Toronto bans plastic bags by the start of 2013

[chainrock]

Thanks. I raised that point and I know it's been discussed here before. The cloth bags are breeding grounds for bacteria and potential disease. If you launder them they last a couple weeks tops. Virtually all are made in China and we know all about their life long devotion to and respect for the environment. The world champions of environmental responsibility the Chinese are.

I think I'll go back to plastic. It supports the oil industry as well.

Contain lead and are known to be made in some countries by slave labour.

which makes the plastic bags...."ethical bags"

[styky]

Thanks. I raised that point and I know it's been discussed here before. The cloth bags are breeding grounds for bacteria and potential disease. If you launder them they last a couple weeks tops. Virtually all are made in China and we know all about their life long devotion to and respect for the environment. The world champions of environmental responsibility the Chinese are.

I think I'll go back to plastic. It supports the oil industry as well.

Contain lead and are known to be made in some countries by slave labour.

which makes the plastic bags...."ethical bags"

Many of the stores now use bags that are cornstarch based and biodegradable and they are not made by a child sitting in front of a sewing machine in a third world country.

[RedDog]

Thanks. I raised that point and I know it's been discussed here before. The cloth bags are breeding grounds for bacteria and potential disease. If you launder them they last a couple weeks tops. Virtually all are made in China and we know all about their life long devotion to and respect for the environment. The world champions of environmental responsibility the Chinese are.

I think I'll go back to plastic. It supports the oil industry as well.

Contain lead and are known to be made in some countries by slave labour.

which makes the plastic bags...."ethical bags"

Many of the stores now use bags that are cornstarch based and biodegradable and they are not made by a child sitting in front of a sewing machine in a third world country.

I threw out my Superstore "cloth" ones in the trash yesterday. Ironically they're now in the landfill and I'm running straight plastic. I'd be interested to know of these bags you refer to. Do specific retailers choose this option? National chains? Are they readily available? How does a layman identify them?

I want a product with no connection to manufacture outside of the North American continent which can be washed at least a dozen times without seeing daylight through and which can safely carry at least ten pounds a distance of one hundred yards.

[carfix2000ca]

Torontos garbage is trucked to within 5 miles of my inlaws. You can't drive by the giant landfill on 401 without almost puking.

[Edward Kennedy]

Torontos garbage is trucked to within 5 miles of my inlaws. You can't drive by the giant landfill on 401 without almost puking.

I wonder what is with all the lefturd hypocrisy of turd city enviro whackos. Instead of their grandstanding, why do not they build a recycling facility where their own garbage is used to create energy sources that can be used to heat their city like is done in European nations where even sewage sludge is burned.

Turd city dumps millions of gallons of untreated sewage into Lake Ontario throughout the year.

Lefturd enviros of turd city including council member dweebs are hypocrites and idiots, a part of the problem not of the solution.

[Kate Shaw]

My family shops at Wal-Mart in Syracuse and will save the plethora of extra bags they have and ship them to me gladly.

The seven last words of Canada: I WILL GET IT IN THE STATES.....

[The Gooch]

Torontos garbage is trucked to within 5 miles of my inlaws. You can't drive by the giant landfill on 401 without almost puking.

I wonder what is with all the lefturd hypocrisy of turd city enviro whackos. Instead of their grandstanding, why do not they build a recycling facility where their own garbage is used to create energy sources that can be used to heat their city like is done in European nations where even sewage sludge is burned.

Turd city dumps millions of gallons of untreated sewage into Lake Ontario throughout the year.

Lefturd enviros of turd city including council member dweebs are hypocrites and idiots, a part of the problem not of the solution.

I never ceases to amaze me that the lefties think they are so progressive yet seem to want to regulate/ban everything which is in complete opposite of what they claim to stand for. The solution for the bags and our garbage is to invest in technology. It exists, yet I guess it takes money out of some powerful "interest groups" pockets.

