2021 Climate Change

[Dashmellow]

It's INTERNATIONAL PLASTIC BAG FREE DAY!

International Plastic Bag Free Day

A global initiative that aims to eliminate the use of plastic bags.

nationaltoday.com

If you've ever wondered how long plastic bags last, here's one that washed out of a sand dune after a storm. It's thought to date to around 1973. Bag for life?

 

[kamkar]

I hate when i have forgotten a plastic bag at home, or from my car cuz i have a stash there too.
Anyway i use my shopping bags about 3-4 times, before it is finally used as a garbage bag, and there it will also be sorted from the other waste and reused.

We have 5 different garbage bins where i live, other places have even more than that.

I do think plastic bags should be banned there are no really valid reason to have them.
I also even more controversial think that every country should only be allowed to export a little of the food they grow / make, even if this mean i will have to pay a lot more for my orange juice addiction or probably make do without it for most of the year.
But on the positive for us Danes then, this will mean a significant cut in the number of pigs here and the challenges so many of those give, but just on that account we Danes are ruining our own country so others can eat Danish bacon, and really that should not be a price we or anyone should pay.
So even if my country are now considered a industrial nation and not a farming nation, then farmers here have managed to merge the 2, and even if Danish farmers are some of the best in the world to do just this, then it still have a substantial price for the nature here.

News a few days old, say that in 50% of water wells here, are challenged by leftover things from the farmers and of course very little from industry.
And water from ground wells, it is all we have here.

Other funny things is, politicians and the people they lean upon to appear wise, well they all say that the quality of the water around Denmark have never been better, but the problem is there have never been so few fish in all that water as there is now.
One reason for this have been stone fishing, to make piers ASO on harbors, so now we have to redo that and put a lot of stones back out into the ocean.
O and costal fishermen here are capturing crabs and killing them by the tonne as there are now wayyyyy too many of those here, and they eat little fish and there are no large fish to eat them.

 

[Dashmellow]

I recycle as many plastic bags as I can. It's interesting; our solid waste facility where I take my trash and do all of my recycling won't accept plastic bags. Our local food COOP used to have a plastic bag recycling program but they stopped doing it due to the pandemic and so far have not restarted the program. I discovered that our local Walmart has a big plastic bag recycling program so now I take them there.

Here in Vermont most single use retail plastic bags have been banned, except for bags to put produce in at the supermarket. But Walmart is just over the border in New Hampshire and plastic bags there are still totally legal so if I go shopping in New Hampshire I come home with lots of plastic bags.

Ever since I started to recycle plastic bags the thing that amazes me is the sheer volume of bags I recycle every month even though I use canvas tote bags for most of my shopping and occasionally paper bags from some of the stores. It doesn't help to be surrounded by nearby states that still widely use plastic bags. They need to be banned nationally.

Our local food COOP has been offering compostable plastic bags and compostable flatware in their cafeteria which I've been experimenting with for several years. Some of these products seem to take forever to break down in my compost bins but I guess it is worth it. Some break down fairly easily. I may start a bin for plastic only and see what happens.

 

[DT MI]

Our local food COOP has been offering compostable plastic bags...

That is the only solution that would be widely accepted by the public. The convenience of the current non-compostable with a lot fewer of the downsides. IMO, they need to be mandated nationally and the current non-compostable totally banned.

Like you, I'm amazed at how many bags you can end up with in a single shopping trip. It's especially infuriating when the packers at the markets will place just one item in a bag - talk about wasteful.

 

[Dashmellow]

That is the only solution that would be widely accepted by the public. The convenience of the current non-compostable with a lot fewer of the downsides. IMO, they need to be mandated nationally and the current non-compostable totally banned.

Like you, I'm amazed at how many bags you can end up with in a single shopping trip. It's especially infuriating when the packers at the markets will place just one item in a bag - talk about wasteful.

I grown a lot of produce on my acreage and have a robust multiple bin composting set-up. Compostable bags that have been in the pile for a year were still not quite decomposed by this planting season like everything else in the pile and they have been getting caught up in the tines of my rototiller. I'm definitely in favor of compostable bags but I may have to adapt my composting techniques to accommodate them.

