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Uploaded: Wednesday, September 23, 2009, 5:15 PM

Palo Alto launches reusable-bag campaign
After enacting a plastic-bag ban, city now looks to promote cloth totes over paper bags

by Royston Sim
Palo Alto Online Staff

Posted by Sarah, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 23, 2009 at 7:06 pm

Takes a little while to get used to reusable bags, but now I miss them when I enter a store without them.

Posted by Shopper, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 23, 2009 at 7:13 pm

I have shopped at different grocery stores and other types of stores with my reusable bags this week and I notice I get different types of service when my bags are not from the store I am using them in. My Costco bags are great for carrying lighter bulky items like toilet paper and cereal, but stores do not like filling them. My grocery store bags are fine at the store I bought them from, but other grocery stores cause comment and Target tell me that they sell reusable bags too.

Perhaps we should be buying reusable bags that do not advertise, after all we are paying for them, shouldn't they be paying us to advertise for them. I know some give us a discount, but will it soon be the case that we only get the discount if the bags are from that particular store and not any other store bag?

Posted by Sarah, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 23, 2009 at 7:18 pm

Stores would be foolish to play games like that. Many stores sell the reusable bags at cost (or even below cost), so pushing their own bags makes little sense. If you're getting poor customer service from an employee, then talk the store manager. There is probably a learning curve for employees as well as customers.

Posted by qq, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Sep 23, 2009 at 7:40 pm

Feel free to blot out the corporate logo on the bag with duct tape if it is making that much of an issue. lolz

qq

Posted by Monica, a resident of the Community Center neighborhood, on Sep 23, 2009 at 8:28 pm

The re-usable bag campaign is highly laudable, and I appreciate the sign at the entrance to Piazza's is great. I would add that it would be eminently useful to encourage customers who buy pre-made salads at the salad to re-use their plastic containers after they are washed; this could cut down on immeasurable waste. Managers at Piazza's, what do you think?

Posted by Shopper, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 23, 2009 at 8:41 pm

Yes, and perhaps bring in our old newspapers to wrap up the hot food like Fish & Chips in England!

Posted by been here, a resident of Menlo Park, on Sep 24, 2009 at 9:16 am

The green movement is going to cause society to bifurcate, with the wealthy being able to afford to remain middle class, owning homes, vehicles, appliances, pets, etc., all of which will soon be out of the reach of many, many people.

Enjoy this moment, a sweet spot before reality hits (could take a while, I admit).

Posted by Jody at Twelve Rivers, a resident of another community, on Sep 24, 2009 at 9:40 am

Sadly, the U.S. is far behind the rest of the world in embracing the reusable bag lifestyle. We'd like to see people choosing to make the change simply because they realize that they can make a difference in our community, and ultimately our world!

With the compact bag styles now available, having a reusable bag with you at all times is entirely feasible.

Web Link

Posted by A nearby resident, a resident of the Charleston Gardens neighborhood, on Sep 24, 2009 at 11:41 am

I go to this shopping center frequently, but didn't hear about this city sponsered and paid for by us tax payers event.

Is this going to happen every Wed.? I just came back from Piazza a couple hours ago and saw nothing about giving away free bags at taxpayers expense.

Was this set up by investors in Piazzs? Probably city officials to help their business. Albertsons was run out of town to cut down on competition for Piazzs and other super high priced groceries.

Posted by rhody, a resident of the Barron Park neighborhood, on Sep 27, 2009 at 12:26 pm

'Green' enthusiasts are overlooking something important. I do not have a garbage disposal, therefore need to line my kitchen and bathroom trash cans with some moisture resistant material, just like a plastic bag! So they are NOT single use. Further, if they are banned from store packaging, I will have to spend money to buy plastic bags that are killing the sea birds and littering the middle of the ocean. Face it, plastics are part of our lives. We need to find better ways to handle them in solid waste treatment, rather than banning a useful application of them.

Posted by Walter_E_Wallis, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on Sep 27, 2009 at 2:03 pm
Walter_E_Wallis is a member (registered user) of Palo Alto Online

When you start with the fraudulent assumption, that we are running out of landfill space, then everything that flows from that fraud is also fraudulent, and the attempts to rationalize become progressively sillier. We who laugh at silly superstitions and the unsupportable fantasies of Evangelical Christianity kowtow instead to Hansen's computer whose science approaches that of the Magic 8-Ball. The Emperor not only is nude, he is boneless and skinless, pure fillet of fool.

Posted by YSK, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 30, 2009 at 12:04 pm

Shop Mountain View. I will bring my own bag when I can, and of my own volition. Not because I was told to do so by people who feel they can tell me how to run my life.

By the way? Prius and other hybrid owners? Tell me something. When you are driving self righteously along the freeway in the fast lane doing 55 when the speed limit is 65, how many fluorocarbon's, particulate matter and CO2 does my Premium gas sucking V8 emit when I have to speed up to pass you? Just wondering....if you wanna be green, then either get with the flow of traffic or pull to the slower lanes.

Posted by Sasha, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Sep 30, 2009 at 10:48 pm

Web Link Simply Green Solutions helped Stanford Federal Credit Union provide reusable bags to their members and it seemed they were all given away. That means if they're all in the habit of using the bags, that's at least a handful of one-time-use plastic bags that aren't wasted or or sooner or later end up as trash - and do not biodegrade. Habits have to change or else the future will pay.

Posted by Resident, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Sep 30, 2009 at 11:25 pm

Habits will have to change. Those that are careless with their trash must learn not to litter. Those careless people are the ones to blame and they should be targeted, not the responsible people who are recycling, reusing and disposing in the correct manner.

I heard that there is somewhere in Australia that has banned the sale of plastic bottles of water. Now there must be a load of those littering our Baylands to, but no-one is suggesting banning those and they do not have useful reusable functions like plastic bags do.