[The Islander]

I never ceases to amaze me that the lefties think they are so progressive yet seem to want to regulate/ban everything which is in complete opposite of what they claim to stand for. The solution for the bags and our garbage is to invest in technology. It exists, yet I guess it takes money out of some powerful "interest groups" pockets.

That's the same group that wants to power up their toys at will and yet are unwilling to develop their own energy sources such as garbage incineration, nuclear plants, or even pipelines bringing in energy to their community. Then they will get all excited about only consuming veggies grown within their "100 mile diet" radius. Hypocrites!!

[backhoe]

A final word on plastic bags? When the stores bagged your goods in paper bags, we reused them- trashcan liners, carrying other things. Now that virtually all stores give you plastic bags? Same thing- the three small trash cans in the baths here are lined with plastic bags. In addition I have one hanging in five other locations for trash. They are useful.

The bigger stores here will sell you a cloth bag- I can't say about the origin or germiness of them but almost nobody seems to buy them- why pay for something that is free advertising for the store when they give you plastic bags by default?

[RedDog]

A final word on plastic bags? When the stores bagged your goods in paper bags, we reused them- trashcan liners, carrying other things. Now that virtually all stores give you plastic bags? Same thing- the three small trash cans in the baths here are lined with plastic bags. In addition I have one hanging in five other locations for trash. They are useful.

The bigger stores here will sell you a cloth bag- I can't say about the origin or germiness of them but almost nobody seems to buy them- why pay for something that is free advertising for the store when they give you plastic bags by default?

What happens at job 2 - and most every place else is that the store's cloth or nylon versions (now featuring bright spring and summer graphics no one can resist) are offered right at the tills as an impulse buy like gum or candy bars. I've had people actually buy them on the spot and have their other purchases put in the new bag with the tag still on it. It's an instant additional couple bucks for the retailer on a imported Chinese item that likely cost them 5¢, the customer gushing all the way home about their environmental responsibility with little regard to the environment in China.

By the way, with July 1st approaching I noted leaving last night at the Canada Day display that the Canadian flags for sale are made in China. As a point of interest when I got home I checked and found that the US flag folded at the ready on my bookshelf was made in Raleigh, North Carolina.

[The Gooch]

This is a sort of an aside issue, but ever notice how long the line-ups are now getting in the grocery stores? Bagging your own increases the time to process each customer. I wouldn't be surprised if the grocery stores now has to hire extra staff to deal with the slower process times. Increased cost of business will likely end up in increased food prices, or increased self check-outs which work for bar code items assuming there are no pricing problems, but could be a real pain if you are dealing with fruits and veggies or have a problem with the prices of a product.

[RedDog]

This is a sort of an aside issue, but ever notice how long the line-ups are now getting in the grocery stores? Bagging your own increases the time to process each customer. I wouldn't be surprised if the grocery stores now has to hire extra staff to deal with the slower process times. Increased cost of business will likely end up in increased food prices, or increased self check-outs which work for bar code items assuming there are no pricing problems, but could be a real pain if you are dealing with fruits and veggies or have a problem with the prices of a product.

We have a unique situation here. The exploding economy being what it is means they cannot get staff (they obviously aren't paying enough is my thought). Then they removed the self checkout units (for reasons unknown to me) so you only deal with a severe shortage of cashiers with the long lines you refer to. It upsets everyone when there are 5 of 22 tills open all lined up to the Rockies. Upon closing at 10 pm (after PA warnings every five minutes the last 15 minutes of business) there are still people going through tills at nearly 10:30. This results in parents of high schooler staff sitting at the curb outside violating the idling bylaw for 20 minutes.

There's a job board at both front entrances showing employment availabilities in 12 departments. As a part time gig goes, I can have whatever shifts I want.

[richardson]

I wonder if the city council has ever stated what they think the limits of their powers to ban legal things might be. Not so much what they think the public would bear, but where they might think "hey, that's none of our business."