 

[kamkar]

The concept of someone else loading your shopping bags,,,,, that even blow the mind of this Dane.
Though in my youth we did still have some full service gas stations, but they was also gone long before i was able to call myself a man.
But someone else loading your groceries i dont think we ever had that here, a cash register have 2 groceries off "shoots" when they are full everything grind to a halt.
Which some times pronpt me to say " you can run the stuff into mine, i am fully aware what is mine and what is not"

EDIT: it have also happened now and then that i am done with mine and a little old lady is slowing things down, in which case i have asked for her permission to assist her, which i am most often allowed to do.
And i then do that and consider it a +1 karma point occasion , and i need +1 karma points after my failed youth.

 

[Dashmellow]

Where I live sometimes people load their own shopping bags and sometimes the cashier or bagger does it. Usually, it is high school kids doing the work and they get to make some money and keep the line moving along faster. I can't help but notice how an experienced bagger always does a much better job than me fitting everything in my bags!

NGA Best Bagger Championship - National Grocers Association

The NGA Best Bagger Championship features retailers with infectious company pride and an enthusiastic commitment to customer service.

www.nationalgrocers.org

 

[DT MI]

The concept of someone else loading your shopping bags,,,,, that even blow the mind of this Dane....

In the larger stores it's pretty much the only way to get customers through the process when they're queued up 5 or 6 deep all with full carts. The customer is unloading the cart, the cashier is ringing up the purchase and a 'bagger' is packing the purchase all at the same time. It's quite efficient when it's working as it should.

 

[Dashmellow]

They should have an international grocery bagging event at the Olympics!

 

[SawMaster]

I'll go for that as long as they have a relay/ hurdle/ long jump competition while carrying a bag crammed full of canned goods with only those finishing with untorn bags eligible for scoring

Phil

 

[kamkar]

Yeah it is probably a case of a time and place for everything, even the big stores here like the one named Bilka, while they do have 10 -20 registers for checkout i have never seen then all in operation at one time.
The Bilka out west of my Birth town Aarhus, once the biggest store in the country in the 1970 when it was made, well it is just 520 X 350 feet in size, but even then it was self serve at checkout, there was onlyuu a person to take care of the financial side of the transaction.

You better be quick about it, and there is no help or no mercy, not even at X mas peak hours.

 

[kamkar]

One thing i assume slow things down in the states are those coupons ? that is another concept we Danes have not picked up on, at least only to a very small degree.

 

[Nigel]

In the larger stores it's pretty much the only way to get customers through the process when they're queued up 5 or 6 deep all with full carts. The customer is unloading the cart, the cashier is ringing up the purchase and a 'bagger' is packing the purchase all at the same time. It's quite efficient when it's working as it should.

Here they get more people through by removing the cashiers, you unload beep it up, pay and pack yourself. Allows more tills to be fitted in. Sometimes this is the only way available.

Many prefer to beep it up as they first put it in the basket/trolley in the aisle, then you don’t need to unload and repack, you take the till with you around the store and no need to wait for checkout.

 

[Dashmellow]

Here they get more people through by removing the cashiers, you unload beep it up, pay and pack yourself. Allows more tills to be fitted in. Sometimes this is the only way available.

Many prefer to beep it up as they first put it in the basket/trolley in the aisle, then you don’t need to unload and repack, you take the till with you around the store and no need to wait for checkout.

So, you get to do the job the employees used to do and the supermarket doesn't need to hire them.

Personally, I hate those self check out systems. Many of them are user hostile! One local supermarket always has someone on duty to rush in and help customers when the computer with the weird robotic female voice starts arguing with a customer when it doesn't know what to do with the input ( or lack of). One example was when I bought some flowers for my girlfriend and put them in the bag as instructed but they apparently didn't weigh enough to convince the machine that I had done so, so it kept telling me to "put your item in the bag", so we were in a stalemate. The attendant was busy with other frustrated customers and I got to stand there. I finally realized what was happening and pressed down on the bagging scale and waved my hand in front of the motion sensing camera.

 

[kamkar]

Personally, I hate those self check out systems

Same. i have been at the store late and those is all that is open, in that case i just put my shopping on the ground and leave.

