I went to buy FE items for our cruise...

[we"reofftoneverland]

Another simple pleasure taken away by activists.

 

[TiggerBouncy]

All I know is, when I shop at Home Depot, I'm not charged for bags (plastic). Same for JC Penney (when we had one). But, when I shop at, say a grocery store, they charge for bags. All bags, plastic or paper.

I'm not saying it's the store that gets the extra money, but, I'm not sure Wisconsin (where OP is from) has the same rules on that.

Here in Maryland for some counties, it's a straight up law for every retail store. The law is very simple it reads in it's entirety:
"All retail establishments in Montgomery County who provide customers a plastic or paper carryout bag at the point of sale are required to charge 5 cents per bag.

The revenues from this charge are deposited into the County’s Water Quality Protection Charge (WQPC) fund. The revenues help to shift the burden of litter cleanup costs from public taxpayers to consumers who have a choice to avoid the 5-cent charge by bringing reusable bags."

 

[Quellman]

I like getting a couple of pennies off for each reusable bag that I bring into the store. Rewards good behavior.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I truly wasn't a fan of the plastic bag ban when it first became law where I lived. I was a big fan of Target's plastic bags in particular and would reuse those quite frequently for lining garbage cans. Having lived with these changes for several years now, we've adapted and I can honestly say it's not that much of a hassle and for cases where we forgot to bring our own bag or was otherwise inconvenient, we'll just buy a bag. I actually do like the Disney cloth bags that they sell and have reused them as gift bags.

As for environmental impact of plastic, there's lots of things out there, but just today I saw an article about a dead sperm whale that was found with 13 pounds of plastic waste in the animal's stomach containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, 2 flip-flops, a nylon sack and more than 1,000 other assorted pieces of plastic. https://m.sfgate.com/news/science/a...115-plastic-cups-2-flip-flops-in-13407710.php

Sad stuff. That whale was found in Indonesia, one of the great contributors to the plastic island in the Pacific.

 

[littledebbie335]

Here in Maryland for some counties, it's a straight up law for every retail store. The law is very simple it reads in it's entirety:
"All retail establishments in Montgomery County who provide customers a plastic or paper carryout bag at the point of sale are required to charge 5 cents per bag.

The revenues from this charge are deposited into the County’s Water Quality Protection Charge (WQPC) fund. The revenues help to shift the burden of litter cleanup costs from public taxpayers to consumers who have a choice to avoid the 5-cent charge by bringing reusable bags."

Yep, that's where I used to live! I think it's a great program and wish it would spread to more of Maryland, especially given how important the health of the bay is for the state's economy.

I think when you live close to the ocean or a major waterway, it becomes incredibly evident how damaging every single piece of plastic is to the environment, even if it seems small in the grand scheme of things. Nothing like seeing a bunch of chip bags, gatorade bottles, and other miscellaneous plastic flotsam and jetsam bobbling around the Inner Harbor in Baltimore to make you feel bad for all the creatures trying to live there. Long live Mr. Trash Wheel! (Look him up if you've never heard of him; it'll bring a smile to your face!)

 

[Dznypal]

we were also surprised when we were at the Disney outlet in WI it has to be the same one the OP was at

we bought several pieces of clothing and some breakable things we were so surprised when the CM went into the bag speech--

and handed us all our stuff--so now when we go to the parks in the end of Jan I guess we have to make sure to bring bags to the parks in case

we buy something--how do you even know how much or how big of things your going to buy--so now we have to bring empty bags into the parks

just in case also if you forget to bring enough bags and end up buying one cause you need it--how many bags are you going to buy before those end up getting thrown out also

 

[Macprincess]

This happened to me at my local shopping mall just this weekend. I was caught off guard and admittedly pretty peeved that I was spending hundreds of dollars on Christmas gifts and they were going to charge me 10 cents a paper bag. It seemed pretty petty that the store didn't just give their paying customers the paper bags. I'm all for companies looking out for the environment but it shouldn't be at the guest expense. I was not forewarned about this while shopping. It wasn't until I got to the register that I got the whole speech about the bags. It was very annoying and I let the manager know how I felt about it. It wasn't the 10 cents per bag so much as the principle of not really having a choice unless I wanted to try and juggle several items around the mall.

