News Re-Usable Bag Price Increases

[flynnibus]

But there has to be infrastructure in place to handle those changes.

Depends - some changes can just influence behavior through feedback. If you paid per bag, you will be incentivized to use less bags, reducing waste output. No infrastructure needed.

You can't just make a new policy and expect things to change overnight... unless you're an elected official in Washington DC. Then things just magically change because you passed a bill, right?

Again, I'm not advocating "do nothing". But changing from plastic bags to "reusable bags" that are worse isn't the answer.

It can help.. again, driving down the quantity of things is going to drive down how many get thrown out every week. Creating incentives to use less and or reuse/repurpose can have positive impacts.

And again if you focus on reality and not hand waving.. change can be overnight. Bans or tariffs go in quickly.

 

[Disstevefan1]

FWIW I am supportive of grocery stores and many other businesses moving to a “bring your own bag or buy a single use bag for $0.10” model, especially if the single use bags are paper. This has already been implemented in many parts of the country.

I am not at all supportive of “bring your own bag or buy a re-usable plastic one”. If a re-usable bag is the only option, it forces people who won’t / can’t re-use a bag to buy one anyways, and it will likely end up in the trash, which creates a lot more waste than single use bags.

At a theme park, most guests don’t want to have to carry around a reusable bag all day just in case they want to buy something. Many purchases are “impulse purchases” that weren’t planned in advance.

I am totally against groceries stopping the plastic bags.
They are perfect for what they were created to do and have a million and one uses when not used for groceries.

 

[SoFloMagic]

Yeah I agree with you. Has anyone posted any actual science to back this claim up? All I've seen in the journals with my quick checks is that it's much greener using metal.

It's certainly not initially greener - 1 to 1 a metal spoon is more resource-intensive for sure. But reuse shifts the equation - one metal vs 100 plastic...

Back to bags: seems the plastic reusable ones Disney uses need to be used 14 times for any savings. Cotton totes are 175(!!!)
It seems the best option is simply reusing the "disposable" bags. Use them three total times and it's the same as using a reusable bag 42 times.

 

[Brian]

But your patrons are using those washed utensils too. So is it skewed, or aligned?

Touché.

 

[Hawg G]

This is another area I think we fail at… how hard would it be to put a simple recycle / don’t recycle logo on all our labels?

We’ve had separate bins for trash and recycling for years now and I still don't know what bins to use for some items. Some plastic is recyclable, some isn’t, it would be nice to just glance at a label and know which is which.

The way to make recycling work is to get rid of the "flash" of modern packaging. A plastic container of Tide, or shampoo, or OJ has multiple layers of plastic, which can't be easily separated. Most of those are for such important things as making the colors flashier so they stand out on the grocery shelves. Some are so your OJ can sit in storage for months without oxygen getting into it.

A single, utilitarian, plastic jug with a simple, thin label would make recycling infinitely easier. But companies don't want that. Because customers don't want a grocery aisle full of yellowish white bottles that contain what they need to buy, but also don't contain any pigments, special layers, etc only in place for marketing.
Us oldsters remember when Pepsi and Coke were sold in returnable glass bottles. They were all the same size, were glass, with worn out paint on them from multiple uses. And they were picked up by the distributor, and reused. They didn't change the bottles everytime a new movie came out.
People really don't WANT recycling to be successful. They still want their new Iphone each year to come in a fancy box with stickers and cords, and elegant design. Even though their year old phone does 99.4% of what the new one does.

 

[ppete1975]

In case anyone is wondering about the practicalities of this Disneyland Paris has not had plastic bags since 2019 and the world hasn't ended over here.

And as it's related since February all 'one use' food packaging for eat in meals is now against French law, so for example if you have an eat in quick service meal everything is now reusable. Not the greatest photo (I found online) but you can see how the Stark Factory food is presented. Also just for fun look what McDonald's looks like in France now. Personally I think it's a huge improvement.

View attachment 704806View attachment 704805

in america all of that would be on ebay within 5 minutes of ordering.

 

[Vegas Disney Fan]

in america all of that would be on ebay within 5 minutes of ordering.

And shipped in a box full of plastic wrapped air.

Speaking of…

This is how ShopDisney recently sent me a Chip and Dale fake succulent. Wrapped in a cardboard container, inside a box, inside a bigger box, inside an even bigger box surrounded by those plastic packets full of air. (Or maybe tissue paper , I can’t remember).

Definitely secure but it was such a ridiculous waste I took a pic to send to my GF.

(Yes, I’m a crazy Disney person and am aware my house has way too much Disney stuff in it, including my hand made Mickey lights in the backyard).

