F#@% paper grocery bags

No because grocery bags are made of post consumer cellulose and not tree fiber.

Try to keep up

Fuck the paper bags (aside from them being good for firestarting). I take the bus to the shop since it's 5 mins there, 5 mins back. But if it is raining I have to bring a reusable bag, but what if I stop at the shop en route to home and don't have a reusable bag? At least they should provide an option.

no such thing as deforestation because of paper production

there are these places called paper forests where they grow the specific type of tree used for paper

they harvest and plant on a schedule

just like food production

also most paper products are a certain percentage of "post consumer waste" AKA recycled

I keep those Walmart (and other) plastic bags for packing stuff I might ship and for when I move.

I had 6 large black garbage bags filled with them last year. I used almost all of them when I moved last fall. They were a huge help, along with the hundreds of Amazon boxes I flattened and kept too. But, I swear this will be my last move.

I move every 4-5 years when I find some place better to move to. But it won't get much better than where I'm at now unless I win a huge lotto some day .. and I'm not pining my hopes on that .. so ...

I have a LOT of plastic bags and boxes I've been filling the recycle bin with every week since last November. I should be totally unpacked and rid of it all by the end of spring.

When I shop now, I bring along a couple plastic totes to fill and an extra for use during checkout. They all stack inside each other for compact storage. I use a lot of those plastic totes you can get at Walmart for as low as $5 and up. They stack nicely too. I have maybe 50 of them around here for storing and organizing stuff too.

Yes, I live up the river from a (seriously) TP factory and watch the tugs bring wood chips from all sorts of sources up the Fraser. Paper is pretty much a by-product now (all types) of logging controlled forests.

She just pushes the cart over to her overpass. Or homeless camp.

I call b.s.



No one buys a dozen individual tomatoes without putting them in one of those thin plastic produce bags. Getting through checkout would be nearly impossible since tomatoes have to be weighed. You don't put 12 loose tomatoes on the scale or weigh them one at a time.

Hmmm...head scratcher then...lol

Yup. They lay their eggs on them also. We got a huge infestation in Florida as a result of paper bags in the 70s. Never again.

Use the plastic bags as garbage bags instead of buying plastic garbage bags. You repurpose them and they are free.

They do the same thing for Christmas trees. They have farms for them.

Yes, people lease the strips under highpower lines here for them.

As I previously mentioned, I use plastic totes when shopping. Durable, inexpensive, last forever. I bought MANY, 50 or so, a few years ago. And I always make sure there's a few kept in the car. ALWAYS.

Whatever I buy goes in one, whether I bring it into the store or not. They aren't that large, transparent, and they might hold the contents of almost 2 grocery bags. I bring them to Cub, Menards, Home Depot, garden center, wherever I might expect to acquire something to bring home, etc.

Those totes have really helped me keep things organized at home too. In a minute a can find the totes with all new and used lightbulbs, or the totes with all the electrical extension cords, or the one filled with all my electrical work tools (volt ohm meter, amp meter, stud finder, soldering iron, etc.).

I even keep a tote at the top off the basement stairs into which I put things needing to go downstairs into the overflow storage/pantry in the basement. Then whenever I happen to need to go down there, I'll bring it along. Nothing forgotten, fewer trips.

During this pandemic I stocked up on food and keep stuff packed in stacked totes.

And as always, when storing stuff in plastic totes, be aware humidity can get trapped inside if you store stuff in humid climate. Same issue as storing stuff in safes. You can add moisture absorbing products or store in climate controlled environment. Also, for long term storage, you can vac seal. I bought 40 pounds of sugar last year. I vac sealed each 5 pound bag before putting into tote and stored in the basement. It's dry down there, but you don't want food absorbing ANY moisture while being stored.

Also, during emergency evacuation, I need only grab the RED colored totes. Those have the important things in them, like birth certificate, legal papers, antique momentous, etc. And those totes are kept in a closet by the front door.

here's a suggestion. Buy your own reusable bags.and keep re-using them.

All well and good if you don't pop in randomly to the store. What do you do? Always carry shopping bags about?

