Reading material: About Paper Cups

[VeloVT]

my bags are honking BIG, so they don't miss or ignore them. However, I do sometime get people putting say, a stick of deodorant in its own plastic bag, and putting that in my cloth bag. Presumably because the (normal solid antiperspirant) deodorant might spill?

Today I had some deli cheese and deli turkey. Each was wrapped in wax paper and then placed in a ziplock bag. The bagger put them in a plastic bag to put in my cloth bag. There was no way either of them was going to leak, but the bagger was a frail 85-year old man and I didn't have the heart to challenge him.

[kat_h]

Two years ago I would have been jumping right in with the bagger stories but the staff at the Safeway I shop at have really improved. Maybe they just recognise me. They don't even offer me plastic bags for meat anymore.

On the topic of the cups - I don't like drinking out of paper or styro cups. I'm not a coffee drinker so that's not a huge temptation anyway, but I do take reusable 7-11 cups back for Slurpees. I don't think our society will stop using disposable cups any time soon, but in the mean time I'd like to see cups that aren't dyed. Granted we'd still be logging trees and filling landfills, but reducing the inks would at least be a start.

[bmccasland]

I think there's some regulation about non-food items have to be separate from food items. Last week Whole Foods even put my soap, shampoo and conditioner in a plastic bag before they that in my cloth bags. At my local grocery (Winn Dixie), I often wind up bagging my own groceries, and I stuff it all together. If they actually have extra people and bag my groceries for me, I've chastised them for one or two items per plastic bag. Generally I'll stop by the plastic bag recycle bin and rebag my groceries. I've got to get in the habit to take my cloth bags again to Winn Dixie.

[OakLeaf]

I've got to get in the habit to take my cloth bags again to Winn Dixie.

As soon as I unpack a grocery bag, it goes on the front doorknob. That way the next time I head out the door, the bag goes with me to the car. Otherwise I'll forget it. On the bike, either I already have my backpack, or I just re-load my shopping cart without bags to carry my purchases out to the panniers. And I usually bring more than one bag in anyway, so if they want to pack non-food items separately, that's okay. (Usually I prefer to bag my own even if there is a bagger, just because they have no idea of how to pack bags any more and wind up putting lettuce on the bottom and big bags of rice on top!)

I also prefer the self-checkout if there is one, which is good in that you always get to bag your own groceries, but bad in that if you want to set your bags on the carousel and bag as you buy, you have to alert the attendant ahead of time to zero out the weight.

I'm not the best about bringing my shopping bags into non-food stores, but I'm getting better about it

Sorry for the thread hijack - it just isn't that often I patronize places that even use non-reusable beverage containers. Buying Gatorade at a convenient store on bike rides is about it. And yes I know I should carry premix

[pll]

Question about mugs: I actually use my own glass mug at the office, but I wonder what the cost of water to clean said mug is (and what the tally would look like if everyone in the building did it), factoring in dish soap and cleaning agents for the sink. In an office without a kitchen sink, a bathroom sink with coffee stain is very unattractive....

[Veronica]

We're doing our state math test right now. I told my students they had to do any figuring in their test booklets, to please not use scratch paper since it would just end going to the landfill. There is a lot of empty space in the test booklets and they are allowed to write in them.

I still get my groceries in plastic bags. They fit my kitchen trash can nicely and I've also started using them when I scoop the kittens' litter box. It keeps my garbage can from being so stinky.

V.

[mimitabby]

PLL the cost of the water is far less than the cost of the water to feed the tree, the cost of the petroleum products to harvest, transport, and process (and the water for that too) Water is renewable a lot faster than trees are. or petroleum is.


At the grocery store, we like to give positive reinforcement to whomever is bagging our groceries. WOW, you got a lot in THAT bag!! GOOD WORK!!

[Veronica]

Water isn't actually renewable, it's a cycle.

Did you know the water you are drinking this morning in your coffee could have been water that a dinosaur stood in or Lewis and Clark canoed through, or Shakespeare washed with?

V.

[Trek420]

Coffee: my pre work cup-a-joe I bring my own cup. Knotted gave me one that's ... made from corn. Looks like a regular mug yet quite the conversation piece in the coffee line
"ooh, you brought your own cup"
"yep, they give .10 off here and it's made from corn"
" nice"

Bags: BMOB mostly cloth, I have quite the collection from Bike to Work Day. Trader Joes puts you in a drawing for a gift card (I've never won), Safeway gives you $ off etc. Besides the green thing I just find them easier to carry.

Plastic bags: If they give them, I take them, I don't quibble or jump up and down. Sometimes talk about why I bring my own with clerks, store owners etc. But if they give me plastic bags that's ok. I have to admit that on dog walks I pick up plastic bags we encounter on the ground, not if they are messy but if they are clean we pick them up. All these bags get used for mutt poop bags. We need 'em, Mae gets lots of walks.

Still it's a lot of bags. Its no trouble to drop the rest of the bags off on the way into the store at the plastic bag recycling bin we have at most stores here.