We sell salad mix in plastic ziplocks, which I would love to get away from, but as mentioned above, it is not cost effective (the product does not last or remain sanitary) in any other packaging. That doesn’t mean we won’t continue to seek other options!

Our customers have been trained to bring us bags of all their one-use plastic grocery bags. In over ten years of business, we have never purchased any type of shopping bags for customers, and exclusively use recycled shopping bags. We get enough of these donations to also package all our wholesale produce for deliveries, in these second-hand plastic bags. Noone has ever complained about this or asked for a virgin bag.

I would not be surprised if we actually received the same bag back from a customer more than once.

Many of our customers, when they remember to bring it, shop with a beautiful large wicker basket, or a picnic basket, or large cloth or straw bags, like beach bags, that are reusable.

Thanks for these great ideas and discussion. I am definitely going to make some cloth bags to sell at our little market. Keep up the good work, Beth!

What gives? is it just a marketing ploy that these markets push out there so they can get in the news? Granted there are some farmers that do not supply plastic bags, but there are just too many that do not abide by the market rules. Either they hang them right in front of the stand or they have them hidden in boxes in back and just pass it out to customers when the managers aren’t looking .Also whats up with these plastic bags that have printed biodegradable on it? You can obviously tell that it is a plastic bag.

Sorry…..I am just tired of too many companies and organizations claiming to be green but not following through with what they pledge. I urge you Beth to follow up with this farmer market organization and other markets to see what is really going on before you put your good name and belief behind them. If you have time visit the Oakland farmers market on Friday morning and you will see what I am talking about.

Best of luck with your mission!!!!

Another thing I forgot to mention is that many of the smaller size paper bags out there are not made at all from recycled material but in fact mostly virgin material, The answer that I got from the paper bag manufacturer is that it is just cheaper to produce it from virgin material. The 40% post consumer paper bags are mainly used for the grocery size bags that we would see at a Whole Foods or Traders Joe. The smaller sizes can come with recycled content but of course only on request and a higher cost.

I am glad that we are seeing the Farmers Market make some change in this situation, but I think the bigger issue lies with the large supermarket and department stores. Why aren’t people demanding more of a change with them. Why can’t we just ban all bags like how Ikea or Costco does. Do we realize how much paper or other types of packaging is also wasted besides plastic bags? Do we realize how many trees or pollutants also go into the manufacturing of the bags? I just don’t see the environmental benefit from it.

I guess what I am trying to say is that we need to encourage the bigger stores to make a change. They are the ones that create the bigger impact on this earth not your local farmer market vendor.

I guess my biggest issue is how people assume that paper or compostable bags are bags are better. In fact they may be the same or worse. Perhaps not in the way that they are flying around everywhere, but maybe in the way they are made or transported.

We must remember one thing. Plastic bags do not magically appear in our oceans or our streets. It takes someone to put it there. With a little bit more education and a little bit more awareness on what we use and how we dispose of things we can make things much better.

Another thing I wonder is why can’t we promote more recycling of plastic bags? Many stores in my area offer a large bin right in front of the store for you to bring back your used plastic bags to be recycled. Increase that to the level of awareness of recycling paper then we will have a much greener earth.

I donated a whole stack of T-shirts recently but had the sentimental ones made into a quilt so I could still enjoy them even though I knew I’d never wear them because they were the wrong style for me.

Andy, I totally agree with you that we need to either ban or charge a tax for ALL single use bags. Customers need to start bringing their own. That’s just got to be the way it is. And in fact, the vendors at Temescal are trying to encourage customers to do just that.

As far as the thicker bags, it’s not an issue at the farmers market because ALL plastic bags are banned, not just the thin ones. And actually, very few farmers have switched to paper.

Not sure why SF didn’t ban all plastic bags. I wish they had.
.-= Beth Terry´s last blog ..Chewing on Plastic? Yum! =-.

The reduction of thin plastic bags have gone down greatly, but the use of paper bags and thicker plastic bags have gone up significantly. First off the law that San Francisco made, has a loop hole that allows the use of plastic bags that are made at least 2.25 mils thick. This in turns creates a bag that is essentially three times as thick as the normal plastic bag but still cheaper than compostable and paper bags. Secondly for the paper bag it requires only a 40% post consumer content, so that basically gives us a chance of 60% virgin material. As for compostable bags, his store opted out to not use them because the price is still higher then that of paper and the quality is not up to par to supermarket standards.

Other concerning issues he brought up in our conversation is that the regularity of shipment of paper bags has greatly increased for his store. The reasons that he gave me is because when his store used to use plastic they would have one shipment of plastic bags for every three months. Now with the switch to paper his shipments of bags are once every week. The reason being is because the paper bags are a lot heavier and bulkier then that of plastic, and they simply do not have the storage space and capability to handle the the amount of paper bags needed to run their store. Also an interesting note is that he pointed out is that many customers ask to double up on the paper bag because the handles from the manufacturer tears quite often. Doesn’t this create a significant increase in fuel and oil usage?

We also talked about charging a fee on the bags, but he said that is virtually impossible until all the stores in his area follow with the same rule. He would essentially lose too much customers over it to the competition that is not charging for a bag just a block down the road. Besides, the increase he said is already adjusted into the groceries we buy. A few penny increase here and there and most customers won’t know.

So I ask everyone here is the switch out of plastic to other materials essentially better for the environment? With the increase of trucking and handling for paper bags is that better for the environment? Compostable bags are not much better right now because there are too many companies that do not follow the correct labeling and standards that CA. have set forth, and many cities still have not developed a composting facility?

I guess all I am trying to say is that we are perhaps just attacking the easiest thing to get rid of but not thinking thoroughly about the consequences of what happens on the other end. We must get rid of all single use bags!!! All we are doing is allowing stores and vendors to switch to another material/commodity that are planet makes. It does not solve anything at all. The only true thing to do here is just bring your own bags. As long as stores will provide some type of plastic, paper, or compostable bag there will be always customers that will not learn to bring their own bag. I may sound harsh but i just think we should just ban it all or don’t ban anything at all. We will not learn what we have lost until it is no longer available. It may take some pain in the beginning but at the end it will be so much better.