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Ralphs drops paper bag handles, changes plastic bags
May 1st, 2009, 8:02 am · 31 Comments · posted by annieburris
Noticed anything different while shopping at Ralphs lately?
The grocer started eliminating handles on its paper bags in April, which is expected to save 142,000 pounds of paper weight a year.
At the same time, the store changed its white plastic bags, which only had up to 15 percent recycled material, to buff-colored bags that can have from 15 to 80 percent recycled material.
“We feel a strong sense of responsibility in helping the environment,” company spokeswoman Kendra Doyel said. “We do a lot of things that are big and small, but we have to do what we can to help the environment as much as possible.”
Are paper or plastic bags better for the environment? Doyel says the bags are about equal in respect to their impact, but to truly cut down on waste, she recommends using mesh or reusable bags when hauling groceries.
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Let’s just hope that Trader Joe’s does not follow this trend. I love their paper bags with handles (a perk for shopping in a great store anyway). They are easy to tote to your car and can be re-used (recycled) for various uses afterward.
I LIKED THE BAGS WITH HANDLES BECAUSE I’D RE-USE THEM AS GARBAGE LINERS
I agree I have been using plastic bags for years and they make perfect trash bags or emergency bags for uninvited guest that take food to go..
This is a thinly veiled Ralphs press release attempting to clothe very consumer unfriendly cost-saving measures in a green coat so people feel politically incorrect complaining. Both these new bags are terrible. How are you supposed to carry the paper ones without handles? The plastic ones are so thin that when bagging the groceries myself at u-scan I poked through three different bags in a row by accident with a packet of spaghetti. One of the bags ripped on the way to the car and spilled out my bottle of marinara sauce where it shattered all over the ground. I’m watching many customers ask for the paper bags inside of the plastic bags, which does no good at all as far as conservation. The only possible good thing for the environment with either of these bags is that more people might skip both as useless, and instead bring their own reusable canvas bags.
I just noticed the change. I hadn’t asked for paper bags in some time but I needed to stock up on trash bags. So now I’ll have to buy separate trash bags…How environmentally friendly is that? Why didn’t they just make them a tiny bit smaller instead of eliminating the most important part?
I now use the reusable bags. They hold alot more then the plastic or paper bags.
they hold a lot more THAN, not THEN
By the way, Mr. Nazi, I find it quite ironic that you are correcting the grammar – that’s right – GRAMMAR – of others, when you do not even know how to spell GRAMMAR correctly! You are quite the idiot indeed. In case you haven’t caught what I am trying to say here, you spelled grammar incorrectly! Loser!
This is a significant news headline?
No one but a corporate shill would say that plastic bags are no worse for the environment that paper bags. Paper is biodegradable, plastic takes years to begin decomposing, if ever. It’s all about profits, not about being good corporate citizens. “Buff” colored plastic bags cost less than white bags, and Ralphs is saving a few cents per hundred paper bags without handles. Too bad they can’t be honest about theoir decisions instead of trying to wrap profits with environmental do-goodism.
Bags without handles are awful! That means, effectively, you can only carry them from the bottom if they have any weighty contents.
While I attempt to use as few bags as possible, paper bags without handles are annoying and impractical for reuse (outside of school book covers). I take a box for my goods when shopping at Costco instead of their paper bags for this very reason.
Boo to Ralphs for the impracticality. While cutting down on waste, which I think is fantastic, they have taken the re-use out of the equation for me and my household. I’ll be opting for plastic from now on.
I love it that Ralph’s now credits you five cents for every reusable tote!
If you use Reusadle tote you can help the world by going green if you don’t want to have a nice place for your Kids keep Plastic that dose not go a way and it is killing the Earth and use to you see it ever day on the New about the planet so hepl it by going GREEN
THANK YOU
Baby67
That is why the Ralphs Fresh Fare is soooo expensive! I have been paying for new bags!
I use plastic every time, and I double and triple bag my groceries even when I don’t need to. Then, after I empty all my groceries, I take the used bags and deposit them down the nearest storm drain.
I do my part for the environment.
ENVIRONMENT MY ***!!!!!!!!! THEY ARE GOING BROKE, HELLO???
I liked the handles, how else am I too easily carry my grocery bag? Good thing, though, I have a tote, but of course, I almost always forget to bring it with me to the stores.
No handles? What’s next, no bottoms either?
Bummer. I also reuse the paper bags with handles. Its impossible to carry multiple paper bags at once with no handles. Now I’ll just ask for my paper bag to be put inside a plastic bag and reuse both.
Bad show, Ralphs. To save a statistically insignificant amount of paper, youv’e thoroughly inconvenienced me and caused me to switch to plastic bags. Which I dislike, because (1) they can’t be re-used as trash bags, and (2) they blow away in the wind and contribute to litter far more than biodegradable paper bags.
