Why ask consumers to use cloth bags when the entire supermarket's products are packaged in plastic?

Question

This is something that occured to me. I was in the store and there were 'green' cloth bags for me to shop from... but everything in the supermarket was packed in plastic. Plastic everywhere! surely the companies, manufacturers and stores can also help out and search for options to go green? how will a few cloth bags help??

Answer 1

To irritate you.

Answer 2

Everyone has to do something, even a little thing. Cloth bags are better than plastic. Now we're bringing our own bags to the shops, let's work on getting plastic off the vegetables and reduce packaging in general - the UK has done a lot in this regard in the past year that has seen manufacturers and retailers significantly cut back on excess packaging.

A couple of ideas for consumers:

1) If food is packaged in quantities you don't want (e.g. 8 apples or 6 cans of soda), break the package and take out what you need

2) When you get to a check out counter - whether it's food or anything else - unwrap the product and tell the clerk you are buying the food/clothes/toy; you don't need the rest

If the store won't let you buy things that way, walk out!

They'll get the message soon enough...

Answer 3

Think about it. The packaging costs money. Would a company plastic-wrap a product if they didn't save money in the long run by doing so? The plastic is protective. It keeps wet things wet and dry things dry. It keeps people from handling the product, keeping the product clean. It reduces shoplifting. It limits spoilage. It takes up less space than bulk storage would. (Imagine the wine business with no bottles.)

If everything were sold in bulk, it would cut back on the use of petroleum but you would pay for it in the form of spoilage and the spread of disease.

Answer 4

saves plastic producing companires from polluting the air

Answer 5

You have a REALLY good point. I never thought of that ! I don't have a solution though.

Answer 6

umm, is this another  "they need to clean up their act first, then i'll think about it"?

someone has to start somewhere.

you might note that some markets have bulk bins, with no packaging.

but they tend to not be used much.

people just don't like eating foods that someone else has sneezed in.

don't get me wrong, reducing packaging is a good thing.

but not to the point where no-one wants to buy the product.

Answer 7

To even things out.  One pollutes when disposing, the other from producing.

Answer 8

I've had some questions about that also. In other parts of the world, they don't worry about all the plastic. The meat is hung out in the air with flies buzzing all over. Here, it's on foam tray's with saran wrap over the top. Ton's of garbage. What should we do? Accept food born illness, or co2 production? And the other thing. If everyone is bringing in their own cloth bag, and maybe they're buying something and maybe not....how do we know they're not shoplifting? In other words, I would expect the 'bring your own cloth bag trend' to increase shoplifting.

Answer 9

Well, unlike the plastic that covers individual products, plastic bags end up littering our Earth tremendously.  You see them floating around on the street, sometimes getting tangled up in trees.

The cloth bags are so terrific, can be used over and over again, and really have helped to cut down on the clutter in our house.