Plastic shopping bags

[Andrew C]

They have started in the Disney stores, but not the theme parks. Again I don't see them doing it in the theme parks for the reasons I mentioned.

It’s gonna happen in the parks like the stores whether the reasons you mentioned are valid concerns or not. They will have to figure that all out.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I don't know about you, but many times I've gone to a WDW store and bought something small, like a sealed pouch of cookies that I planned to eat right away. Without asking, the CM puts it in a shopping bag that I really don't need or want.

Or maybe I am in Disney Springs, and I buy something like a shirt. the CM puts it a more-then-ample shopping bag. Then I go to a second store, and buy something small, like a keychain, an item that would easily fit inside my first shopping bag. Often, even if I expressly SAY I don't want a second bag, the CM will STILL try to put my keychain in a second bag.

Now WDW is slightly different, because you are in the parks all day, but here at home, I often try to opt out of using a shopping bag. If I go to the pharmacy, and my prescription is already stapled into a paper bag, and I only have ONE prescription, why on earth do I want the clerk to ALSO give me a plastic bag.

If I can easily carry a few small items all around the whole store without a bag while I am shopping, then I can most certainly carry them another twenty feet to my car without a plastic bag. Yet sometimes it is very difficult to opt out of the plastic bag.

Maybe WDW's motives aren't pure, but many of us have gotten a little bag-crazy.

If we get BOTH store clerks and customers to think about every bag they use, that's the first step. Maybe the second step is something along the lines of the refillable mugs. Free refills if you wash your own cup! Maybe give WDW shoppers a small reward for bringing their own shopping bag.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

This becomes harder to track theft. as you have people that have paid/not paid walking around with merchandise in the store.

Most stores give everyone a paper receipt. Many use electronic sensors.

(Even WDW now uses electronic sensors to keep folks from stealing SODA.)

I've been to a number of stores that ask customers to show their receipt before leaving.

Likewise, if clerks are trusting bags as proof of purchase, then that's a false premise. It isn't hard to smuggle a plastic bag into a store. It also isn't hard to add items to bag one already has.

That is especially true at WDW, where every store has the same plastic bags and similar merchandise.

 

[jaklgreen]

I don't know about you, but many times I've gone to a WDW store and bought something small, like a sealed pouch of cookies that I planned to eat right away. Without asking, the CM puts it in a shopping bag that I really don't need or want.

Or maybe I am in Disney Springs, and I buy something like a shirt. the CM puts it a more-then-ample shopping bag. Then I go to a second store, and buy something small, like a keychain, an item that would easily fit inside my first shopping bag. Often, even if I expressly SAY I don't want a second bag, the CM will STILL try to put my keychain in a second bag.

Now WDW is slightly different, because you are in the parks all day, but here at home, I often try to opt out of using a shopping bag. If I go to the pharmacy, and my prescription is already stapled into a paper bag, and I only have ONE prescription, why on earth do I want the clerk to ALSO give me a plastic bag.

If I can easily carry a few small items all around the whole store without a bag while I am shopping, then I can most certainly carry them another twenty feet to my car without a plastic bag. Yet sometimes it is very difficult to opt out of the plastic bag.

Maybe WDW's motives aren't pure, but many of us have gotten a little bag-crazy.

If we get BOTH store clerks and customers to think about every bag they use, that's the first step. Maybe the second step is something along the lines of the refillable mugs. Free refills if you wash your own cup! Maybe give WDW shoppers a small reward for bringing their own shopping bag.

Any time that I have said that I do not need a bag, that I was going to put it in the one I already had, they always said OK and just handed me my item. I have never had a bag forced on me. Just take the item out of the bag and hand the bag back to them. Big deal.

 

[Genie_naughty_whispers]

I love plastic.

