A bit over a year since the shopping market stop giving single use bags.
Wondering how effective is this to the environment as opposed to their revenue.
I myself have used over 100 reusable bags, many because I forgot to bring one, and many because they break after 3 or 4 times, and many because we are out of bin liners.
How many have you spend?
Buy a duffell bag and put your groceries in it.
I've bought 1 in total. I had to coz I didn't want to make a scene in front of my co workers lol.
Feel like I'm some kind of model citizen for buying only about 20 (between wife and I, cars, workplace and home) and reusing them.
everyone complained about plastic bags, businesses took them out.
everyone complained about straws, businesses took them out.
But they kept everything else like plastic cups, lids, cutlery, individually wrapped veggies etc…
since
Lesson: a business will "fix" the problem so it goes out of the social media limelight and won't affect sales.
Now, my advice: Buy biodegradable rubbish bags. It's common sense.
Yes, they are more expensive, but like anything new on the market, it is, then eventually volume drops the price.
I push trolley to the back of my car, brought me some cardboard trays, put the stuffs in and carry the cardboard tray when I get home. Easy. :D Save bunch of money. So for me, $0 ever spent on plastic bag.
Coles online keep charging me plastic bags even though I have my own bag. Woolies on the hand have been good.
Bought 0. Cardboard trays from Costco + trolley from Coles/Woolies.
Need them for bin liners. Paper doesn't hold liquids….
Bin liners are cheaper. Bins aren't supposed to hold liquids either, but I would have had to double bag at least the grey ones before I'd even trust them to hold something moist. They were so prone to holes.
Bought? I think obtained would be a better word to use. I'm a single buy and normally use my Aldi chiller bags, but I would say I've use close to 200 as bin bag and just chucked them. I brought a 500 pack of bags recently on eBay for $20, so will save money plus better for the environment that the thick plastic bags. Mine so to landfill and not the sea
Get a nana trolley.. I take one to the farmers markets and had to take it to Coles today as I was buying a few litres of Vinegar (for cleaning) and toilet paper.
There should be another option 'None'. I've never bought one.
As a side note, we've almost zeroed our general waste by simple composting techniques.
FYI, I don't live on a farm rather in the inner city.
Good for you… do you support policies which force others to make the decisions you have?
No one's forcing anyone to do anything.
Except we're now forced to either pay for a plastic bag or bring our own bag.
@Sage: you can choose to do neither and carry your items.
you can choose to shop elsewhere
no one is forcing you to do anything,
Reusable bags are a joke when enforced. They are worse for the environment unless everyone uses them consistently… if you want people to use them.. make it an incentive
Or better still find the CSIRO to create a cheap and environmentally friendly biodegradable option
unless everyone uses them consistently
Doesn't need to be everyone. There's 80% less bags out there, that's a huge win. Plenty of things are worth doing if they're a partial success. Doing nothing because it's not perfect is a good reason to do nothing at all.
victoria now banned the little stores to give out bags..
Now as in today? I got one yesterday.
I think I bought around 50 bags but I use them as a bin liner
Approx 10 more than the number of bin liners I have used in a year.
Actual bin liners are way cheaper :\
Yep, they are. I don't argue I'm making the wrong decision.
way to many but fun to watch staff try and pack old conference bag made for paper and good but it still fun.
Zero. When Coles started switching from the old grey plastic bags to the payable reusable bags, I ended up taking stacks of the grey plastic bags as they were throwing them away. I'm still using them for my kitchen bin!
I bought the Aldi carry bags and bring them to Coles.
No poll option for zero?
Bought zero. In the beginning, when they were free, we stocked up massively :)
On a related note, what's the best value bin liner? Are these it from Bunnings?
aldi
Tell em the price son!
Kind of makes a mockery of people paying money to use tiny 'reusuable' bags as bin liners when you can store 10x as much with probably the same plastic quantity for a fraction of the cost.
Bought zero bags.
I have just accumulated bags over the past 10-15 years, given to me when i bought something.
My boot is over flowing with bags.
I bought 4000 former Coles grey singlet bags back in early Oct on ebay
They were $10/1000 bags before discount, local pickup
That's enough for coming 10+ years I reckon
I need bin liner bags everyday. There is no substitution, either buy plastic rubbish bags at 10x higher price, or pull 10 plastic bags from fresh food department on each visit
As long as I fill every bin liner full, I believe I have chosen the most financial and environmental friendly option
no. The most environmentally friendly would be not to use bin liners,
Thats gross.
Still available??
Probably not, as Coles were unloading them before it became illegal to supply them.
But you can still get from ebay and other places e.g. https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/291962726876 have them in 1000's from $38.50.
3.85 cents each, but worth it for carrying my shopping and for lining my bin.
How many old bags equal a new 15c bag??
I would say my plastic waste is much much worse due to how thick the plastic bags are, and then I also have to buy bin liners.
Some councils in NSW have introduced purple bins . http://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/services/rubbish-and-recyclin…
Found this when I was looking at ways of recycling my food scraps as we live in a unit and don't have a compost bin and one is not permitted in the building.
Shop from farmers markets.. egg cartons get refilled. for olives bring my own jar. Bring back glass jars from yoghurt. The woman who sells strawberries wants plastic containers back. Forgot to check with the guys who sell cherries, will bring it back anyway.
All fruit/ veg/ herbs are just as they were picked,.. no plastic.
Coffee shops at the markets serve everything in coffee cups that you bring back.
Nuts seeds etc can be purchased. from a bulk buy store.. You use paper bags that are provided unless you bring your own bags.
You can purchase all the cleaners and just keep on refiling containers.
Many specialty kitchen stores sell kitchen scrubbers that last a year and don't accumulate bacteria.
Been making my hand wash and there is no black built up in the bathroom sink..
Bread at the markets is wrapped in paper… the list goes on. There is hardly any waste. From throwing things out daily I now only do it twice a week as there is no food waste.
All cleaners are DIY.
In 6 months will move towards good quality dishwashing liquid and hopefully then all the gunk in the kitchen pipes will vanish.
0.
I've modified my shopping to whatever I can carry in my hands/arms or taking a trolley to the car and unloading in a car boot organiser then taking the organiser inside the house to unload.
Something similar to this https://www.kmart.com.au/product/car-boot-organiser/119870
Just thought I'd throw out a PSA, since it sounds like a tonne of people just throw out plastic bags into landfill or recycle bins… you can actually recycle your soft plastics at most (?) Coles and Woolies by returning them to special bins at the front of the stores. (FYI soft plastics cannot be recycled at home since they clog up machines for sorting rubbish I believe, so if you care about the environment, it's worth adding this extra effort once a month)
I don't use the 'reusable' plastic bags, I use the thicker cotton bags I've broken maybe 2 in about 10 years.
50 / 50 remember to bring them with me. Its the worst when you realise you forgot them!
Zero and I think that the supermarkets charging for plastic bags is a great thing because anecdotally it seems many more people are using less or no plastic bags.
We have a few reusable bags that zip into little pouches (approximately the size of a wallet) which live in my partners handbag and my backpack for any last minute or unplanned shopping trips. We usually take a grandma-trolley if we plan to go the supermarket. For the times we/I am stuck without either, I will usually grab boxes (from Aldi/Woolies bottleshop) or as a last resort buy a cooler/thermal greenbag. The cooler/thermal greenbags come in handy for social events, family events, kid's birthday parties where there are no kitchens and they always seem to disappear at the end of those events.