Plastic shopping bags

[eliza61nyc]

I bet soda sales in Philly have gone down... while soda sales outside the city and probably across the river in Jersey have gone up the same amount.

Yep. Its a double edge sword, lol I work in Delaware a no tax state so

I taught my sons not to leave trash any where and guess what they don't and they are now adults. Far too many parents don't teach their off spring to be responsible and that is why you are having to pick up after slobs be it in national parks and of all places church.

Lol. If you ever meet my son get him to tell the story about what happened to him when he threw his chicken bones out the window of the car on the ride home from the beach. It's a family classic.

I agree.

 

[NeedMoreMickey]

The Disney store in White Marsh, MD started this back in August, either bring your own or buy a nice size reusable bag for $1.00.

 

[thomas998]

Disney isn't banning plastic and no one here is saying that, plastic bags though are a useless waste of plastic. Lol i've got a plastic knee that is wonderful thanks to the wonders of science. I've saids consistently there is great advantages to plastic. Bags ain't one of them.
And yes my Bishop has said often that the church is not a drive through. People are self centered are you telling me folks don't know littering is nasty??

But you are right nothing modifies behavior like the mighty dollar. Philly we have a soda tax and a 5c a bag charge on plastic bags (not all supermarkets) soda consumption has gone down (haven't heard of any layoffs) and we definitely see less plastic bags in the street.
Truthfully though I didn't stop carrying plastic because of a charge but because they have gotten so darn thin and cheap they break.
I think if Disney switches to paper shopping bags most folks won't bat an eye.
Better yet , want to see how quickly guest would change their tune?? Lol give them a 3% discount if they don't take a bag. Lol that would cut down consumption quick fast

I don't expect Disney to ever give you a discount for not taking a bag... Nor do I expect them to bring back paper bags, their most likely move will be to just sell you a reusable bag which may very well be made out of a material that includes the same feedstock that is used for plastic, only it will require several times more of it in each bag but because Disney will sell it to you for 4 or 5 dollars they'll make a hefty profit even though most of them at the park will end up nothing more than single use bags like the cheaper plastic bags you get today for free.

 

[John park hopper]

Yep. Its a double edge sword, lol I work in Delaware a no tax state so

Lol. If you ever meet my son get him to tell the story about what happened to him when he threw his chicken bones out the window of the car on the ride home from the beach. It's a family classic.

I agree.

Please tell

 

[eliza61nyc]

Please tell

lol, we were coming home from Ocean city NJ and got a late start so we stopped at KFC to get a bucket of the grease to go. I look in the rear view mirror and see him and his bird brained brother chucking chicken bones out the window. I think they were about 8 and 10 at the time, eeerk (sound of me slamming on the breaks) my cousin was with me also. we got off the next exit, I hit an Ace hardware store, picked up a bag of gallon trash bags. drove back a few miles, got back onto the highway, pulled over and made them pick up liter along the side of the road. lol, they still joke that they would have had to do the entire Garden state parkway if a cop hadn't pulled over to see if we needed assistance and said that they had gotten calls about some kid convicts picking up trash.

I still can't believe they were that tacky. What I think is so funny is they always look at me like I'm crazy when a vein is bulging out of my neck... "What's the problem mom, I didn't throw them on the floor" must control hands of death.

I live in a big city and my other pet peeve is that folks won't buy garbage bags and want to use the supermarket bags as trash bags. which in itself is a good idea but then they stuff them to the gills and try to tie them up and set them out the night before trash day. Well you can guess where this is going, by the time you wake up the bag has busted or an animal has gotten in them and trash is now all over the place.


I do wish I had more faith in John q. public but if everyone would act responsible we probably wouldn't even need this thread.

