The reusable grocery bag law that was enacted in California recently is working. Almost. I want to see that it is, and, at first, I thought I really saw only success.
But, we have failings, and loopholes. My population of data for this hypothesis and conclusions drawn is limited, because I only go where I go. I don't go everywhere in the state. Still, here are my carefully thought-out conclusions after observing people (a thing I love to do anyway) and also my own habits and experiences, and those of friends and family.
First off, some people are really just buying heavy duty, made to be reused bags and can't be bothered to bring in ones they have had before. When I first started seeing people doing that, I noted who it seemed to be. Based on my observations, it's most often men who appear to be in their 20's and/or 30's, and appear to be single based on whatever evidence I could gather: no wedding ring; products purchased; etc. Yes, true, I must make some initial assumptions. Anyway, I have even seen the same guys a few times buying new bags, once again, at my fave store, Grocery Outlet.
The thing about buying these bags is this. They are plastic, and plastic is forever in our environment once we have created it. It never goes away. It often can not be recycled. These bags are "heavy duty" because they are theoretically intended to be re-used, but they are not being re-used, because the people who are willing to pay for them are people who have already habitually refused to participate in remembering to bring cloth (or other) bags into the store. Thus, these additionally hard-to-break-down-in-the-environment bags are going to be used as trash bags or something equally disappointing when considering what they were intended to be used for. And, who knows what their half-life is? I would venture to guess it's over 100 years. But, of course, that is a completely different experiment because are we talking about if the bag is interred in an anaerobic environment such as a landfill? A landfill is also free from UV rays. I digress.
Ok, so, there's problem number one. I truly do love that the bags that most of us are reusing are cloth or fiber of some type and so they do break down. That's by far the biggest issue of all. If we always used paper bags, the need for the law itself would be moot, since brown paper bags haven't really ever hurt the environment. So, if you are one of the card-carrying fiber bag users, my hat is off to you. You are my hero. But, the (possibly whiny) complaint I have is that now, with these extra sturdy, non-paper bags, baggers are cramming these new fiber or cloth bags full to the brim.
Yup, they are overloading the bags because they hold more, and they initially appear to carry more. And, they are breaking, tearing, and giving way before their appropriate useful life has been reached. I routinely have to tell the baggers not to overload my bags. I'll take six bags in, and they will cram everything into four bags. I recently even went and purchased colored duct tape to use to mend my torn bags so that it would not have to be sent to landfill before it had to be.
But, I actually have a set of five canvas bags that I bought from Seventh Generation in 1992, 26 years ago (in the height of my engineering education, when I was studying environmental engineering, which was just in its infancy). I was moved to acquire them specifically because of the understanding I had about our world, and our impact on it. I am very sentimental about these bags. I have been using them for my groceries and my stuff for that long, with literally no sign of wear. Until now, and all of a sudden, the handles are pulling apart. Why? The baggers are stuffing things into too few bags.
And, last, our bag law doesn't extend to other stores. Home Depot, Michael's, Bed, Bath, and Beyond, and all the other big box stores, and everybody who isn't a grocery, are not required to sell bags and so I see the cashiers still whipping out these huge bags for the tiniest purchases. I am saddened by this. I guess this is so because I have developed a habit of declining a bag, and it has become so easy and simple that it really seems that nobody really cares.
So, I give us a grade of C. We are passing, but barely. We are still consuming plastic in the form of bags faster than I could say. We are consuming plastic of all sorts at an alarming rate, too. We are choking our world with plastic. Let's keep the bag law, but let's do even better, wherever we can.
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