 

[Nobia Williams]

Sounds like a good time to buy a huge amount of things and then return them all when they refuse to provide a bag to put them in... If enough people would do that, Disney would have to stop the anti-plastic nonsense. Reality is they only want to embrace the no-plastic movement because it makes them more money, it does nothing for the environment. If you look at the stuff used to make the "re-usable" totes it is often includes the same petroleum based materials, just more of them, and the odds of people actually using them over and over isn't that great as they often get maybe a couple of uses before being lost or tossed, but now Disney gets to charge you for a super duty plastic bag.

Not using plastic bags is the wave of the present and the future. We were in California last year. If you wanted a plastic bag for your purchase, you had to pay for it.
We were in Seattle earlier this year. They have been charging for plastic bags for a while now. I have started taking the reusable bags with me wherever I go.

 

[thomas998]

Not using plastic bags is the wave of the present and the future. We were in California last year. If you wanted a plastic bag for your purchase, you had to pay for it.
We were in Seattle earlier this year. They have been charging for plastic bags for a while now. I have started taking the reusable bags with me wherever I go.

And I remember being in California in the 70's when you had to ask for water in a restaurant, people thought it was going to be that way everywhere.... Almost 50 years later and I still get water without asking in the midwest and south... Just because environmentalists have managed to railroad ridiculous plastic bans into those states doesn't mean they will get them in everywhere. At the moment places like Disney are pandering to a small minority but only because they see it as a way to make money selling bags.

 

[Andrew C]

Almost 50 years later and I still get water without asking in the midwest and south

also...the humidity will really kill ya.

 

[WDWFannatic]

I, personally, hope that this getting rid of the bags will be a phase... (one can hope) When I was in Hawaii in July, they charge for every single plastic bag - 10 cents to 15 cents per bag. They're doing it to raise money for some kind of rail system. Luckily, everything I purchase at WDW I have sent back to my resort. I think this bag predicament is going to end up in lost sales for Disney in the long run.

 

[Texas84]

The Disney reusable bags are a buck? Those will probably end up in the trash as well.

 

[thomas998]

I, personally, hope that this getting rid of the bags will be a phase... (one can hope) When I was in Hawaii in July, they charge for every single plastic bag - 10 cents to 15 cents per bag. They're doing it to raise money for some kind of rail system. Luckily, everything I purchase at WDW I have sent back to my resort. I think this bag predicament is going to end up in lost sales for Disney in the long run.

I wouldn't hold my breath... that will probably be like every sales tax increase we've ever had where I live.. It starts as a 5 or 10 year sales tax increase to do some great project, then when it is about to expire they push it again under the guise that it isn't raising taxes since we already pay it... I my entire life I have never seen a sales tax that was supposed to expire actually go away without being replaced... I'm better you'll see the same thing happen in Hawaii with the bag tax.

 

[jaklgreen]

People keep comparing WDW with going someplace like the grocery store. At home you can have your bags in the car and take them with you into the store, no problem. But who is going to be walking around Epcot with some reusable totes in case they see a t-shirt they just have to have that day? I go bag free for a reason and if I am going to buy something I go get it on my way out. I don't want to carry bags around, even shoved into my pockets. But I go often enough that if I bought a reusable bag every time I bought something, I would have no choice but to leave them because I will not be packing all of them in my suitcase to take home. I predict that a lot of these bags will be tossed, just like the bags they have now. Except these reusable bags are sturdier and will take longer to break down. A theme park is not someplace to use reusable bags IMO. They should go with the bags that are made from recycled material.

 

[Club Cooloholic]

They could use paper bags, no? The ones with the nice little handles on them? Probably what was used back in the 70s

 

[aliceismad]

I predict that a lot of these bags will be tossed, just like the bags they have now. Except these reusable bags are sturdier and will take longer to break down.

That depends on what the bags are made of. All my reusable totes are made of things that will break down much more quickly than a plastic bag.

 

[jaklgreen]

That depends on what the bags are made of. All my reusable totes are made of things that will break down much more quickly than a plastic bag.