 

[John park hopper]

lol, we were coming home from Ocean city NJ and got a late start so we stopped at KFC to get a bucket of the grease to go. I look in the rear view mirror and see him and his bird brained brother chucking chicken bones out the window. I think they were about 8 and 10 at the time, eeerk (sound of me slamming on the breaks) my cousin was with me also. we got off the next exit, I hit an Ace hardware store, picked up a bag of gallon trash bags. drove back a few miles, got back onto the highway, pulled over and made them pick up liter along the side of the road. lol, they still joke that they would have had to do the entire Garden state parkway if a cop hadn't pulled over to see if we needed assistance and said that they had gotten calls about some kid convicts picking up trash.

I still can't believe they were that tacky. What I think is so funny is they always look at me like I'm crazy when a vein is bulging out of my neck... "What's the problem mom, I didn't throw them on the floor" must control hands of death.

I live in a big city and my other pet peeve is that folks won't buy garbage bags and want to use the supermarket bags as trash bags. which in itself is a good idea but then they stuff them to the gills and try to tie them up and set them out the night before trash day. Well you can guess where this is going, by the time you wake up the bag has busted or an animal has gotten in them and trash is now all over the place.


I do wish I had more faith in John q. public but if everyone would act responsible we probably wouldn't even need this thread.

Great story !!!!

 

[bigrigross]

Is this actually confirmed anywhere? Or has anyone experienced it firsthand? All I can find are internet rumors.

I can confirm that the Disney Store in Indianapolis no longer stocks plastic bags and are now handing items back to customers unless they buy a 1 dollar bag. I was told by the employee who checked me out that they started this early November and have seen quite the pushback from customers.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Disney NYC store is doing this

I can confirm that the Disney Store in Indianapolis no longer stocks plastic bags and are now handing items back to customers unless they buy a 1 dollar bag. I was told by the employee who checked me out that they started this early November and have seen quite the pushback from customers.

The Disney Store and the parks are two completely different things.

 

[bigrigross]

The Disney Store and the parks are two completely different things.

Not anymore. I do believe they placed the stores and parks under the same division if I am not mistaken as they are trying to homogenize the retail offerings. And they are clearly doing it in timed roll outs as other posters have mentioned different dates their stores have started doing it. No doubt that Disney wants to see what will happen with customer reactions at the stores first before rolling it out at the park. Also, this would also help push their resort package delivery perk for why you want to chose a disney hotel.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Not anymore. I do believe they placed the stores and parks under the same division if I am not mistaken as they are trying to homogenize the retail offerings.

They roll up under common executives but that doesn't mean the Parks business is anything like the Retail business. Disneyland is under the same segment as Disney Cruise Line but that doesn't mean they're going to operate their cruise ships the same way they operate the Disneyland Hotel.

And they are clearly doing it in timed roll outs as other posters have mentioned different dates their stores have started doing it. No doubt that Disney wants to see what will happen with customer reactions at the stores first before rolling it out at the park.

Maybe that's the case, I'm not saying it's impossible. I'm saying it's a huge leap when you say "no doubt."

Also, this would also help push their resort package delivery perk for why you want to chose a disney hotel.

They don't want to push that perk. They offer it as a service but it's not something they want to drive people towards. It's labor intensive and doesn't generate any incremental revenue.

 

[larryz]

lol, we were coming home from Ocean city NJ and got a late start so we stopped at KFC to get a bucket of the grease to go. I look in the rear view mirror and see him and his bird brained brother chucking chicken bones out the window. I think they were about 8 and 10 at the time, eeerk (sound of me slamming on the breaks) my cousin was with me also. we got off the next exit, I hit an Ace hardware store, picked up a bag of gallon trash bags. drove back a few miles, got back onto the highway, pulled over and made them pick up liter along the side of the road. lol, they still joke that they would have had to do the entire Garden state parkway if a cop hadn't pulled over to see if we needed assistance and said that they had gotten calls about some kid convicts picking up trash.

I still can't believe they were that tacky. What I think is so funny is they always look at me like I'm crazy when a vein is bulging out of my neck... "What's the problem mom, I didn't throw them on the floor" must control hands of death.

