This is a plastic bag that our groceries came in when we did a pickup at Safeway recently. It surprised me, because we have a plastic bag ban in Portland, as well as the State of Oregon. So, um, what the....?
I have not done any research; however, it is obvious that this is considered a reusable bag - it even says so on the bag. This bag is very thick plastic (HDPE) and the text on it says that it can be used at least 125 times. It can be recycled by returning it to the store, so it says on the bag.
This bag seems no different from many of the plastic reusable shopping bags we already have, unless those are made from recycled plastic (these do not appear to be). These are pleated on the bottom, so the stand by themselves when loaded with items. My own reading has led me to believe that, in many instances, plastic could be better environmentally than shopping bags made of cloth or other materials. But that’s a longer post, which I might do someday.
So, yes, we kept these nice, heavy-duty plastic bags, and will reuse them for a variety of things. For now, during the pandemic, we are not doing our own shopping, so we order on-line and pick up the order curbside at the store. These orders typically come in paper grocery bags, and because I have a garage full of those, the new ones immediately go into the recycling bin. Seems kind of wasteful to me.
So plastic is back. OK, I’m down with it!
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