[avery17]

Nj recently banned single use plastic bags. Now instead of people actually reusing the reusable bags forever they just throw them out almost every time. Everyone who buys this machine is not going to go out of their way to return the casettes. America is obsessed with convenience and will continute throwing out perfectly reusable things until we have a massive cultural shift.

[dreamcompiler]

I was confused by this so I looked it up [0]. The point I had missed was that stores and delivery services still provide bags like before, but now they're heavier bags designed for reuse. And people still throw them away like before.

Result: Now there's even more plastic in the waste stream.

[0] https://nyti.ms/3R8lCse

[lupire]

This machine is for Europeans.

[nextlevelwizard]

Whole point of convenience stores is to be convenient. Carrying a big ass bag with me for the off chance I go to the store is just silly.

[_chu1]

We keep reusable bags in the car for every time we go to the grocery store. I think the entire country would only benefit from banning single-use plastic bags nationally, and I'm not sure how you could have an issue with that.

[nextlevelwizard]

The issue I have is already stated in the first message. You just don't want to accept it.

I have another question for you while I have your attention; how do you handle trash? Do you just have a bin with no liner and you carry that to outside and pour it in to the big bin? Or do you buy plastic bags at the store to line your bin and then carry that plastic bag filled with crap to the bigger bin?

[wrigby]

I mostly agree, but here in NYC I don’t have a car to keep the bags in. If I stop at the grocery store on my way home from work, I either have to have planned ahead and put a reusable bag in my work backpack, or I have to buy more reusable bags (which eventually get tossed because we have too many of them).

It’s definitely better to have the bag with me, and just typing this out made me realize I can keep one or two in my backpack at all times.

[deinonychus]

I personally keep in my daily backpack a reusable Baggu that packs down nicely and doesn’t take up much space. As long as you have a daily bag/purse/whatever and you’re not strapped for space, it’s pretty easily solved, yeah. I live in not-NYC so I also keep a bag in the car.

I have some sympathy if you find yourself on a weekend out and about and needing to spontaneously buy some victuals and don’t have any bag on you - but that’s the cost of us having less litter.

[lupire]

Don't even need a Baggu. Single use bags aren't inherently single use, they are just cheap enough to throw away. No one prevents you from bringing a tight-packing lightweight "single use" bag back to the store to use again.

[burnerthrow008]

Well, I suppose that’s perfectly fine if you’re the wasteful sort of person who uses a personal vehicle instead of a bike or public transit.

But what about the responsible people who actually care about reducing their carbon footprint by not unnecessarily carrying 3000 lbs of steel everywhere they go?

[_chu1]

I live in central Alabama. Would take over 4 hours to walk or bike to get groceries. Not everyone lives in a huge city and the ones in Alabama are too dangerous to walk around in without concealed carrying a firearm (except for Huntsville).

[43920]

Is this based on particular evidence, or just a feeling?

I lived in Birmingham for a while (admittedly not in the downtown), and this was not my experience at all, nor have I ever heard this from anyone else I knew, including people that did live downtown. Obviously, there are better and worse areas like everywhere else, but most of the city is basically fine IMO.

[popcalc]

Do you want to move out? Sounds like South Africa levels of dire.

[lupire]

Those responsible people are welcome to do so, but they are statistically irrelevant and so have no place inarge scale planning.