I'm big on recycling, try to avoid straws, walk or ride our bikes instead of driving when we can, and take my own bags to the market. This however annoyed me because I was not prepared or had ever heard of a store doing this before in my area of Florida. No, I was not prepared to walk around the mall with several items not in a bag! I didn't like the fact that if I wanted to spend money on items in their store that I had to BUY A BAG!

I do recall in my childhood when no stores had plastic bags and every store had paper bags. At some point it dawned on the stores that it was less expensive for them to put their sold items in plastic bags so most switched. Now we have learned that it is better for the environment to go back to paper so why aren't the stores paying for the paper bags they have. I wouldn't even mind if perhaps they offered a cloth reusable one for sale if the consumer chooses to buy it. Odds are I probably would buy the reusable bag if given a choice. What I am opposed to is really having no choice in the matter and basically having to absorb what should be their cost. I would be happy to start bringing bags to my local mall from this point forward, but to be forced to without any warning ahead of time was in my opinion, underhanded. It bothered me and the people I was shopping with so much that we spoke about it at length after leaving the store. I also brought it up at dinner that night and the six people I was dining with were also surprised to hear about this.

I also do not wish to go on vacation and have to bring yet another item with me into the parks. Heck, Disney can use the money they now charge me to park my car in their hotel parking lots to pay for either a paper bag or reusable cloth bag and still be making a hefty profit!

 

[we"reofftoneverland]

The irrationality of this trend is mind boggling. It was hard for me to contain my laughter when the disney store employee at our local mall told me I had to buy some 99 cent synthetic bag for the large plastic zerg I just purchased in order to help the environment. All I could think was I give it a year. I've heard this before. So ridiculous. So disney can't give me a plastic bag but will sell me endless amounts of plastic junk and sell me what amounts to a plastic bag parading as a cloth one.

 

[hcox31]

We've been bringing our own bags and shopping totes to the grocery store and other stores for years here. We don't even think twice anymore. We get charged 5c per plastic bag in most stores if we don't bring our own. Most people walk over a nickel on the ground these days so paying 5c for a bag is negligible IMO.

 

[Princess_Iliana_of_Avalor]

Here in SoCal, we've had the plastic bag "ban" for a while. It really isn't too big of a deal, especially since it is to help the environment. All we have to do is remember to bring the bags with us, and if we forget it and really need it, then we pay for it and move on. There are worse things in life than having to pay for a reusable bag lol...
Plus, these bags are great gift bags!

 

[phinz]

There's one big plus to having to use reusable bags in the parks instead of the traditional Disney Parks bag. Your sunscreen won't dissolve the ink on the outside of the bag and get it all over you, your clothes and everything else. We always turn our bags inside out as soon as we leave the store to avoid this exact problem. We won't have to do this with a reusable bag.

 

[KashasMom]

I truly wasn't a fan of the plastic bag ban when it first became law where I lived. I was a big fan of Target's plastic bags in particular and would reuse those quite frequently for lining garbage cans. Having lived with these changes for several years now, we've adapted and I can honestly say it's not that much of a hassle and for cases where we forgot to bring our own bag or was otherwise inconvenient, we'll just buy a bag. I actually do like the Disney cloth bags that they sell and have reused them as gift bags.

As for environmental impact of plastic, there's lots of things out there, but just today I saw an article about a dead sperm whale that was found with 13 pounds of plastic waste in the animal's stomach containing 115 plastic cups, four plastic bottles, 25 plastic bags, 2 flip-flops, a nylon sack and more than 1,000 other assorted pieces of plastic. https://m.sfgate.com/news/science/a...115-plastic-cups-2-flip-flops-in-13407710.php

I'm with you. I saw this article and there are many others like it - about sea animals and their threat to survive. I'm tired of those who believe nothing we do matters. That's a lazy excuse.

I lived less than a mile from the beach mentioned in the following article - and the clean-up and what followed with the turtles shows that we CAN make a difference. However, it would have been easier to educate and ban plastic, etc. in the first place than have to undergo such a major cleanup (13m kg!). https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...oes-from-dump-to-turtle-hatchery-in-two-years

 

[kiford]

Very few places here provide bags free of charge. It started with grocery stores, then drug stores, then Walmart, book stores, etc. etc. I mostly order online now other than groceries so it doesn't impact me too much. I have a bunch or reusable bags in my trunk but I have to actively remember to get them out if I do go to a store because it's more than likely that they will charge for a cheap plastic bag that will rip before I get it home.