 

[JoeCamel]

I do. BS Eng Pulp and Paper Engineering with 28 years experience in recycling.

What do you want to know?

Is there a viable recycling market?

 

[AEfx]

My point is - all this talk about recycling and "going green" is an absolute waste when the people pushing it are clueless and have no knowledge about what is and what isn't actually being recycled.

Ain't that the truth. The majority of the time a company talks about "going green" it's really about saving them money, above all else. People have been trained that plastic/paper = bad, so they don't actually look any deeper than that.

When it comes to reusable bags, the science says that in practice they are really pretty much useless - in order to make a re-usable bag more environmentally friendly than plastic, you would have to re-use it every day for decades, not to mention all the sanitizing chemicals and such people SHOULD be using on them if they are reusing them for food.

In my house, we used to re-use every single "single use" plastic bag for trash and other things - now, we just buy more...plastic trash bags.

So yes, it does amount to companies wanting the positive PR for something that actually doesn't do anything of worth (and may actually be worse), and in the end is just really about saving them money (savings they certainly won't pass along to the consumer).

A recent article I read said it best - the actual impact of plastic bags to begin with is rather negligible in the overall issue of the environment, and the cause would be much better served to pay more attention to what they put IN the bags, rather than the bags they carry them in. I'd extend that to even how you transport those items - if you are pulling up to the Target in your gigantic gas guzzling SUV that most of the time has 2 passengers or less, and congratulating yourself on remembering your reusable bags, you don't understand the actual problem, LOL.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Ain't that the truth. The majority of the time a company talks about "going green" it's really about saving them money, above all else. People have been trained that plastic/paper = bad, so they don't actually look any deeper than that.

When it comes to reusable bags, the science says that in practice they are really pretty much useless - in order to make a re-usable bag more environmentally friendly than plastic, you would have to re-use it every day for decades, not to mention all the sanitizing chemicals and such people SHOULD be using on them if they are reusing them for food.

In my house, we used to re-use every single "single use" plastic bag for trash and other things - now, we just buy more...plastic trash bags.

So yes, it does amount to companies wanting the positive PR for something that actually doesn't do anything of worth (and may actually be worse), and in the end is just really about saving them money (savings they certainly won't pass along to the consumer).

A recent article I read said it best - the actual impact of plastic bags to begin with is rather negligible in the overall issue of the environment, and the cause would be much better served to pay more attention to what they put IN the bags, rather than the bags they carry them in. I'd extend that to even how you transport those items - if you are pulling up to the Target in your gigantic gas guzzling SUV that most of the time has 2 passengers or less, and congratulating yourself on remembering your reusable bags, you don't understand the actual problem, LOL.

This. Thank you!

I also read several years ago that, at the time, an EV would need to be driven for 5 years to break even with a similar gas-powered vehicle based on the cost of the EV plus all related electrical costs. But all the hype these days is on EV’s without saying anything about what goes into making, owning, or using one.

 

[ppete1975]

And shipped in a box full of plastic wrapped air.

Speaking of…

View attachment 705068

This is how ShopDisney recently sent me a Chip and Dale fake succulent. Wrapped in a cardboard container, inside a box, inside a bigger box, inside an even bigger box surrounded by those plastic packets full of air. (Or maybe tissue paper , I can’t remember).

Definitely secure but it was such a ridiculous waste I took a pic to send to my GF.

(Yes, I’m a crazy Disney person and am aware my house has way too much Disney stuff in it, including my hand made Mickey lights in the backyard).

hate to say it.. id rather get that than it loose in the box and broken as i have gotten things from mail order before. Good choice btw.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

And shipped in a box full of plastic wrapped air.

Speaking of…

View attachment 705068

This is how ShopDisney recently sent me a Chip and Dale fake succulent. Wrapped in a cardboard container, inside a box, inside a bigger box, inside an even bigger box surrounded by those plastic packets full of air. (Or maybe tissue paper , I can’t remember).

Definitely secure but it was such a ridiculous waste I took a pic to send to my GF.

(Yes, I’m a crazy Disney person and am aware my house has way too much Disney stuff in it, including my hand made Mickey lights in the backyard).

The carbon footprint of having to send it out a second time to replace the broken one is obviously much greater than overpacking considering a large portion of the box is just air…I’d call it a wash that it made it to your home in one piece safely.

 

[AEfx]

This. Thank you!

I also read several years ago that, at the time, an EV would need to be driven for 5 years to break even with a similar gas-powered vehicle based on the cost of the EV plus all related electrical costs. But all the hype these days is on EV’s without saying anything about what goes into making, owning, or using one.

