Reading material: About Paper Cups

[Grog]

http://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/04/30/Slurp/

Good thinking piece.

[VeloVT]

At my university all of the places you can buy coffee will fill your reusable mug for $1.00, regardless of the size. Otherwise a large coffee is around $1.80... There are lots of places on campus where one can buy reusable mugs too... I am actually cheap enough that I bought a travel mug that specifically fits on my bike and doesn't spill. (OK, confession time: I bought it at Starbucks 'cause it was the only one I could find anywhere that BOTH fit nicely into a bottle cage AND had a good top closing mechanism... so yes, while I bought it to make it possible for me to save money, it's probably just barely paid for itself by now... but it's stainless, so no scary leaching chemicals...).

Maybe a small tax rebate could be offered to businesses that offer incentives for consumers to bring reusable containers -- and maybe a larger one for businesses that require it???? Or something...

I purchased two "boat & tote" type bags that I keep in my car for use at the grocery store too. Every time I go grocery shopping it makes me feel all warm & fuzzy that I'm not taking home 3-6 plastic bags...

[mimitabby]

thank you for caring

[OakLeaf]

Do you have to argue with the cashiers/baggers about your shopping bags? They're getting better about it in the last 6 months or so, now that all the stores are selling shopping bags. But it used to be a real struggle, still is sometimes. Everything has to go in a plastic bag. Sometimes they would pull out a bag and then throw it away when I didn't want it

[Jolt]

Do you have to argue with the cashiers/baggers about your shopping bags? They're getting better about it in the last 6 months or so, now that all the stores are selling shopping bags. But it used to be a real struggle, still is sometimes. Everything has to go in a plastic bag. Sometimes they would pull out a bag and then throw it away when I didn't want it

Yeah, I've had that kind of stuff happen on a number of occasions--tell them I brought my own bags, put them on the counter, and then they still proceed to stick things in plastic bags and I have to stop them! The lady at Walgreens today did it, as a matter of fact, and I had to remind her. I think part of it is that it's just such a habit for them to use the plastic bags so it throws them a bit when someone does the BYOB thing. As more people start doing it, that should get better.

[shootingstar]

Am just lazy... I don't bring my own mug to coffee shops. But I simply appreciate more shops offering coffee in paper cups not in unhealthy styrofoam.

At work, employer keeps dishes in cupboard and everyone often uses the company's cups for endless bottomless cup of coffee for allday and night. So that includes me as a frequent coffee drinker 'cause coffee is free.

[mimitabby]

Yeah, I've had that kind of stuff happen on a number of occasions--tell them I brought my own bags, put them on the counter, and then they still proceed to stick things in plastic bags and I have to stop them! The lady at Walgreens today did it, as a matter of fact, and I had to remind her. I think part of it is that it's just such a habit for them to use the plastic bags so it throws them a bit when someone does the BYOB thing. As more people start doing it, that should get better.

or they'll put 2 items in one bag and a 3rd in another, and there I am emptying the one bag and trying to hand it back.
Or "I DON'T NEED A BAG" and gather up my stuff in my hands. THAT gets some looks.
Yes, I dump my new cloth bags right where they can see them and often they still use their plastic. and i have to undo it, but I think they're getting better.

[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.