Old habits die hard: Stores try to cut down on plastic bags, but shoppers remain stubborn

[balo]

 It's the same problem in all countries.  I think Thailand actually are on the right track here, even if it's a long way to go .  

I am in Norway now, one of the most environmental friendly countries in the world and here plastic bags are offered in all the shops, there are no plastic free days.  I would think only 20 % of the customers bring their own bags. 

 

[koolkarl]

As noble an idea as it is to not use plastic, I would imagine most people use

the plastic bags to put their house garbage into as there is no alternative to where

to put the house garbage, certainly not a paper bag.  And you have to chop down trees for

paper bags.  The stores that do not give out plastic bags just make a lot more money and in

turn sell you plastic bags to put your house garbage in. 

[TGIR]

Really?  What a lame stinking problem.....QUIT MAKING THE FUGGING PLASTIC <deleted> AND IT WON'T END UP WHERE IT CAN HURT ANYTHING.  We got along fine BEFORE plastic for crying out loud......not that you bunch of babies would remember waxed paper/paper bags/composting etc. etc.

[zydeco]

4 hours ago, rkidlad said:

I’ve seen foreigners on twitter complaining some supermarkets don’t have plastic bags on certain days. Suck it up. Get into a good habit of taking canvas bags when you need them. It’s really not that hard and it’s for good reason. 

So what are we supposed to do? Carry around four or five canvas bags all the time? Because I often go to supermarkets when the chance arises during the day. Unless you're some ancient old foggy who has nothing else to do all day but plan trips and who has made a religious fetish out of crusading against plastic, you have a life to live and that means you need a flexible schedule, not some etched in stone rule about lugging around canvas bags at work and in taxis.

[metisdead]

Some inflammatory posts have been removed. 

[Foexie]

What a rubbish excuse the stores use.

 

It is very simple: don't give plastic bags anymore so they have no choice then use re-usable bags.

 

Paper bags are not the sollution in Thailand. Buy something in the cold store and the humidity will make sure the bags will tear before you get to the car.

 

Here the supermarkets no have free plastic bags anymore for many years. You can buy re-usable shoppers at the register if you still need one.

 

And soon you can't either get little plastic bags anymore to put in fruit or vegies. Even for those they selling now bags you can use and when they get dirty they are washable too.

 

Also here in some bio-stores they expect customers to bring their own bowls, boxes or whatever to put in the stuff they buy.

[alan grice]

I don’t go Shopping.!.


Sent from my iPhone using Thaivisa Connect

[Too young to be old]

9 hours ago, canopy said:

Disagree. Plastic bags should be banned period. The government and private sector strategy of using fewer bags, less harmful plastics, or pay for bags is all nonsense because none of these strategies solves the problems. Why don't we cut to the chase here? If people want a bag, sell them a RECYCLED PAPER BAG. Problem solved before the year is out. We need 0 plastic bags out there, not billions. But no one has this vision.

 

In 2016, it was reported that the UK's new plastic bag tax had decreased the use of plastic bags by up to 85%. 

 

In the 60's/70's before plastic bags were common place, people carried string bags. They compress into a very small size (fit in your pocket).

[giddyup]

22 minutes ago, zydeco said:

So what are we supposed to do? Carry around four or five canvas bags all the time? Because I often go to supermarkets when the chance arises during the day. Unless you're some ancient old foggy who has nothing else to do all day but plan trips and who has made a religious fetish out of crusading against plastic, you have a life to live and that means you need a flexible schedule, not some etched in stone rule about lugging around canvas bags at work and in taxis.

Oh, the inconvenience! You carry the bags in your car or on your bike, unless you foot it everywhere, in which case you wouldn't be carrying five shopping bags of groceries home. I know, life is hard!

[ylmiri]

9 hours ago, fforest1 said:

Those damm Dugong they need to be shipped off to some remote island...We need our plastic and the Dugong keeps eating it........I am no cloth bag carrying sissy...My grandfather used plastic bags, My father used plastic bags, And you know what? I plan to carry on the family plastic bag tradition...

If that is the case the whole world will say to you "stuff your plastic bag up your.....?

Well, the world can be beautiful but for people like you.

[Bangkokazy]

Best Investment I've Made
Epic Ultralight Pink Shopping Bag

[canopy]

15 minutes ago, Too young to be old said:

In 2016, it was reported that the UK's new plastic bag tax had decreased the use of plastic bags by up to 85%. 

So the program has failed so solve the problem and I doubt anyone is surprised by this. I am also against a bag tax because it means the poor will be forced to go without and the rich will just carry on with plastic as usual. That's not fair.

 

I simply do not understand proposing anything less than going to 0 plastic bags this year and staying there for good. There are a lot bigger problems in the world we need to move on to. If we can't solve this really easy problem how can we ever solve any of the bigger problems facing the world? Bureaucratic snails pace stop gap measures that continues churning out billions of bags every year for the foreseeable future are totally unnecessary and explains why the world is in such bad shape.

 

[fforest1]

35 minutes ago, ylmiri said:

If that is the case the whole world will say to you "stuff your plastic bag up your.....?

Well, the world can be beautiful but for people like you.

Maybe you never noticed but just about EVERY THING is made out of plastic or has plastic in it....Grocery stores packaging is LOADED with plastic.....When you free you mind from Green-washing you will realize plastic bags dont pollute any more or any less than any other plastic....But banning plastic bags will for sure hurt small businesses....

 

So I value and treasure my plastic bags and plan to keep using them for a looong time...