That is why I said they should use the biodegradable plastic bags that are not as thick. Let's face it, people are going to be mad that they have to pay, even $1 for a bag after they just spent $40 on a t-shirt. It is the principle of it. Nobody believe for 1 second that Disney is doing this for altruistic reasons. They are jumping on the "get rid of plastic" bandwagon. If they were so concerned then they would not have partnered with ziplock, who is giving away baggies!!!! What?! It is going to leave a bad taste in people's mouths to have to fork over a dollar for a bag, especially after buying things at Disney prices. They should just give the reusable bags away and encourage people to bring them back.

 

[Disstevefan1]

Ironically, in Mickeys Christmas party they now give out the complementary cookies in EACH IN PREPACKAGED little PLASTIC BAGS!!! Tens of thousands of these little PLASTIC BAGS; take the free cookie, take it out of the PLASTIC BAG, eat the cookie, throw the PLASTIC BAG in the trash, tens of thousands of these little PLASTIC BAGS end up in the landfills, oceans, etc.

Obviously Disney does not actually care abut limiting the use of plastic. The banning of plastic straws by Disney was a publicity stunt.

The eventual banning of plastic shopping bags is another publicity combined with a new way for Disney to make money by forcing guests to buy shopping bags they will also throw away when they get home...

 

[Andrew C]

Ironically, in Mickeys Christmas party they now give out the complementary cookies in EACH IN PREPACKAGED little PLASTIC BAGS!!! Tens of thousands of these little PLASTIC BAGS; take the free cookie, take it out of the PLASTIC BAG, eat the cookie, throw the PLASTIC BAG in the trash, tens of thousands of these little PLASTIC BAGS end up in the landfills, oceans, etc.

Obviously Disney does not actually care abut limiting the use of plastic. The banning of plastic straws by Disney was a publicity stunt.

The eventual banning of plastic shopping bags is another publicity combined with a new way for Disney to make money by forcing guests to buy shopping bags they will also throw away when they get home...

maybe next year, the cookies will be in little paper bags. Like a cookie at the DoubleTree.

 

[World_Showcase_Lover007]

Serious question....How does this impact Ziploc and the new sponsorship deal?

I don’t think it affects it at all. Disney’s action on straws, etc. is likely a PR stunt. They’ll do away with some things bc it looks good in the press.

But when they receive cash money, like the Ziplock sponsorship, ain’t nothing going to stop that lol. They could waste a million bags a day, Disney doesn’t care as long as it’s a revenue stream.

 

[Minnie1976]

I understood they were getting rid of plastic shopping bags. This has nothing to do with the environment at all. It is pure GREED! I went to a Disney store in Gulfport MS today. I had the choice of buying a bag or just carrying out my
purchases in my arms. They don’t even give you a paper bag. I have never been to a store other than Sam’s which is wholesale where you aren’t give a bag for your purchases. This is a money making deal not about the environment. As much as Disney charges for their merchandise and you have to purchase a bag and not even given a paper bag is PURE GREED
I was informed it is the same in the parks.

 

[thomas998]

That depends on what the bags are made of. All my reusable totes are made of things that will break down much more quickly than a plastic bag.

Actually I don't think anyone really knows if the plastic bag will last longer than your tote or not. If you look at where the 1000 years to breakdown comes from it is based on a test done using microbes that would breakdown organic materials. The scientist that came up with the 1000 years number basically used a flawed test because they based it off placing a sample of plastic material in a container with microbes that wouldn't eat the plastic and then extrapolated the data into 1000 years. Reality is plastic hasn't been around for 1000 years, hasn't even been around for 100 years so those numbers are just guesses. Reality is some plastics don't like UV rays and will become brittle and breakdown very quickly in sunlight, which wasn't how the samples were tested. If you changed the tests that were used to use sunlight instead of microbes you would find that things like plastic would breakdown much faster than things like cotton used in totes if the only agent used to break them down was light. But for some reason environmentalist latched onto the 1000 years for plastic to breakdown number and have pushed it as if it were some irrefutable fact when it is really more of a myth. If plastics lasted 1000 years would you ever see old cars and trucks with cracked plastic dashboards?