 

[Dashmellow]

I'll go for that as long as they have a relay/ hurdle/ long jump competition while carrying a bag crammed full of canned goods with only those finishing with untorn bags eligible for scoring

Phil

Sounds like me trying to simply get from my driveway to my house with plastic bags. They seem to keep making them thinner.

 

[Dashmellow]

Same. i have been at the store late and those is all that is open, in that case i just put my shopping on the ground and leave.

My elderly uncle bought a Nissan Maxima that had a female voice that repeatedly said, "Put your key in the ignition", "Put your key in the ignition", over and over or it would remind you to remove your key when you turned your car off.

He SWORE that, after telling you several times to put your key in the ignition, it would say "YOU IDIOT!, I've told you five times already, PUT YOUR KEY IN THE IGNITION!"

 

[SawMaster]

I like the self-checkouts as you can get done more quickly. But I also pay cash a lot of times, and not all the self-checkout registers accept cash so sometimes I'm waiting while there are registers open The local Home Depot store now has only 2 regular registers and they're always closed so everyone has to use the self-checkouts. According to some employees theft seems to be up from people not scanning all the items on their cart which wouldn't happen if the cheapskates hired more employees to run registers

One of the regional chain groceries here is "Ingles" (pronounced 'ingulls') and they have self-checkout and regular registers where the bagger offers to push your cart to your car for you, and there are big signs reminding you that service is free and employees are not allowed to accept tips for doing that. Ladies and old folks love that service and on top of that they've usually got the cheapest prices too

Still some old and good traditions like this here in the South but it is kind of dying out, and more's the pity for that...

Phil

 

[Nigel]

According to some employees theft seems to be up from people not scanning all the items on their cart which wouldn't happen if the cheapskates hired more employees to run registers

I’m sure that when the local DIY store went to self checkout, the losses reduced! The checkout operators they employed seemed incapable of getting it correct, I gave up trying to correct them unless the total was higher than expected, it was normally lower, and more likely correct than over.

Sounds like me trying to simply get from my driveway to my house with plastic bags. They seem to keep making them thinner.

Thin Plastic bags got almost phased out here on environmental grounds, for the supermarket, bags are now ‘lifetime’ bags, often made from natural materials, so carbon negative. The thin ones have a huge tax on them, making them undesirable except to the wasteful.

 

[SawMaster]

I’m sure that when the local DIY store went to self checkout, the losses reduced! The checkout operators they employed seemed incapable of getting it correct, I gave up trying to correct them unless the total was higher than expected, it was normally lower, and more likely correct than over.



Thin Plastic bags got almost phased out here on environmental grounds, for the supermarket, bags are now ‘lifetime’ bags, often made from natural materials, so carbon negative. The thin ones have a huge tax on them, making them undesirable except to the wasteful.

Single-use plastic packaging of all kinds sucks bigtime Don't know how the rest of the world does it, but at the local Aldi you can load your groceries into any boxes they have, purchase paper bags to put them in, or bring your own bags It's a good system but you can't know if any boxes will be available until you need them. Long ago before paper bags were in use you brought your own containers to the store where bulk goods were distributed, and at best they'd have paper you could wrap and carry things in. Kind of hard to imagine these days but it minimized waste and costs
I re-use and repurpose the plastic shopping bags but in the end they still go to a landfill so it only partially solves the problem.

On losses at the check-out it's a problem of poor employee selection and poor supervision. A lot of stores have cams where cashiers can be monitored but the problem remains. I've heard managers complain that they can't get better people but that's BS In my business I say that one in ten of new hires will do OK, one in fifty will be good, and one in a hundred will be exactly who you want. It's up to you who you have and who you keep and who you dismiss. Having to deal with this is a nasty part of business but it's integral to it so you do it or you suffer because you don't

I abhor thievery so I'm careful to scan everything, but not everyone feels as I do. I don't know anyone who cheats with this, but I do know a few who load their lumber carts for employee checkouts in a way to obscure some items in hope they won't be scanned and it sometimes works. Devious intent but really who's to blame? It's always been a problem since the beginning of retail store operation. In the end I see it as an issue with society as a whole; when any form of wrongdoing doesn't bring a universal shunning and rejection of the wrongdoer then it will not only exist, but it will grow The world is our garden and it is up to each of us to do our part at keeping the weeds pulled so that the good things we want from it can prosper

Phil