France in the forefront

[marlingardener]

France has banned all disposable eating utensils and plates. No more styrofoam or paper plates, no more plastic forks, spoons and knives, and no other disposables. The ban goes into effect in 2020, but that's better than nothing and gives restaurants time to change over if they happened to use disposables.
Vive la France!
http://themindunleashed.org/2016/09...ives-plates-cups-to-save-the-environment.html

 

[Chuck]

Does France have take out food? I guess they better all buy a Swiss Army Knife if they do.

 

[MaryMary]

Good for them!!

I wish Ohio would do something like that. There are a lot people that come in the store once a week and buy a large amount of styrofoam glasses, paper plates, and plastic utensils. Four or five bags full. Mostly older people and younger men. Making conversation, I ask, "Having a party?" The answer I'm given is usually "No, I just hate doing dishes." And every time I have to fight the temptation to innocently say, "Oh. You must not have any kids (or) grandkids..."

In November, California is going to vote on whether or not to ban single-use plastic shopping bags. A state law was passed in 2014 banning the use of them, but has been delayed going into effect by the "American Progressive Bag Alliance."

 

[zigs]

Can't see what's wrong with paper plates, they can be recycled, as can wooden forks (make great plant lables)

But good on them for banning plastic stuff

Supermarkets in the uk charge 5p for single use bags, came in about a year ago. Since then at least one plastic bag manufacturer has gone bust, and there are now health concerns about reused bags being contaminated with bacteria.

 

[Esther Knapicius]

I always food shop with my cloth bags. Hate using plastic.

 

[Beth_B]

Given that the Great Lakes surrounding Michigan are the largest body of fresh water on the planet, you'd think this state would be better at recycling and managing plastics and other waste, but they are not. I recently heard on the news that plastic "microbeads" from synthetic fabrics being laundered, cosmetics and soaps etc are becoming a concern here.

It's really hard avoiding plastic, everything seems so over-packaged!

I try to "buy green", biodegradeable, organic, sulfite-free and so on when I can. It's a bit more expensive, but that's ok. I would hope most people who can afford it would pay a little extra for biodegradeable packaging and such but I fear most will not.

One awful side effect of the Flint "water crisis" is the alarming and visible litter of plastic water bottles. With many families going through dozens of cases of bottled water per week, empties are everywhere now. People happily go pick up their truckloads of free water, I see long lines at the distribution centers. They hand out big clear plastic bags for people to return empties in but I see few bags of empties sitting in the lots.

 

[zigs]

They're banning microbeads over here.

They've removed all the bottle, plastic and cardboard banks from the supermarket car parks here though, saying kerbside collection is enough to recycle everything.

That's fine if you've got a home, but where am I meant to recycle stuff now?

 

[marlingardener]

When we got off the plane after arriving in Texas, and picked up the rental car and drove down I-35, I thought a garbage truck had lost its load. No, that was just the way the roadside was--littered.
Then when we moved to Texas and I had to pick up various items from our front yard (mind you, this was a flower garden that people traveled to tour) I began to see the pattern--toss trash out your car window; walking down the sidewalk and finish your Big Gulp, just throw the cup on the ground.
Now that we are in the country, even with a well-traveled road within sight, the odd bottle or fast-food wrapper is just that--odd and infrequent. Perhaps depending on the land for your living helps you respect the land more.
The local stores know that I travel with my cloth bags, and don't even offer plastic ones to me, and even though the grocery offers thin plastic bags for produce, I don't use them (and since they have an over-active sprayer in the produce department I get home with a soppy bag!).
Zigs, see if you can use a neighbor's kerb, or make a deal with the local library or other public place. Those public bins are used as trash receptacles here--"recycle plastic bags here" doesn't mean plastic bags with trash in them!

 

[Beth_B]

They're banning microbeads over here.

They've removed all the bottle, plastic and cardboard banks from the supermarket car parks here though, saying kerbside collection is enough to recycle everything.

That's fine if you've got a home, but where am I meant to recycle stuff now?

I love the idea of supermarkets having recycling banks! In my township there is no curbside recycleable pick-up. In fact, apart from aluminum cans and certain types of soda bottles (Michigan pays 10 cents for each empty return) I honestly have no clue where I would take things to be recycled here. I'd love to see bins at the supermarket!

I don't often have empty cans, just the occasional Red Bull. What I do with those is keep them in my truck and set them next to the trash can when I get gas in the poor parts of town (usually cheaper.) There are always people going through the trash looking to make a buck or two.

Now y'all are making me feel bad for getting plastic bags for my groceries. With three dogs, that's what I use to pick up dog poop. I keep some in the vehicle for walks, and others in the mudroom for yard poop pickup.
I know. There are biodegradable dog poop bags available.

 

[MaryMary]

I've decided that I'm not buying paper gift bags anymore. I'm buying the reusable bags and giving gifts in them! They're sturdier and just as pretty, they just don't have "Happy Birthday!" or "Congratulations!" or whatever printed on them. (They even make "kid" bags, Minions, Avengers, Frozen, Finding Dory. etc.) I still have gift wrap, so things will be wrapped, but even then, into the bag it goes. That way friends and family will have them!


@zigs, they're banning them here, too.
@Beth_B , there is hope, but the wheels turn slow.

Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015

(Sec. 2) This bill amends the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ban rinse-off cosmetics that contain intentionally-added plastic microbeads beginning on January 1, 2018, and to ban manufacturing of these cosmetics beginning on July 1, 2017. These bans are delayed by one year for cosmetics that are over-the-counter drugs.
https://www.congress.gov/bill/114th-congress/house-bill/1321

 

[zigs]

Good idea Mary

This is all that's left at the supermarket now

The space where the Zigmobile is parked used to have 2 full sized container for bottles and cardboard, plus about 6 bins for plastic and tins. They used to be full to bursting in the summer weekends, so glod knows where all of that will go next tourist season

 

[marlingardener]

Beth, there is a special dispensation for dog owners to have and use plastic bags for picking up after their dogs. I checked with all the heads of major denominations, and they agreed that using plastic for poop scooping is forgivable.Keep up the good work!
Zigs, I can't believe how many bins you had, and now don't have. Tourist season may convince the market to put those bins out again, at least for the tourist season.

 

[zigs]

Some Dog owners here bag it up and hang it on fences/hedges and the latest place they've chosen is at the base of the cliff on the beach for some reason

Lets hope so MG, if the kerbside collection was working, the bins wouldn't have been full

 

[MaryMary]

Beth_B, I don't know what you are close to, but I found these.

Where Can I Recycle in Genesee County? The first page of this one is mostly cell phones and batteries, but the second one gets to newspapers, cardboard, and tin cans.

RECYCLING & REUSE FACILITIES IN GENESEE COUNTY This one looks different, but since none of the areas are familiar to me, they might just be in a different order!