Find some other way to greenwash, tools.
Buy re-usable bags. They hold more than both paper and plastic bags and don’t blow away in the wind causing litter. Need trash bags? Buy some cheap ones at the dollar store.
You are advocating re-usable bags on one hand, but then you are saying to use cheap trash bags that will take hundreds of years to decompose in our landfills! I know it’s hard to be “green” in the OC, but evey little bit helps and by sending a little bit more you can get trash bags that will degrade in 2 yrs. I get them at Walgreens.
I found some VERY cool Angels reusable bags at http://www.columbiasportscard.com/Six-Pack-of-Los-Angeles-Angels-of-Anaheim-Reusable-Shopping-Grocery-Gift-Bags-40COPY41_p_12009.html
Those are all I use now. VERY COOL!
I am by no means a tree hugger or evironmentalist, but I really do like the re-usable bags for a few reasons.
They may hold a little stuff but not much.
My store is a block away and I like to walk there, carrying the grocery store plastic bags is painful by the time I get home the thin handles dig in and cut off circulation. The fabric re-usable bags are pretty soft with wider handles and easier to carry.
We use the re-usable bags for other things to, like packing stuff for the beach or going to the park.
Don’t take away my Hummer.
We don’t use the paper bags at groceries because they do not hold anything wet, such as some produce, milk and frozen foods that “sweat” moisture which causes the bags to fail. They also puncture easily. Paper bags also are less energy efficient to manufacture, require at least six times the storage space in warehousing and transportation (which means more trucks to ship the same number of bags=more pollution) and attract pests such as roaches in storage.
Now a days there is so much paper being recycled the scrap value has hit a new low. Some firms simply dump them in landfills because no one will buy the scrap.
We have looked at the reusable fabric bags and haven’t gone that route yet. How many do you need to bring into the store at any shopping trip is probably an acquired skill. Adding these bags to the laundry occasionally costs in water and electricity as well, albeit a small expense I’d guess. Still thinking that idea over.
Plastic bags do the opposite of what the paper ones do almost across the board. You can use them to line smaller wastebaskets, even in your bathroom. Wet items don’t leak out. We use them in the kitchen as well to hold other recyclable items (beverage bottles, cans,etc) before we drop the whole bag into our green bin for trash day, saves us from having two wastebaskets in the kitchen.
Also, due to state law, every grocery store has a recycle container where you can drop all your plastic bags, including bread packaging. Recycled plastic has more value than paper, although you don’t get rich off recycling anything. Plastics cannot be reused for food but they do end up in everything from park benches to ground cover in gardens.
Can you guess I’m in the packaging business? It’s true and we serve both industries, paper and plastic, no bias here. I like to say that only two products do not come in packaging of some sort; your automobile and your babies.
What is there to think about? I have a dozen or so re-usable bags-that amount usually works well to deal with groceries for a family of four. I put them back in my car after the groceries are put away. They don’t need laundering very often. I keep a fold up version in my purse so I am prepared when I am just picking up a few things. This has greatly reduced the number of plastic bags that wind up in my home. I use any I accidently acquire to pick up after the dog when out for a walk.
yes and those self service check outs are really reliable!
Looks like they’re going to start getting rid of all checkers soon and put those things in
I think F&E,Smart&Final have the strongest most durable bags!! 99 cent only store has the worst! They’re as thin as tissue.
Hurray for Ralphs!
Ten years ago, I used hundreds of plastic bags per year.
So far, this year, I’ve only needed to use about a dozen, only because I’d forgotten my re-usable bag.
Multiply my decrease in usage of plastic bags by the whole community, and it’s easy to see what a big impact these small changes have.
One of the primary reasons to use paper is to keep plastic out of landfills.
ANYTHING biodegradable is better then plastic.
Being that handles are more convenient, people don’t request paper and use plastic instead.
I have _never_ seen anyone use one of those ugly Ralphs re-usable bags. Removing handles on the paper bags in an effort to get people to buy them is hopeless.
I had a discussion with a Ralphs employee today and he was saying that people have been requesting everything to be bagged in paper then put a plastic bag over that just to have handles!!!
I personally use re-usable bags, but sometimes forget to put them back in the car or bag/backpack, so I need to use a paper bag from time to time, which I then use as a trash liner in the bathroom or bedroom.
Whoever is making these decisions on the corporate level should be fired.
To make matters worse, the ignorant morons bagging the groceries automatically start bagging with plastic.
People need to wake the **** up.
Paper bag without handles simply means put that paper bag inside a plastic bag. Does a handle cost less to the environment than one whole plastic bag?
I am sure Ralphs did the math and thought it through. No handles may discourage paper bag usage–Ralphs probably doesn’t want to pay for those fancy paper bags with handles. Sadly, that was one of the pluses for shopping at Ralphs.