Yup, EV's are similar to plastic bags, in that again, at best they break even environmentally, and depending on your perspective, can be worse - you are just trading in one type of environmental impact for another.

To begin with, the majority of electricity (especially in the US) is still generated using fossil fuels, so you are still burning fossil fuels to run your vehicle. I'm not familiar enough with the current numbers, and while I am sure it's likely less fossil fuels, still, you are traveling on the same power of a limited and polluting resource.

The real issue is with the batteries. Among other toxic materials, they require pounds and pounds of nickel, which is one of the dirtiest, most polluting metals to mine. In fact, it is so environmentally damaging that we stopped mining it in the US back in the 80's. We get it from other places, including some that have been known to use child labor. The act of mining it has devastating effects on water quality from all the toxins and breakdowns from the waste produced, as well as the greenhouse gasses that are emitted in mining it and the decomposition of the waste materials (not to mention all the effects on the health of the people who do the mining).

It's just yet another example of industry making consumers think they are making the "green" choice, when in fact, they are just replacing one type of pollution for another, or, in this case, even the same kind, just are more removed from it. That's why they are more of a status symbol than anything else - and the feeling of "I'm doing my part!" making people complacent, instead of actually meaningfully changing their consumption behavior in a way that actually would make a tinker's darn worth of change.

 

[HauntedPirate]

Yup, EV's are similar to plastic bags, in that again, at best they break even environmentally, and depending on your perspective, can be worse - you are just trading in one type of environmental impact for another.

To begin with, the majority of electricity (especially in the US) is still generated using fossil fuels, so you are still burning fossil fuels to run your vehicle. I'm not familiar enough with the current numbers, and while I am sure it's likely less fossil fuels, still, you are traveling on the same power of a limited and polluting resource.

The real issue is with the batteries. Among other toxic materials, they require pounds and pounds of nickel, which is one of the dirtiest, most polluting metals to mine. In fact, it is so environmentally damaging that we stopped mining it in the US back in the 80's. We get it from other places, including some that have been known to use child labor. The act of mining it has devastating effects on water quality from all the toxins and breakdowns from the waste produced, as well as the greenhouse gasses that are emitted in mining it and the decomposition of the waste materials (not to mention all the effects on the health of the people who do the mining).

It's just yet another example of industry making consumers think they are making the "green" choice, when in fact, they are just replacing one type of pollution for another, or, in this case, even the same kind, just are more removed from it.

The number I've heard is it takes 40,000 tons of various raw materials to make one EV vehicle battery. And in addition to the energy used to mine all that raw material (they aren't using EV mining equipment), it also needs transport and processing. "Green", indeed.

 

[larryz]

Sorry to necro this thread but didn't want to make a new thread since it's related to this. Rumor has it CMs are saying Disney is phasing out plastic bags and you will need to purchase reusable bags if you need a bag.

Becoming the norm everywhere I think, but I guess it might be a sudden change soon.

Didn't we hear this about 2-3 years ago?

 

[Nubs70]

All the boxes we get at Costco go in a burn barrel along with all he trash mail and paper packaging waste. We save aluminum cans only because we can get 70 cents a pound and kitchen waste goes in the compost bin for the garden not because of save the environment but because it makes economical sense.

How many tons a day do you.burn?
You could be burning at s $200/ton rate.

 

[Nubs70]

Sea World Entertainment (Busch Gardens, their water parks and Sesame Place) parks all do this just fine. Their cash flow has been nowhere as healthy as Disney's and they never stopped doing that.

Disney does not pay for shopping bags. The cost to WDW is rolled.into the price of the merch you are buying. Just like resort parking has always been rolled unto the price of a room

 

[celluloid]

Disney does not pay for shopping bags. The cost to WDW is rolled.into the price of the merch you are buying. Just like resort parking has always been rolled unto the price of a room

It is why the entire pay for a bag thing is just silly when there is no option to have a courtesy one. That is why I brought up Sea World parks. They give you a bag for free. They are not bagless, they just went paper and still gave guests the courtesy.

 

[TeriofTerror]

I keep my plastic Disney bags and reuse them. But I would happily give them up forever if it meant the return of package delivery to the resorts. I'm completely baffled this hasn't returned. It will definitely impact my shopping on my upcoming trip.

 

[Smiley/OCD]

I keep my plastic Disney bags and reuse them. But I would happily give them up forever if it meant the return of package delivery to the resorts. I'm completely baffled this hasn't returned. It will definitely impact my shopping on my upcoming trip.

I don’t understand why they can’t incorporate the Minnie Van drivers to transport the packages from the parks to the resorts…are the drivers constantly on the road or is there down time? Maybe this is something TWDC can look into and potentially kill two birds with one stone??