I mean, a plausible explanation is if OP didn't bother to twist-tie the produce bags closed and the tomatoes moved out of the produce bags--due to jostling in transit--into the paper grocery bag. Note that you can't fit a dozen tomatoes in one produce bag unless they are the smaller, oblong Roma variety which roll poorly. In this scenario, OP is a bad driver, has poor grocery shopping acumen, the grocery bag fell or tore, and the fault lies squarely with OP and not the grocery bag.

Also, it's plausible, I suppose, that some other moist item in the paper grocery bag or too much weight from grocery items caused a rupture, so that all items fell out of a torn bag. But in this scenario, it would be lack of twist-ties on produce bags that would allow the tomatoes to roll freely as described.

People pay for their produce bags? What kinda fuckek up shit is that?

Yes, it seems we are both overthinking the entire grocery experience, OP lied about the tomatoes and I can't shop when it rains...hmmm...

close

but not quite
I'm a dude

I unload the cart into the car
I have some bins in the trunk and a put a big box in the back seat for shopping day

also in the summer I bring a cooler in the trunk
for keeping meat etc. cold or frozen for the drive home

then when I get home
I back right up to the deck
open the hatch and unload it all on to the deck and
then haul it inside

and I don't have to worry about bags splitting while carrying it in to the house

Here's a concept for you: Trees are just big slow growing plants, and can be grown as crops, just like other plants. Forests can be managed to provide wood products and provide friendly environments both. Trees can also be grown as a plantation crop to be used specifically for paper production. These softwood, fast growing trees are excellent for making wood pulp for paper where forest trees are not. So you can all relax now and stop fretting about deforestation, and encourage the guilt free use of paper bags for those who prefer them.

LOL! That’s all we had for 35 years. I’m an old fuck now I think but I still prefer paper. Today’s paper bags are not the same as the old ones. Our bags would hold some shit and would cut your hand when trying to shove them in the fireplace. The top edge was serrated and didn’t feel good across the forearms. Sacking was a bitch.

I'm Thinking...

I've accumulated a lot of paper grocery bags from neighbors, who use them once, let them accumulate, and then periodically toss a grocery bag full of clean, neatly-folded grocery bags into their recycling bins. It's like they intend to re-use them, but they never do.

Single bags are prone to tearing, or the handles separate from the bag itself when carrying much weight at all--they're pretty much worthless. But when doubled, they're far, far stronger, and will last through a lot of shopping trips. So when I get a bunch of new bags, I automatically double them up before folding them and putting them in the box of bags I keep in the car. I haven't had any doubled-up bags fail on me.

When they get dirty or wet and aren't good for carrying groceries any more, they get pulled apart into single bags again and used to line the compost bucket or as firestarters. I've got new bags coming in all the time, so I don't need to keep using ratty, grubby old ones.

An open grocery store mishap is an opening to meet hot women.

Oh, the irony. When I was a kid (60s and early 70s) paper bags were the norm. Suddenly, the tree hugging liberals cried and whined about all of the trees getting cut down to make paper bags. So they advocated for plastic bags instead. Well, that led to today's current environmental disaster of plastic bag pollution all over the globe. When liberals get their crazy ideas, and other liberal idiots implement them, there are always negative consequences. As an aside; the reason current paper bags are tearing is because they are of inferior strength. Back in the day, you had to severely overload one for it to tear. I rarely saw it happen.

OK granted, I took some poetic license. It wasn't a full dozen tomatoes rolling down the driveway, but a couple of that came out of the produce bag. The trouble isn't even fruit, it's when something in a glass container tumbles onto the unforgiving concrete.

But some important details here since we are in the weeds...

Why ban plastic shopping bags but still have plastic produce bags?
There was no twist tie because the local grocer doesn't have twist ties any more.
Bag was bone dry. No rain. The bag just has no shear strength at all. If you try to grab it by the top, it twists, rips, and fall apart.

I literally said that the other day.

I think they just look for way to make us miserable.

Don’t tell them.
They like being victims.

thank the 19th amendment