid using a bag at all. Especially if the number of items is less than three, or if some of the items are small enough I can carry them in my pocket.

My big win is anytime I am buying a product that can contain other products, like when I buy plastic storage bins. Then I can just put all the items in that.

[kphoger]

My big win is anytime I am buying a product that can contain other products, like when I buy plastic storage bins. Then I can just put all the items in that.

Disposable roasting pans, too.

[kkt]

In actual practice, most plastic bags are not recyclable.  The stores don't take them back (except my dry cleaner takes back the big plastic garment bags), curbside recycling doesn't take them, even at a recycling center they don't want them because they don't have a plastics recycling number on them.  I use a few for garbage of various sorts or to hold a book or magazine when I'm walking outside, but that's not nearly all of them if I just accepted the plastic bags stores give me for groceries.

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

Target, Safeways in Shoreline (not Seattle)

[skluth]

Does anyone actually prefer plastic bags? Even before there started being a push to ban them in some places, I was always kind of annoyed by them since they tear so easily if you put more than one or two items in them. I remember walking up the stairs to my last apartment with like twenty of them in my arms since I didn't want to make the trip any more times than I needed to and thinking to myself how much easier it would be if it were all in four paper bags or whatever.

One advantage of plastic bags is they are somewhat leakproof (some of them). I reused quite a few for cat litter box cleaning. Can easily take 2 bags a day.
Another one, they are light. Compartmentalizing travel bag with "one set of clothes per plastic bag" didn't add any weight but allowed for much better management of space.

I keep a one gallon lidded trash bin outside my back door for clumped litter. It takes about four days or so to fill (I have a small cat), at which point I switch out the bag and toss the old bag with litter into the dumpster. The grocery bags are too big for that plus we get charged 10¢ per bag locally so I just buy a roll of small bags (usually 3-4 gallons as I can't find any one gallon bags).

[jakeroot]

In actual practice, most plastic bags are not recyclable.  The stores don't take them back (except my dry cleaner takes back the big plastic garment bags), curbside recycling doesn't take them, even at a recycling center they don't want them because they don't have a plastics recycling number on them.  I use a few for garbage of various sorts or to hold a book or magazine when I'm walking outside, but that's not nearly all of them if I just accepted the plastic bags stores give me for groceries.

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

Target, Safeways in Shoreline (not Seattle)

I assume they are the newer, thicker kind?

[kkt]

In actual practice, most plastic bags are not recyclable.  The stores don't take them back (except my dry cleaner takes back the big plastic garment bags), curbside recycling doesn't take them, even at a recycling center they don't want them because they don't have a plastics recycling number on them.  I use a few for garbage of various sorts or to hold a book or magazine when I'm walking outside, but that's not nearly all of them if I just accepted the plastic bags stores give me for groceries.

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

Target, Safeways in Shoreline (not Seattle)

I assume they are the newer, thicker kind?

Yes, they could be (and I do) reuse them at least once or twice.

[jakeroot]

In actual practice, most plastic bags are not recyclable.  The stores don't take them back (except my dry cleaner takes back the big plastic garment bags), curbside recycling doesn't take them, even at a recycling center they don't want them because they don't have a plastics recycling number on them.  I use a few for garbage of various sorts or to hold a book or magazine when I'm walking outside, but that's not nearly all of them if I just accepted the plastic bags stores give me for groceries.

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

Target, Safeways in Shoreline (not Seattle)

I assume they are the newer, thicker kind?

Yes, they could be (and I do) reuse them at least once or twice.

Gotcha. I was thinking you meant the older, flimsy plastic ones (like the kind Bruce mentioned above) that were everywhere before a couple years ago.

I had been recycling those thicker plastic bags. Maybe I got that wrong.

[ErmineNotyours]

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

The Renton Fred Meyer also has thick plastic bags.  My car was stuck in the shop for three weeks, and I left my reusable bags in the car.  I had stopped sending my plastic bags back to recycling for years in anticipation of a plastic bag ban, so that I could and still do have a supply of small trash bags.

[JoePCool14]

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

The Renton Fred Meyer also has thick plastic bags.  My car was stuck in the shop for three weeks, and I left my reusable bags in the car.  I had stopped sending my plastic bags back to recycling for years in anticipation of a plastic bag ban, so that I could and still do have a supply of small trash bags.

I should start stockpiling. I was thinking about tossing a bunch of bags, but I might as well keep them for use year down the road when they're banned.

[ibthebigd]

I wonder what the Spirit Jet Blue decision will mean for Albertsons Kroger merger?

SM-G996U

[Ted$8roadFan]

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

The Renton Fred Meyer also has thick plastic bags.  My car was stuck in the shop for three weeks, and I left my reusable bags in the car.  I had stopped sending my plastic bags back to recycling for years in anticipation of a plastic bag ban, so that I could and still do have a supply of small trash bags.

I should start stockpiling. I was thinking about tossing a bunch of bags, but I might as well keep them for use year down the road when they're banned.

That's what I've been doing since plastic bags were banned a few years ago.

[kkt]

Target in Northgate still gives out plastic bags.  They cost 8 cents or something, but they are reusable.

[SD Mapman]

Where are you getting plastic bags? I have not seen plastic bags anywhere in Western Washington for a long time now. It's paper, reusable, or that other kind of recyclable plastic like you can get at Walmart.

The Renton Fred Meyer also has thick plastic bags.  My car was stuck in the shop for three weeks, and I left my reusable bags in the car.  I had stopped sending my plastic bags back to recycling for years in anticipation of a plastic bag ban, so that I could and still do have a supply of small trash bags.

I should start stockpiling. I was thinking about tossing a bunch of bags, but I might as well keep them for use year down the road when they're banned.

You want mine? I can get loads of them (more than we can use) out here in SD... maybe I should start a service for people in plastic bag ban areas that want them for trash bags lol.

[kphoger]

You want mine? I can get loads of them (more than we can use) out here in SD... maybe I should start a service for people in plastic bag ban areas that want them for trash bags lol.

When Coahuila first banned bags in stores, our friends asked us to bring down a bunch the next time we made the drive from Kansas.  It is AMAZING how many plastic grocery bags you can fit in a small vacuum-seal bag!

[Road Hog]

When I worked at Walmart, they collected the bags of plastic bags and hangers and compressed them into bales with layers of cardboard. The result looked like a giant multi-layer Oreo cookie. Those were then picked up for recycling along with the cardboard bales.

My current retail side hustle (which increasingly is less of a side hustle as I gain seniority) will not accept anything else but cardboard or other paper products. No plastic and no hangers.

In fact we used to make a bale every week regularly until the vendor botched that he was losing money because he wasn't turning in full bales. So now we wait until the compactor is full.

[Ted$8roadFan]

Having just visited a local Shaw's, which along with Star Market is owned by Albertsons, I can only say that (for now) Kroger buying Albertsons would be a good thing. Besides being more expensive, Star/Shaw's appear dated and designed for a different era (i.e. before CVS, Walmart, Trader Joe's, et al got in the grocery business).