But a little more into the topic,

paper is decomposible but plastic uses less energy to make, it all depends on what you are more concerned about

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It's so typical. I have 2 reusable shopping bags made from rafia (not the plastic kind) wich was very normal thing to have here in Spain (where I live) untill few years ago. I take them everytime I go shopping but cashiers keep trying to put my stuff in plastic bags beffore i manage to put them in my own bags. There's a lot of publicity here about using reutilisable bags and even discounts for people who doesn't take plastic ones but then you go to suppermarket and you find this.
Everytime I tell the cashiere I don't need them and everytime she looks at me as if thinking "stupid girl"...

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I am trying my best, by not using plastic or paper bags when i shop, I bring my own bag, what is interesting I remember when I was in Germany in 1990, they were enforcing B.Y.O.B., if you did not, you were own your own.Recently i went to a retail store, telling a young cashier I woant to purchase a bag for a buck, she charged me, but she still used the plastic, I told her I wanted the cloth bag, that I purchased, and she looked at me weird, and say she could not. I really think they need to enforce employees why recycling is important and follow guidelines, Repetition is the best.

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Hi,
Great post! It’s a pity that people don’t realize the importance of this information. Thanks for posing it.


gingko

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I know this is a bit off topic, but ties in with the previous message about telephone books. Last week, I got tired of the phone books taking up room in my minimalist surroundings. On
the chance that I could actually do something about it, I went to the AT&T website--personal/home phone section--and e-mailed a request for information on how I could stop delivery.
Within 24 hours, a rep e-mailed back that she had forwarded the order to stop delivery to the correct department.

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Some people are campaigning to reduce the no.of phonebooks in circulation. Ive noticed that our Thompson Local Directory now has unsold advertising space filled with nonsense.Wouldnt it be great if some of that dead space could be used to advise people how to do useful things like recycle waste/save money? What gets recycled is a function of what people know they can recycle. Wasting space in a chunky phonebook is...a waste :-)

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This gives a good overview of the issue of disposing of trash and what could be done: http://businesspublicpolicy.com/?p=90.

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Suzanne P, I live in Switzerland and here we have specific plastic bags that you buy at the store that are only to be used for trash. they have a tax incorporated in them and cost clearly more than regular bags. trash cannot be disposed of in regular bags. I think that has people be a bit more aware of what and how much they throw out. are you in the states? I used to live in LA and at the time wasn't aware so much of how inefficient and irresponsible the local way of dealing with trash disposal really is. I wasn't getting any incentive to not be wasting and throwing out anything I wanted, as much as I wanted, in whatever I wanted. Unfortunately, at the time I was myself very irresponsible and didn't care and I am afraid to say I was quite representative of the mainstream household there. I don't know how it is handled in other cities but I think it can't be the solution to just let people trash whatever way they feel like. I'll do some research on trash disposal policies and will try to get back to you with advice, hopefully.

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Good point Suzanne,

Recycling, Freecycle, and composting everything posibble leaves very little to toss out into the land fills. Keeping a few disposable bags on hand from days the reusables are left at home is always an option, even better if the bag was used several times before or claiming them from a friend or family member who is about to toss some out. It would be a shame to counteract the benefits of reusable totes by purchasing trash bags.

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I realize that a reusable bag is important and the way to go and do so intermittently, but i also need some sort of bag for trash. I feel paper is far greener, so use the paper bag i get from the store as my trash bag. It then delivers 2 uses.
I wonder what people who are using reusable bags are using for trash?

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