[Kate Shaw]

This is a sort of an aside issue, but ever notice how long the line-ups are now getting in the grocery stores? Bagging your own increases the time to process each customer. I wouldn't be surprised if the grocery stores now has to hire extra staff to deal with the slower process times. Increased cost of business will likely end up in increased food prices, or increased self check-outs which work for bar code items assuming there are no pricing problems, but could be a real pain if you are dealing with fruits and veggies or have a problem with the prices of a product.

We have a unique situation here. The exploding economy being what it is means they cannot get staff (they obviously aren't paying enough is my thought). Then they removed the self checkout units (for reasons unknown to me) so you only deal with a severe shortage of cashiers with the long lines you refer to. It upsets everyone when there are 5 of 22 tills open all lined up to the Rockies. Upon closing at 10 pm (after PA warnings every five minutes the last 15 minutes of business) there are still people going through tills at nearly 10:30. This results in parents of high schooler staff sitting at the curb outside violating the idling bylaw for 20 minutes.

There's a job board at both front entrances showing employment availabilities in 12 departments. As a part time gig goes, I can have whatever shifts I want.

The problem we seem to have at my Loblaw's store is that at least once in every checkout, there is a missing price. Then the line backs up clear to Michigan while the helpless clerk continues to call in vain for some humanoid to come and go look on the shelf for the price and run back to her with the answer. [The problem of no carts up front was solved by an extremely aggressive manager who pages twice and then physically goes and fetches the lout she has been calling and yells at him, "Didn't you hear me paging you? GO AND GET SOME CARTS!" so all the customers know who was at fault.

[RedDog]

This is a sort of an aside issue, but ever notice how long the line-ups are now getting in the grocery stores? Bagging your own increases the time to process each customer. I wouldn't be surprised if the grocery stores now has to hire extra staff to deal with the slower process times. Increased cost of business will likely end up in increased food prices, or increased self check-outs which work for bar code items assuming there are no pricing problems, but could be a real pain if you are dealing with fruits and veggies or have a problem with the prices of a product.

We have a unique situation here. The exploding economy being what it is means they cannot get staff (they obviously aren't paying enough is my thought). Then they removed the self checkout units (for reasons unknown to me) so you only deal with a severe shortage of cashiers with the long lines you refer to. It upsets everyone when there are 5 of 22 tills open all lined up to the Rockies. Upon closing at 10 pm (after PA warnings every five minutes the last 15 minutes of business) there are still people going through tills at nearly 10:30. This results in parents of high schooler staff sitting at the curb outside violating the idling bylaw for 20 minutes.

There's a job board at both front entrances showing employment availabilities in 12 departments. As a part time gig goes, I can have whatever shifts I want.

The problem we seem to have at my Loblaw's store is that at least once in every checkout, there is a missing price. Then the line backs up clear to Michigan while the helpless clerk continues to call in vain for some humanoid to come and go look on the shelf for the price and run back to her with the answer. [The problem of no carts up front was solved by an extremely aggressive manager who pages twice and then physically goes and fetches the lout she has been calling and yells at him, "Didn't you hear me paging you? GO AND GET SOME CARTS!" so all the customers know who was at fault.

Oh yes and don't forget to factor in the liar component. The ones part way through the order who insist the item is $11. and not the $18. it scanned at. You halt everything, call a CSM and wait for them to arrive and then to wander off around the curvature of the earth to check, all the while that till effectively down in mid order. They will return to indicate that indeed $18. is the correct price so buddy storms off to "check" because he doesn't believe this "b*llsh*t" and never returns for ANY of his items - his fraud attempt caught. Now a CSM has to be called again to void the entire thing. 12 minutes shot with a till out of service and don't forget that all of those items now have to be zoned - returned to their correct location by paid labour that factors in to the price of everything.

They call out (beg) for any available till trained staff to the front all the time. That is you have access to any till in the store and your pass code to log on. I've gone up to the war zone to help a few times and the chaos is incredible while the liar/fraud factor is astonishing. You get to where you don't believe a word anyone says. Claiming $26. Blu-Rays (with the tag mysteriously removed) came from the $5. DVD bin is a popular attempt.