Plastic Bags

BlisterLamb
BlisterLamb Posts: 396 Member
in Chit-Chat
Just a little rant.

With the exception of yours truly, all the adults in my household are possessed by a strange obsession. Like most mental illness, unless you have it, you really can’t understand it, so I’m baffled and less than compassionate when it comes to their bizarre need to hoard plastic grocery bags. I’ve searched online and cannot find a 12 Step program, or even a residential treatment facility. I would gladly enroll them in either one. But, alas, no. I just have to live with it.

When I go to the grocery store, I come home, empty the bags and then throw said bags into the garbage can. I’d like to be environmentally responsible and have reusable bags, but I know I would never have them when I needed them, or the number of them that I needed. I suppose I could carry a container of the plastic ones in the back of my car so that I would have them as needed. I may consider that. But that’s just me. And I’m not the crazy one.

We have two large cupboards, one above the other, that go floor to ceiling in my laundry room. The bottom cupboard has two, tall roomy shelves. And the bottom shelf has a sort of slide out floor. On this shelf, I keep a large crock pot, Caleb’s lunch box, and as a concession to those who live with me, an old, large iced tea box that is filled, neatly, with plastic shopping bags. If you need a bag, there ya go. I think there is sufficient supply in the iced tea box. But no one would ever know. Because, whenever you open the door to that cupboard, it explodes. From the bottom of the shelf, to the underside of the one above, it is crammed with shopping bags. They erupt into the opening, making it impossible to close the cupboard door. Every few weeks, there comes a day, this morning was just such a day, when, like Joan Crawford hurling wire hangers, I lose it completely and start flinging bags from the cupboard. I fill the garbage can with 3,487 plastic shopping bags, and my daughter’s sprouted potato collection, and my sanity is restored for a few weeks.

Until there is a cure, its all I can do.

Replies

  • _DaniD_
    _DaniD_ Posts: 2,186 Member
    When I go to the grocery store, I come home, empty the bags and then throw said bags into the garbage can.

    You what?!?

    double-take.gif


    To me it seems I am always running out of plastic grocery bags before I can reuse them again.
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    You could recycle them at least if you're not "able" to use re-usable bags?
  • vytamindi
    vytamindi Posts: 845 Member
    I have a cabinet of them stuffed, too. I wad 'em up so I can take them to the recycling bin outside the store (since my recycling program doesn't allow plastic bags), but I've never used those bins. I always forget to bring them, just like I forget to bring those reusable bags...

    Luckily, there's another teacher at work who uses them in her home economics class to make different crafts. Or something. I just give them to her.

    I only throw them away if I use them as a bag for cooking scraps or kitty litter.
  • Some_Watery_Tart
    Some_Watery_Tart Posts: 2,250 Member
    I, too, hoard plastic shopping bags. I use them when I send packages instead of peanuts or newspaper. I also use them as trash can liners from my little bathroom trash cans. They're great when the kids need a "disposable lunch bag" for a field trip. And don't even get me started on my little Pinterest problem that makes me afraid to throw anything away! Ha ha!

    I only have a few reuseable bags because I grocery shop for a household of 7. I'd need a separate cart just to tote around my totes. ;) However, most grocery stores have a recyling container near their entrance. You could always go throw them in there.
  • BlisterLamb
    BlisterLamb Posts: 396 Member
    We are supposed to be getting a recycling can from the waste management company soon. I am assuming that I can put them in there. I miss paper bags.
  • odusgolp
    odusgolp Posts: 10,477 Member
    I, too, hoard plastic shopping bags. I use them when I send packages instead of peanuts or newspaper. I also use them as trash can liners from my little bathroom trash cans. They're great when the kids need a "disposable lunch bag" for a field trip. And don't even get me started on my little Pinterest problem that makes me afraid to throw anything away! Ha ha!

    I only have a few reuseable bags because I grocery shop for a household of 7. I'd need a separate cart just to tote around my totes. ;) However, most grocery stores have a recyling container near their entrance. You could always go throw them in there.


    LOL, My friend recently went to clean out her son's basement (he's disabled) and found a garbage bag FULL of the cardboard toilet paper things. He said he saw an idea on Pinterest and thought he'd start saving them :)

    I totally feel your addiction. Love that damn site.
  • JaneDough_
    JaneDough_ Posts: 301 Member
    You should read "Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things" by William McDonough
  • carlielove
    carlielove Posts: 43 Member
    Lol my family does the same thing! We have an entire cupboard dedicated to plastic bags, and as if that wasn't sufficient, they keep shoving more in there!
  • coliema
    coliema Posts: 7,646 Member
    We are supposed to be getting a recycling can from the waste management company soon. I am assuming that I can put them in there. I miss paper bags.
    Do you not have the option of paper bags anymore? We still have them here.

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