[RJRS1301]

Totally agree with no plastic bags, the companies making them need to go over to making the alternatives from sustainable materials to avoid unemployment for those in the industry, it has to be phased in offering alternatives use bamboo and hemp fibre.
 

 

[sturdyd]

A couple of incidents a week or so ago made me rethink my habits: HomePro charged me 1 baht for a bag and Lotus was using paper bags the day I went. Huh! So I bought 3 reuseable bags for future use. Two snags there: (1) Remembering to take them in the store with me, and (2) the cashier at Lotus looking for the price tag on the bags when I plunk them down at checkout.

[sirineou]

4 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

Totally agree with no plastic bags, the companies making them need to go over to making the alternatives from sustainable materials to avoid unemployment for those in the industry, it has to be phased in offering alternatives use bamboo and hemp fibre.
 

 

 I am 62 now. For the better part of my life, my parents and later me, got along perfectly with paper bags.

Why could we not do that now?

[RJRS1301]

7 minutes ago, sturdyd said:

A couple of incidents a week or so ago made me rethink my habits: HomePro charged me 1 baht for a bag and Lotus was using paper bags the day I went. Huh! So I bought 3 reuseable bags for future use. Two snags there: (1) Remembering to take them in the store with me, and (2) the cashier at Lotus looking for the price tag on the bags when I plunk them down at checkout.

Easy when empty place them in the boot of the car, always there when needed

 

[RJRS1301]

8 minutes ago, sirineou said:

 I am 62 now. For the better part of my life, my parents and later me, got along perfectly with paper bags.

Why could we not do that now?

Thermo bags for frozen, and hemp/bamboo fibre stronger and more sustainable than paper.

Older than your good self ????

 

[tgw]

As always, people get hysterical about banning or not banning.

 

Why don't shops start with giving out paper bags with handles for a start.

 

For some purposes, the plastic bag cannot be replaced though, especially for carrying things that are wet or cause water to condensate.

[fforest1]

12 minutes ago, sirineou said:

 I am 62 now. For the better part of my life, my parents and later me, got along perfectly with paper bags.

Why could we not do that now?

Because......Paper bags dont work on a moto-cy especially when its raining....Also paper bags are hard to carry if you have far to walk....

[RJRS1301]

3 minutes ago, tgw said:

As always, people get hysterical about banning or not banning.

 

Why don't shops start with giving out paper bags with handles for a start.

 

For some purposes, the plastic bag cannot be replaced though, especially for carrying things that are wet or cause water to condensate.

Buy thermos bags, use hemp or bamboo bags or canvas

[fforest1]

4 minutes ago, tgw said:

As always, people get hysterical about banning or not banning.

 

Why don't shops start with giving out paper bags with handles for a start.

 

For some purposes, the plastic bag cannot be replaced though, especially for carrying things that are wet or cause water to condensate.

Yea try walking home with 2 kilos of ground hamburger meat in a paper bag...

[sirineou]

5 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

Thermo bags for frozen, and hemp/bamboo fibre stronger and more sustainable than paper.

Older than your good self ????

 

Sure, I am sure modern technology can improve on the old bag, but the problem with some of the technology is that it is more expensive, and one needs to have it with them,

We do have thermo bags, and regular reusable bags, but we often forget to bring them with as when we go shopping, or at time we shop at time that we were not planing to shop, and as it is understandable, no one walks around with thermo bags in their pockets.  

So perhaps a combination of all of the above? But we certainly need to do away with plastic bags.

[sirineou]

6 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Because......Paper bags dont work on a moto-cy especially when its raining....Also paper bags are hard to carry if you have far to walk....

Yea I understand, but we had rain back then , and moto-cy, and we made do.I am sure we can figure it out again.

[CygnusX1]

16 minutes ago, RJRS1301 said:

Easy when empty place them in the boot of the car, always there when needed

Precisely my point, people assume that everyone drives a car to the shops. No problems carrying around a few cloth bags in your car all the time, but not practical to always have a few cloth bags with you if you don’t have a car.

[CygnusX1]

2 hours ago, to be green or not to be said:

Please no hypocrisy. get educated ..

Those people who drive their cars to the shop instead of using a far more environmentally friendly method of transport, and then boast about their cloth bags are the hypocrites.

[Fred white]

11 hours ago, bdenner said:

Our local Tesco has tried to introduce large brown paper bags on 3 occasions I know of. Customers seem to be OK with them but the checkout staff get very frustrated trying to unfold and pack them.

 

Stores like Makro will not allow you to carry reusable carry bags with you into their stores so one has to go through their bullshlt method of placing items from one trolley into another as they are being checked out then repacking in the boot of the car. These effin wackers are not trying to help the situation

Most discount stores are like that we had a BJ''s discount store where we lived in the states and they did the same thing. Take your reusable bag with you and when you take your stuff out of the cart put it in the bag easier than a tm30

[RJRS1301]

2 minutes ago, CygnusX1 said:

Those people who drive their cars to the shop instead of using a far more environmentally friendly method of transport, and then boast about their cloth bags are the hypocrites.

Do you live more than 10klm from your nearest shops?

[Fred white]

31 minutes ago, sirineou said:

 I am 62 now. For the better part of my life, my parents and later me, got along perfectly with paper bags.

Why could we not do that now?

The tree huggers wanted to get rid of the paper bags cause of all the trees being killed now they want to do away with the plastic bags they ain't never gonna be happy

[Fred white]

19 minutes ago, fforest1 said:

Yea try walking home with 2 kilos of ground hamburger meat in a paper bag...

Wish I could find 2 kilos of hamburger meat instead of the ground pork they sell around here