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As for bins/coolers (with no handles or handles cut out of the sides) -- vs -- tote bags....
...it's about the weight distribution and ergonomics of carrying that weight.
Which is easier on the body to carry?:
-- a tote bag with a gallon of milk in each bag? or a box with two gallons of milk inside carried in your arms in front of you?
-- two gallons of paint with one in each hand carried at your side -- or both gallons in a bin in front of you?
-- Even weight distribution in bags, arms at your sides?
-- OR.... ALL the weight carried in front of you putting strain on your back, and perhaps the person needing to look to the side to see where they're walking or where a step is because the bin/box is blocking the sight path?
Bins and coolers can't have overhead handles? There are so many different containers that it should be possible for anyone to find a suitable alternative to disposable plastic bags, which is the real issue here.
I'm a big storage/organization person. I have plenty of bins of all sizes.
I've never seen the size or kind of bin I was talking about that had handles.
The ones I was thinking of are larger. And when they're full -- they're pushed them across the floor. A person sure as heck isn't carrying it.
1) I have been to Aldi's like three times in my lifetime. But I don't really like it or shop there.
2) Can you get two weeks or more of groceries in a picnic cooler that you can lift and carry into the house in one trip?
When I think plastic bin I envisioned the grey/clear plastic bins that are 3 feet long by 2 feet high -- like one would you for garage or shed storage.
If you can fill that up with groceries -- with the weight of canned/bottled goods, and other items -- heck or even just full of meat and produce -- and carry that into the house more power to you.
The picnic cooler I use is a pretty standard size. It sits in the far back of my van, so there is no stooping over to lift it, and it goes on a kitchen counter. I would guess that the average load in it is around thirty pounds - ten pounds less than a big bag of cat litter.
I never claimed to get all two weeks of groceries in that. It is primarily for cold foods. Last week it had a 15# pork roast primal, ten cans, frozen fish, half-gallon of milk, a few pounds of cheese and cottage cheese, eggs and butter, and some odds and ends. What wasn't in there was in disposable plastic bags - maybe a dozen bags, with handles of six tied together in the parking lot using another waste bag, so those went in from the van six in one hand, six the other. Total of two trips. If I get bottled juices, I often buy them in the mother carton and just use that for transport and then storage.
A lot is in what you get used to. When I was starting out in theatres, the average order from the concession supplier was anywhere for forty to sixty cases of candy, 400#s of corn seed in 50# bags, 5 big metal buckets of coconut oil, 4 40# cases of clarified butter, and 15 to 30 cases of assorted drink and popcorn cups. That all had to be inventoried and put away in about half an hour. A picnic cooler of cold food and a few tied together bags or two or three boxes is nothing in comparison.
Folks who live near a store, or who don't make a variety of dishes from scratch on a regular basis don't have a need for a large food stock. Even when I lived in cities, my typical shopping was ten or twelve bags. I cook. I bake.
Two years later after my county implementing a plastic bag tax I have paid them $0.00, and all plastic bags when worn out and ripped being reused so many times go into the trash, which many environmentalists did not see this coming. Before the bag tax I put them in the plastic bag recycling bins at the grocery store. Now the only plastic bags I recycle are the pouches that some smaller Amazon packages come in which they say on them plastic bag recycling which whether unsure the if local stores intent, but that is an issue I leave to the businesses to sort out. I get a new supply of plastic bags from my local grocery store delivery service (not Walmart) when I order from them on occasion which they do not charge for directly (perhaps built into the delivery fee).
Single use plastic bags have been banned in California for years. Most people have no problem with bringing their own reusable bags (or paying 10 cents per bag at check out). Washing the bags is not a major issue.
Except when California has a severe drought, and they want you to conserve water.
I really appreciate all of the municipalities and their efforts to ban plastic bags which represent about 0.05% of the plastics in the average grocery store.
Now that they have accomplished that, why not try something a lot more significant including:
1) the replacement of all plastic beverage containers with recyclable aluminum and aseptic containers or even better, RETURNABLE milk, soda and beer containers that we used to have.
2) The elimination of plastic packaging for all produce. Why does all produce need to be packaged in clam shells? It never used to be?
3) the elimination of heavy plastic containers for liquid detergent and perhaps, a return to powdered detergent that can be conveniently shipped in recyclable cardboard boxes.
For years, you could buy Ocean Spray juice beverage concentrates in aluminum cans or aseptic containers eliminating those heavy plastic bottles. Not any more since THOSE containers are not sold and only used in products sent to food banks.
Except when California has a severe drought, and they want you to conserve water.
Please. Trying to turn washing reusable shopping bags into an environmental sin is ridiculous. Realistically, how frequently does any non-germaphobe need to wash shopping bags? Not very. Don't you launder other household items and why on earth wouldn't you simply add a cloth shopping bag to those other items when the time comes? A bag or two would require a miniscule additional amount of your precious water or polluting soap. Surely you can dream up better environmental straw dogs than those!
FWIW, I've been using the same set of unbleached canvas shopping bags for decades. Someone gave me a conveniently-sized plastic coated cloth bag for some reason years ago and I've been using it for potentially leaky things like fresh produce/meat ever since. It wipes clean in a blink. If some grocery item does have the audacity to leak on the way home, I wipe or rinse the bag or add it to a load of sheets, towels or whatever. I've probably needed to wash any of them less than 5 times over all those decades. They aren't filthy, don't smell, don't contaminate food, don't harbor roaches or anything else. They have successfully hauled hundreds if not thousands of items from store to kitchen. After being unloaded, they are parked by the door where I hang my keys or get tossed back in the car ready for the next shopping trip. I'm not sure I could count the number of single use plastic store bags I have NOT NEEDED to pay tax on, recycle, return, or (shudder) toss over all those decades.
Last edited by Parnassia; 12-27-2023 at 01:33 PM..
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Please. Trying to turn washing reusable shopping bags into an environmental sin is ridiculous. Realistically, how frequently does any non-germaphobe need to wash shopping bags? Not very. Don't you launder other household items and why on earth wouldn't you simply add a cloth shopping bag to those other items when the time comes? A bag or two would require a miniscule additional amount of your precious water or polluting soap. Surely you can dream up better environmental straw dogs than those! 