Are reusable grocery bags made/shipped from China really missing the point to using reusable grocery bags?

Question

ok, so tonight I was at wal-mart and was going to buy some reusable grocery bags, then I thought I better see where these bags were made, b/c wal-mart loves China, sure enough, made in China. Question #1: Do any of these grocery stores have reusable bags that are made in the USA? answer choices: Albertson's, Ralph's, Von's, Whole Food, Trader Joe's? If you don't know the answer to this part then don't answer, but do give opinions/answers to the next part.

Second part, doesn't buying reusable grocery bags that are shipped from China, resulting in massive amounts of pollution being released in transit via gasoline use really just defeat the purpose? I mean, if you are using reusable grocery bags to help the environment, protect marine life/birds/animals, and to negate the petroleum that is used to make plastic bags, then isn't shipping the bags from China missing the point?

If Wal-Mart (and other retailers) are worried about the environment (vs. making money off the bags, and saving money by buying less plastic bags) then why wouldn't they be buying/shipping the bags from local (meaning US) companies?

Just so everyone knows I think reusable bags are great and really want to start using them, but I'm having a hard time getting past the fact that the bags are made in China and shipped to the US resulting in probably more pollution and evironmental damage than we'd be comfortable with. (Don't even get me started on the American job loss aspect). Thanks for your answers in advance.

Answer 1

Most of the cheaper reusable bags (the ones you can pick up for $1 or something similar) are made in china.  I pretty much quit looking after about 6 or 7 different stores.  

I just started buying canvas bags whenever I see them really cheap.  I know that World Market had them free when you made a purchase for a while so I got a few there.  I have collected about 4 or 5, which is not nearly enough for all my groceries, but it's getting there.

It does defeat the purpose when you buy those bags from china.  There is a really easy way to reduce your impact on the environment without spending any money and not using items made in China.  Simply ask for paper instead of plastic.  You can then either reuse or recycle the paper bags.  It's easy, free and it reduces your impact on the environment.

Answer 2

I am answering this from Australia, where we have similar issues. I have just looked at 5 of these bags in my  possession, and they don't appear to contain labels. Possibly country of origin was on the swing ticket only, back when the bags were new. It is quite likely the generic ones come from China.

I do know there are local manufacturers of such bags here, because they are also being increasingly used by the trendier stores for fashion goods, giftwares, books etc. They are attractive sturdy bags, come in many colours, can be printed specifically for the store, and provide futher advertising for them when being re-used.

The raw material for the bags might come from China, or not. I do not know.

Possibly  the trendy places pay more per bag, so can cover the costs of a local, high-wage, producer. Walmart or their equivalents here would be using a huge volume, possibly cheaper imported.

Value? well, the environment is a big place - it is everything around us. The push towards reusable bags did not come from the petro-chemical pollution angle, but from the land-fill/marine life angle. Plastic bags do not degrade, or so so very slowly, and contain potentially dangerous long-chain polymers.  When they find their way into waterways they can be fatal to aquatic wild life.

I think the petroleum used in transporting the reusables would be less, or at least balance, that used to make the plastic bags. It would be far less refined, so more natural, whereas the plastic is made from chemicals that vastly alter the molecular structure of the oil. This has a slight edge of being genetically dangerous over the mutations causable by pollution alone.

The plastic bags you use today are probably also made elsewhere - not so much China as maybe Thailand or Vietnam, today both large manufacturers of polyethelene plastic products.

Go for the "green" bags no matter where they are from. They do have an edge over the disposables in most aspects, and are much more solid and reusable for other tote purposes as well.