I live in a big city and my other pet peeve is that folks won't buy garbage bags and want to use the supermarket bags as trash bags. which in itself is a good idea but then they stuff them to the gills and try to tie them up and set them out the night before trash day. Well you can guess where this is going, by the time you wake up the bag has busted or an animal has gotten in them and trash is now all over the place.


I do wish I had more faith in John q. public but if everyone would act responsible we probably wouldn't even need this thread.

Of course you realize that chicken bones are biodegradable...

 

[eliza61nyc]

Of course you realize that chicken bones are biodegradable...

lol true but with preteen boys, chicken bones, the big greasy bucket they came in, plastic wrappers from video games are all fair game. they don't discriminate about trash in their little brains.

I'm a firm believer that the saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" was coined by someone who was a parent to boys.

 

[Texas84]

Here's the problem. When I go to Kroger I have a shopping list and I can guess how many stupid reusable bags I need. When I go to the parks I'm an impulse buyer. I don't know how many stupid reusable bags to carry and I don't want to carry them all day long. I have no problem shelling out a buck for a bag if I find something to buy but it's not being used again. It's going to end up in the trash. Well, unless it has some cool art work on it, maybe. BTW, I take my old plastic bags back to Kroger for recycle.

As for the Disney plastic bags we are used to, my guess is they will use up the current stock and quit. I still got the old bags on my last trip in November.

 

[Lensman]

I don't think I'd bet one way or the other whether stores in the parks will follow Disney Store practice in not providing single-use bags. Nor do I know what they'll do for front-of-park pickup or resort delivery. I do agree with everyone who says that the park use case is different for a number of great reasons that people have given - inability to plan for purchases, walking around for a long time before and after, etc. I'm interested in seeing what happens.

I'm also unconvinced that producing more trash from "wasteful" single-use plastic shopping bags is a great way of increasing employment. I also wonder if we're still producing more trash + recycling per capita than before as we continue to increase consumption and we continue to consume more and use more disposable products. That is, even as our percentage of reusing and recycling increases, does out usage continue to increase as we consume more and more or, for example, have more things home-delivered rather than shop-in-store?

Hey, that's an interesting idea. I wonder if Disney will go for virtual stores or hybrid stores in the parks where you can view items and maybe even pick them up, but then scan their codes with the Disney app and have them direct-shipped to your home. They could even aggregate purchases and ship them all at once at the end of your trip - both because it'll save them on shipping costs plus it'll ensure that you'll be home to receive the packages. OTOH, I would have to get over the weirdness of giving "omiyage" gifts to people that we "picked up" for them on on WDW vacation. Lol, this will reduce the consumption of single-use shopping bags but could increase waste though increasing convenience.

 

[ninjaprincesst]

Besides the inconvenience and the cheapness of it, think how many plastic bags they purchased for Disney World several people are probably unemployed now because Disney is no longer purchasing bags.

 

[thomas998]

I also wonder if we're still producing more trash + recycling per capita than before as we continue to increase consumption and we continue to consume more and use more disposable products. That is, even as our percentage of reusing and recycling increases, does out usage continue to increase as we consume more and more or, for example, have more things home-delivered rather than shop-in-store?

Well I can say with complete certainty that the recycling with everything else being constant results in more energy wasted. Reality that most people don't understand is that things that make sense to recycle are few and far between, aluminum can and some paper have made sense, but those things were generally recycled in cities before the big push to recycle was pushed. Now you often have people spending energy sorting their trash, often having multiple trash cans by the curb where in some cities you even have two different trucks driving around picking up the different trash. Which all seems nice until you realize that often times the items that were so carefully sorted are dumped into the same landfill as the regular trash because there is insufficient demand for some of the items people sort out. I lived in a city once where the big scandal was that both the normal trash and plastics that had been sorted out were all burned in the same trash for energy plant... so in that instance it was an absolute waste of time and energy by everyone that was trying to recycle.

