Trader Joes has never had plastic and they dont ask if you want reusables. You're thinking of Whole Foods.

Seattle is full of flimsy sacks. They are called voters and politicians. They'll still be there except for the locusts that are moving into Pierce and Snohomish County because they can't live with the Utopia they voted for in King. But they'll still vote that way after they move. And the beat goes on.

I haven't been keeping up with this too much but I still haven't seen anything about the biodegradable plastic shopping bags that are compostable in 10-45 days.p> Made of cornstarch, seems ok to me but haven't dug too deep into the research.

Meant to add link. http://www.buygreen.com/biobagshoppers.aspx

I take washable canvas bags.

Sorry about that, I asked my question the wrong way.p/> I was commenting about the alternative for the stores to be able to sell these. It seems as if the city decided that there were only two options, cloth or nothing.p/> If you or I order these, then yes they are not cost efficient. The demand for biobags would drive the price down.

That's the ticket! We're going to limit your choices, and you're going to like it!

Three observations: I stopped paper a few years ago (EXCEPT the occasional QFC with handles) simply because paper is no good for doggy dodo - or really anything else you want to wrap for the garbage. ..... But I do understand that plastic of a certain THICKNESS will still be OK - so whichever stores do that........

But my prediction is that in only a few months these cloth buyer owned bags will be seen as a health issue. Some are pretty skuzzy already and when they start oozing out on the grocery counters ...???

Just another PC nanny state idea never thought through.

Going to sit outside the Seattle stores and sell them for half price. Love you Seattle.

That is excellent CH! I hope you really do that.

that we did not want this ban on plastic bags?

One hundred million new plastic grocery bags require the total energy equivalent of approximately 8300 barrels of oil for extraction of the raw materials, through manufacturing, transport, use and curbside collection of the bags. Of that, 30 percent is oil and 23 percent is natural gas actually used in the bag-the rest is fuel used along the way. That sounds like a lot until you consider that the same number of paper grocery bags use five times that much total energy. A paper grocery bag isn't just made out of trees. Manufacturing 100 million paper bags with one-third post-consumer recycled content requires petroleum energy inputs equivalent to approximately 15,100 barrels of oil plus additional inputs from other energy sources including hydroelectric power, nuclear energy and wood waste.

Source: http://reason.org/news/show/1003006.html

So once again liberals are destroying the environment while claiming to save it. Idjits.

Yeah, It will use more energy to use paperbags, then the will raise the price for bags and probably add a syntax to it. I thought years ago why not make liners for the carts then throw the whole works in your car and bring the liner back next time u shop there.

silly Seattlites.