civil bag fee discussion thread

[JanS]

the apt. bldg. I’m in hs recycling, too. We just don’t have a container for food waste, so it’s either the garbage disposal or the trash for that. There are 8 apartments here, 2 containers for recycling picked up every 2 weeks, and it’s not enough…guess we’re doing a half way decent job of it, huh..

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[condodweller]

I signed the petition because the person gathering the signatures was very clear on the fact that it was to call to the vote of the people concerning this issue.

Considering all the opinions expressed here and the other site, it seems that there is strong enough thought on both sides to make the argument a vote would be a good idea.

It seems that a civil discussion of the matter is impossible. Just keep in mind that a few short years ago, it was considered unsanitary to bring a bag from home and it was not allowed. Who knows where some of those bags from home have been?

I would still like the luxury of forgetting my bags or making an unexpected stop to the grocery store and having the bags at home and not being treated as though I am ruining the planet and must I be taxed for it.

Also note that we are fined if we do not recycle and will now be fined for using recyclable items from the grocery store, where does this end?

I know a woman that only does one load of laundry a week and flushes only twice a day. Few would be willing to stay to that standard of reducing the carbon footprint, I know I am not.

Seattle is not the center of the universe and we will not solve the world’s problem by any measure we take here.

You need not address any comments to me, I shall not return to the site.

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[Ken]

Just a note on roxbury Safeway.

I already do my shopping there. The other safeway’s have tiny parking lots and tiny aisles and I feel like I am going to step on someone and squash them like a bug.

I also get tired of having to turn around or back out if someone else is in the aisle.

I do enough of that driving around highpoint.

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[HP]

glad to hear about the apts & townhouses that do the last one i lived in did not so I sent mine home with my mother once a week and tried to get the prop mgmt folks to get recycle.. to no avail. And Ken Im with you about roxbury safeway. Decent parking and decent aisles.

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[JoB]

condodweller,

if your bags are washable, there is no excuse for them to be unsanitary. And if they are, the only one impacted is you.

If you are concerned about them actually touching surfaces, most grocery stores now keep sanitizer at the checkstand… just to keep all those dribbles from meat packages and other leaky things under control.

however, my experience has been that they load the groceries into the bag in my cart… which is the same place you put those plastic bags.

as for wanting to have a bag when you just happen to stop by the store, i have carried one in my purse for some time now and it is ample enough to handle most impromptu grocery stops.. in fact it holds so much that when full it’s a little too heavy.

Having one bag in my purse has saved me a fair amount of money. it certainly cut my impulse grocery shopping way down.. i don’t have room after buying the things i need:)

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[JoB]

Ken,

did you see that the Roxbury Safeway was considerably cheaper for the same items than the Admiral Safeway in the shopping comparison done in white Center?

i think it will be my safeway of choice from now on.. but not because it’s across the city line.

And yes.. i would love to see an end to the extreme packaging we now have.

That one would be harder to defeat since it wouldn’t inconvenience anyone… but harder to implement if not done nationally since so much of what is packaged comes from outside the united states.

easy to do though.. a heavy tariff on plastic packaging by weight would do it.

i try to vote with my pocketbook, but there are some things you just can’t get without the packaging.

I have complained for a long time and have seen a move by some stores.. costco being one of them.. away from that kind of packaging.

it is a start.

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[Magpie]

I think a lot of the packaging is thought to be anti theft…particularly cd and dvd packaging (which is completely ridiculous)..I think most people want to do the right thing..my other hate in life is plastic peanuts. I have bags of them in my storage room because I can’t put them in the landfill and last time I tried to take them to a UPS place, they wouldn’t take them. I think I will put them in the free pile at my next yard sale and hopefully, one of the dealers will take them on. Since the post office raised rates, where people used to use newspaper for packing, they are opting for lighter material.

For reusing, I saw one of those bag driers for zip lock type bags at PCC..might have to buy it, but it was over $20.

I have been using Amazon fresh and you can give the driver back the previous week’s bags and they will recycle..Safeway.com is way more expensive (though some more variety)since they charge a delivery fee and way less convenient in their delivery windows. I also like the fact that I don’t have to mess with the bags (and can keep the few I need for trash bags, etc).

I have an idea, maybe the mayor can give the neighborhood with the best recycling habits an incentive…like quicker fixes to potholes, better bus service in conjunction with King County..maybe we could have a contest. My old boss had a saying “What gets measured, gets attended to”

All of the little things that we do, add up.

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[charlabob]

I used to carry scissors with me on shopping trips and carefully remove and discard the packaging after I bought (especially) toys and CDs/DVDs.

People watched in amazement — often the store managers at least divided the detritus into recyle and non-recycle and claimed to write complaint letters to their vendors. (I didn’t hold up the line — just stood at the end or off to the side…a few times, it actually caught on and people asked to borrow my scissors.)

It was an act of guerilla theater — I don’t have the patience to do it now, but it’s definitely on my post-surgery “bucket list”. :-)

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[JoB]

Charlabob,

i applaud you. Most of the time removing the packaging involves so much swearing on my part that i wouldn’t want to do it in public:)

but the bigger thing that stops me is that if you return the product, it must have original packaging..

AAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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[beachdrivegirl]

“I have an idea, maybe the mayor can give the neighborhood with the best recycling habits an incentive…like quicker fixes to potholes, better bus service in conjunction with King County..maybe we could have a contest”

See I like thoughts like that. From my experience positive reinforcement seems to work better 9/10 then negative reinforcement.

Also, funny, King5 is catching up with the WSB story from yesterday that 1) there are enough signatures that we should have it on the ballot (yeah!) 2) that the sierra club is trying to throw out the signatures (lets hope that does not happen!!!)

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[Diane]

re all that ridiculous, unnecessary plastic packaging that just gets thrown out

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just posted this in comments re yesterday’s “Bag-fee battle”, but not sure anyone will see it as stories scroll down to bottom of front page

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the landfill and littering issue on land is minor compared to the ocean landfill, which is bordering on catastrophic

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very eye opening article, and follow-up program was on Nightline couple days ago

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“There is a floating garbage dump about the size of Africa created by Pacific currents now carrying refuse from North America, Asia and the islands, concentrating it into a swirl of flotsam estimated to contain 3.5 million tons of junk, 80 percent of which is plastic.”

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even when the plastic breaks down, scientists are finding it in small particles in all of the earth’s oceans, which the fish take in, and works up the food chain to people; pretty scary stuff and needs more mainstream media coverage

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full article at

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4528488&page=1

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[JoB]

Diane..

and we live next to… the ocean…

out of sight, out of mind…

until you walk a beach as the tide turns and pick up the junk..

that junk used to be japanese glass fishing floats.

those were the days.

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[Author]

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