On Avoiding Plastic Produce bags

Big Box stores and grocery chains liberally hand out polythene bags at the billing counter. Plastic bags have become so cheap to produce, that stores no longer consider them an overhead. The 80's and 90's shopper stopped taking totes to the store, and was asked to choose between paper or plastic. (Most of them seem to have gone for plastic. (not that paper would have made sense).

In the late 60's and the early 70's, invention of plastic was said to be a great boon for mankind. Extensive and short sighted choices made over the last few decades have ended up as a decent sized plastic patch floating around in the ocean(s). We hear a lot about the Great Garbage patches in the oceans. Pacific plastic patch is just one of them and has only grown over the last few year.

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Shoppers never seem to stop and think if they really need to pack fruits and vegetables- first in a flimsy 9 micron bag at the produce section

and then bag it at the billing counter in another 9 or 20 micron bag.

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Sheer waste of resource and such a heavy penalty on the environment. Avoiding those two bags may not seem to make a difference, but spreading the thought definitely helps - exponentially speaking.