Plastic bag survey on the way

Have you adapted yet?   Have you finally gotten into the habit of bringing your own bags into the grocery store when you shop?

The Thurston County Solid Waste department wants to know and is taking a survey to determine how well the plastic bag ban is working.   Included in that survey are questions asking customers how their shopping habits have changed.

The survey also asks supermarkets how much money they’ve taken in from the sale of paper bags and what they’ve done with the money.

The survey is necessary to meet the requirements of the grant which funded the plastic bag ban in the first place.

What isn’t being asked is how the customer feels about the ban.   Do they really like not having the plastic bag?  Do they really like having to clean their own bags when they get home, after the milk has spilled in the bottom and the hamburger has leaked into the fabric?

How often do they wash the bag?  Can they even wash the  bag?  Where do they keep the bags to remember to bring them to the store when they get to the parking lot?

As the main shopper in my family – I’ve adapted.   I bring my own bags almost every time I go to the store – – which is fairly often.   I keep them in the back seat and usually remember to take them into the store when I go in.  Occasionally I have to go back and get them out of the backseat.

When I get home and empty out the bags, I immediately take them back out to the car.

I’ve found that having several bags is necessary and the best way to assure that you have a bag when you need it.  If you drive more than one car, you need bags for both cars.

I’ve also found that smaller bags are better.   The clerks often fill large bags so full that they are fairly heavy.

So, while the survey will ask a number of questions it won’t ask the big ones – –   what do I line my garbage can with and what do I use to pick up my dogs waste.

Even if California has just banned all plastic bags, I still think the ban is silly.

But everyone can adapt to silly – – even me.