The evil of nylon bags

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There are many things to talk about with other people, but some are just a blink-and-miss part of everyday life and no-one ever remembers to discuss them. Like plastic/nylon bags. And it's strange, cause they're becoming a huuge ecological problem - I've read recently that India is apparently littered with them, just tons and layers of nylon waste lying around.

Since I never bothered talking to anyone about this, I'm asking this: do you bring home from shopping more nylon bags than you carry out? And what do you do then with them? Some years ago, I started to neatly collected them and put away in a box cause "they might be useful sometime"... and then, few days ago, I had a room cleaning session, and unveiling this mass of nylon made me sick - being suddenly struck with realization that I'm holding a concentrate of this evil RIGHT IN THE HEART OF MY ROOM! I'm gonna have to throw them all away just to feel a bit better, but I can't see how it will help the overall environment. It's nondegradeable trash. It will pester on some other place of this planet, if not my home.

Over here in Croatia there's only recycling facilites for glass, paper, cans and plastic bottles - do you westerners have perhaps more sophisticated ways of getting rid of nylon?

― Mind Taker, Friday, 2 May 2003 14:50 (twenty-two years ago)

in ireland you now have to pay 15 cent for each plastic bag you use. this has made people much more careful about recycling their existing plastic bags or bringing proper shopping bags when they go shopping, instead of mindlessly reaching for more plastic bags they don't need. and the countryside isn't nearly as littered with the damn things as it used to be. result!

― rener (rener), Friday, 2 May 2003 15:23 (twenty-two years ago)

They're nylon?

When I go shopping I take sufficient bags with me, so I bring home very few extras (only when I buy more than I expect, or when I hadn't expected to shop, do I get new ones).

A story, about an old acquaintance, a rich kid who tried to be politically hip but never really got it. He read of this huge ecological problem. He therefore threw out the drawerful of plastic bags he had, and made a big deal of insisting on paper bags at supermarkets.

(Obviously reusing the plastic bags was the better solution, but that was hardly the point - making a fuss about his fabulous political commitment was the point. This is the same man I've quoted before who within four lines (in an amateur press association I was in) of announcing that he was now an anarchist complained that his tenants didn't treat him with enough respect.)

― Martin Skidmore (Martin Skidmore), Friday, 2 May 2003 20:16 (twenty-two years ago)

In the main they're PVC.

― Ed (dali), Friday, 2 May 2003 21:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I once worked as a supermarket bagger, and I was always amazed by how worked up people got over their bag decisions: some seemed paralyzed by indecision, others really adamant about their choices, others really adamant about trying to fit a month's worth of groceries into the single canvas tote bag they'd brought. . . . For the most part, I don't think people are so conscious of the issue, but in the supermarket context they've been trained to consider it. (Only problem: they're by and large unsure of what exactly they're supposed to be doing.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 3 May 2003 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

(Well, okay, hopefully most of them are aware that they're meant to be reusing their bags, but unfortunately most of them would respond to that suggestion with "that's retarded." Which is sort of is, but so is nearly everything that's worth doing.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Saturday, 3 May 2003 16:32 (twenty-two years ago)

i carry a bag or backpack at all times.

― anthony easton (anthony), Saturday, 3 May 2003 23:45 (twenty-two years ago)

I always ask for paper. Sometimes I get plastic anyway of course. I throw those away. I am frightened by the amount of waste I produce in a week.

― Millar (Millar), Saturday, 3 May 2003 23:54 (twenty-two years ago)

I have been taking a bag (or two when I'm buying a lot) to Trader Joe's (small groc store) for a few years now when I saw my stack of TJ's bags was about four feet high. I've only seen one other person do that, and maybe only a couple use the canvas bags that TJ's sells. I've never seen anyone do either at any supermarket (nor do I, to be honest, don't want to look "retarded"). I'm glad my town recycles the paper and plastic at least. Some of the shops in Italy charge you for bags, they should do that here.

― nickn (nickn), Sunday, 4 May 2003 03:10 (twenty-two years ago)

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