And I would have to expect that we generate much more trash now that we shop online as we alway find it ridiculous as to the size of boxes that Amazon will use to send us things we have ordered. Yesterday I ordered a new battery for my daughters cell phone. It could have been easily placed inside an envelope but instead it was inside a fairly large box that was about 10 inches by 8 inches by 4 inches... then add on the bubble wrap they used inside... I have no idea what kind of a special deal Amazon gets from the post office but if I had tried to mail the same thing in the same size box it would have probably cost me more than I paid for the battery... I suspect about 80% of the things we order from Amazon are delivered in boxes at least 50% larger than they need to be which just mean more plastic bubble wrap which we used to save for shipping our own packages but then realized we can never use as much as we end up with so it just gets trashed... probably throw away more plastic in the form of bubble wrap a week than we would have from plastic bags from 2 months of shopping.

 

[King Capybara 77]

lol true but with preteen boys, chicken bones, the big greasy bucket they came in, plastic wrappers from video games are all fair game. they don't discriminate about trash in their little brains.

I'm a firm believer that the saying "Cleanliness is next to Godliness" was coined by someone who was a parent to boys.

Cleanliness is only next to Godliness in an Irish Dictionary ...

 

[Lensman]

America is a disposable society and that's a large part of what keeps the economy running the way it does. I understand the European model with things like houses made to last more than a hundred years... but you switched to a disposable society where you replaced things more often you would create a lot more jobs.

Well why don't you ask the family of the guy at the landfill that no longer has a job... it is always easy to laugh off a theoretical person or two losing their jobs because of environmental wackos... but the reality is those theoretical people actually exist and when they lose their jobs their real families suffer.

Well I can say with complete certainty that the recycling with everything else being constant results in more energy wasted. Reality that most people don't understand is that things that make sense to recycle are few and far between, aluminum can and some paper have made sense, but those things were generally recycled in cities before the big push to recycle was pushed. Now you often have people spending energy sorting their trash, often having multiple trash cans by the curb where in some cities you even have two different trucks driving around picking up the different trash. Which all seems nice until you realize that often times the items that were so carefully sorted are dumped into the same landfill as the regular trash because there is insufficient demand for some of the items people sort out. I lived in a city once where the big scandal was that both the normal trash and plastics that had been sorted out were all burned in the same trash for energy plant... so in that instance it was an absolute waste of time and energy by everyone that was trying to recycle.

And I would have to expect that we generate much more trash now that we shop online as we alway find it ridiculous as to the size of boxes that Amazon will use to send us things we have ordered. Yesterday I ordered a new battery for my daughters cell phone. It could have been easily placed inside an envelope but instead it was inside a fairly large box that was about 10 inches by 8 inches by 4 inches... then add on the bubble wrap they used inside... I have no idea what kind of a special deal Amazon gets from the post office but if I had tried to mail the same thing in the same size box it would have probably cost me more than I paid for the battery... I suspect about 80% of the things we order from Amazon are delivered in boxes at least 50% larger than they need to be which just mean more plastic bubble wrap which we used to save for shipping our own packages but then realized we can never use as much as we end up with so it just gets trashed... probably throw away more plastic in the form of bubble wrap a week than we would have from plastic bags from 2 months of shopping.

So we could have it all if manufacturing the "inefficient" reusable bags created and sustained more jobs that creating the cheap plastic disposable jobs, right? And domestic jobs in the ideal case, not like those super-cheap disposable plastic bags manufactured overseas. And recycling is now all domestic and since it is more inefficient and labor-intensive than disposing of trash in a landfill, then that creates more domestic jobs too! This sounds like a lot of winning for the sustainability push creating additional useless jobs to power the domestic economy!

BTW, I grew up in Hawaii and follow the news there. They have also had a dilemma with recycling vs their Covanta waste-to-energy plant. It seems that the city's contract with Covanta specified a minimum amount of trash that the city is committed to deliver to the plant. If they don't, the city has to pay penalties. As a result of that contract plus the expense of shipping all recyclables to the mainland U.S. (on U.S. flagged ships with U.S. crewmembers due to the Jones Act), it is way more economic to burn non-metal recyclables. But that situation is probably unique to Hawaii being 2000 miles away from the nearest recycling plant. As a side note, I'd like to see us think about doing more waste-to-energy here in the U.S., if it makes sense. It seems to me more direct than what we do now, which is push most waste into landfills, wait for it to decompose to methane, then capture and burn the methane. Though who knows which would create more jobs? Ha!

