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Comment by fy20 | Hacker News Reader

I have a cupboard full of bags at home I can reuse. It's right next to my door. Really easy to get to.

75% of the time I forget to take a bag to my car.

As well as all the single use bags (paper and plastic) I bought, I also have jute bags that I got years ago and are still holding up. I like them better as they are bigger and stronger.

Even if I managed to get a bag, the other 75% of the time I forget to take it into the shop and leave it in my car.

Even if I manage all of that, 25% of the time I will end up not having enough bags.

What I would like to see is some kind of deposit system with stronger bags (like my jute bags). Then when I actually remember I can bring them back to the store for someone else to use.

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The trick is to always have them where you will need them. I always have one or two in my backpack, in my car, in my luggage when I travel... Their size and weight is almost nothing and the only effort is putting them back after use. Which is where it occasionally fails, sure.

The trick is to not bother, just make sure your bag ends recycled not in the street or in the ocean.

Plastic bags are made of polypropylene, and are garbage.

Plastic for the most part is basically garbage, there are so many types that it’s hard to recycle it. PET and HDPE can be recycled fairly easily if they’re sorted, the rest aren’t really worth it (polypropylene, low density polyethylene, PVC).

The only thing that is almost always economically worth recycling is metal, which is separated from the paper/glass/plastic if you have single stream recycling. Plastic should be burned in a cement kiln or buried in a modern landfill, unless it’s well sorted HDPE or PET.

If you recycle then it's probably just going to a street or ocean somewhere else. Plastic recycling is more or less made up.

They could go into a furnace to get turned into heat, electricity and CO2.

In theory yes, in practice they will be "exported" to a thrid world country with limited processing capabilities and directly dumped into the ocean.

Reuse is significantly more effective than recycling. Bothering is something we should indeed do. Though yes, disposing of bags properly is also much superior to just throwing them on the floor.

If you use single stream recycling for this, then this is actively bad. Plastic bags clog the sorting machines, and then get thrown out because (even if labeled) they are usually contaminated.

Would it make sense to keep those bags in your car? Or in some of your pockets even ?

> 75% of the time I forget to take a bag to my car.

Then take a bunch in the other 25%. You can just leave them in the car.

Grab a bundle right now, or whenever you’re at home and remember, and put them next to your keys, your wallet, or hang them on the handle of your door.

> I like them better as they are bigger and stronger.

Sure, use whatever you like. Just don’t let perfect be in the way of good.

> Even if I managed to get a bag, the other 75% of the time I forget to take it into the shop and leave it in my car.

Then go back to your car! It will be mildly annoying the first two times, and the third time it won’t happen. I mentioned exactly that in my comment.

> Even if I manage all of that, 25% of the time I will end up not having enough bags.

Then start bringing more. This isn’t hard. Leave the extras in your car.

Or just use the cardboard box approach I mentioned.

None of your mentioned obstacles is insurmountable. On the contrary, they are all exceedingly trivial to overcome with the tiniest amount of will to do so.

> 75% of the time I forget to take a bag to my car.

I put our reusable ones on the floor in the entrance to the garage and then that reminds me to put them back in the trunk whenever I go to the car for whatever reason. Then I always have them while out.

I've sometimes left them in the car but just excuse myself at the checkout and go fetch them while the groceries are being rung up.

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