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Opinion: Use garbage bags as grocery bags, says Brasher Falls resident

Posted 3/30/20

So it looks like the Save-The-Trees feel good era has ended with the banning of plastic grocery bags. A couple rivers in Asia and Africa have apparently become plugged up with plastic trash because …

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Opinion: Use garbage bags as grocery bags, says Brasher Falls resident

Posted

So it looks like the Save-The-Trees feel good era has ended with the banning of plastic grocery bags. A couple rivers in Asia and Africa have apparently become plugged up with plastic trash because population centers along those rivers do not properly dispose of their garbage. In sympathy for the poor fish who have to travel through this stuff, we in New York State, in a burst of “feel goodism”, have elected to disrupt commerce with the bag ban. And it works. I feel ecstatic already!

In my quest to always launch great ideas to help the people, I offer this solution to the problem of ripping paper bags that are difficult to carry when loaded and refuse to stand up straight in a moving vehicle. This does not require the permanent grocery bags which are a bit bulky and subject to being forgotten when traveling to the market.

Here’s the plan: Buy a box of small garbage bags as you shop. Run this through the check out first, open it, use the bags to bag your groceries and move on. Bags with drawstrings are best because you can grasp more of them in one hand for carrying.

The extra bags can be left in the box in the car, to be carried in purse or pocket the next time you go into the grocery store. And you’ll have those handy bags for your smaller garbage cans or to lug bottles and cans to the redemption center, etc. Or they can be used as luggage. [For years I thought matched luggage was two shopping bags from the same store.]

Grocery stores might well serve the customers by having a supply of these bags near the cash out for those who forgot to pick them up while shopping.

William C. Lewis

Brasher Falls