I don't know that I see mall retailers all jumping on board with shifting to reusable shopping bags, but I could see driving to the mall and going in with my own generic reusable bag or maybe a light backpack. Or maybe someone will give me some of those cool pocketable compact folding shopping bags from Japan for Christmas this year. I've tossed out enough hints to people! Ha!

 

[eliza61nyc]

Well I can say with complete certainty that the recycling with everything else being constant results in more energy wasted. Reality that most people don't understand is that things that make sense to recycle are few and far between, aluminum can and some paper have made sense, but those things were generally recycled in cities before the big push to recycle was pushed. Now you often have people spending energy sorting their trash, often having multiple trash cans by the curb where in some cities you even have two different trucks driving around picking up the different trash. Which all seems nice until you realize that often times the items that were so carefully sorted are dumped into the same landfill as the regular trash because there is insufficient demand for some of the items people sort out. I lived in a city once where the big scandal was that both the normal trash and plastics that had been sorted out were all burned in the same trash for energy plant... so in that instance it was an absolute waste of time and energy by everyone that was trying to recycle.

And I would have to expect that we generate much more trash now that we shop online as we alway find it ridiculous as to the size of boxes that Amazon will use to send us things we have ordered. Yesterday I ordered a new battery for my daughters cell phone. It could have been easily placed inside an envelope but instead it was inside a fairly large box that was about 10 inches by 8 inches by 4 inches... then add on the bubble wrap they used inside... I have no idea what kind of a special deal Amazon gets from the post office but if I had tried to mail the same thing in the same size box it would have probably cost me more than I paid for the battery... I suspect about 80% of the things we order from Amazon are delivered in boxes at least 50% larger than they need to be which just mean more plastic bubble wrap which we used to save for shipping our own packages but then realized we can never use as much as we end up with so it just gets trashed... probably throw away more plastic in the form of bubble wrap a week than we would have from plastic bags from 2 months of shopping.

I respectully disagree. let me add the disclosure that my information is from the NorthEast coast of the country so it might not be applicable to the rest of the states. Do you live in a small town. almost every large city especially on the East coast has transferred to single source recycling and truthfully even if they didn't how hard is it to throw a plastic bottle in a can after you finish? lol, I don't know a single soul who "sorts" their recyclables, we haven't sorted in almost 10 years now. Big manufacturing plants like Oil refineries have decreased their energy cost and consumption by average of 25% thanks to recycling. My job does it easily, we have two bins. one market bottles and paper the other trash. I think you are not giving people a lot of credit, it's not that difficult.

Next most of Amazons boxes are at least 30% recycled material. Actually we are working on a project called "dry strength" to make amazon boxes stronger when exposed to the elements. stronger pulp fibers means the boxes do not have to be as thick and less material is used. not only will that help with the amount of trash it could lead to lighter boxes which will cost less to ship.

A major retailer Raymour and Flannigan a leading furniture retailer recycles almost all of the packing stuff, in fact here is an advertising campaign they did last year touting that very thing




another local store has been taking that bubble wrap and making this.

you can't see the bottom to well but it says "this bag is made from 70% recycled bottles"

Sorry dude or dudette , just because you don't recycle does not mean it's not beneficial. it does help and it's so dog gone easy.

lol I have a plastic left knee, it's wonderful, currently we do 700,000 knee replacements here in the states. that number is projected to go up to over 3 million in about 30 years. they are even working on ways to recycle bottles into artificial knees. How absolutely cool is that.
6 million dollar man will drop down to 6 dollar man!!
(lol I'm a polymer scientist, the things I find cool are weird.)

 

[Minnie1976]

Here you go, money talks and Disney is concerned with the environment