The "waste" is negligible; doing some napkin math, a 20 minute car ride accounts for 300 times higher carbon footprint than a plastic produce bag (can elaborate if you want). A reused mesh bag is going to be less hygienic and less convenient, and factoring in the higher footprint of production and distribution (produce bags come in packs of thousands) you would need to get a lot of reuse out of it to even be worth it. Considering impact of disposal, as long as you live somewhere that has sane waste disposal and doesn't empty their trash into the ocean it's not going to be significant either.
People need to get some perspective on plastic waste. I've seen no end of complaints about how my 3d printing hobby is responsible for climate change... In my country, we produce >200 kg of plastic per capita. My 1kg spool of vegetable-derived plastic is not to blame for passing 3°.
The produce bag rolls at most stores around me are compostable now. They are also breathable and will keep the produce fresh longer when left in the bag.
Produce Manager here. Place the end that opens directly between your two palms, and rub your palms together vigorously. The bag will stick to one palm or both, opening every time. Please stop licking your fingers to open these bags and then picking through our vegetables. You're gross.
I use ones that are explicitly labelled with a black strip. My tactic for opening them is to put them between my lips and blow, which works pretty well but got really weird during the mandatory masking periods.
If you listen closely you can hear him whisper words of wisdom such as: "I've tried both ends five times now!", "I think this one must be defective!", or my personal favorite "I don't think these are the same brand they had out last week!"
Highlight of my life was shortly after I broke my arm, someone saw me struggling with one of these one-handed and opened it for me like the damn lockpicking lawyer. I've considered taking my sling with me shopping ever since, in case I need another good Samaritan to open one of these godforsaken bags again
Breath on your fingers like you're trying to fog up glass. Immediately open by running your fingers in opposite directions along the edge, using the additional friction you created.
Well I hope you're going to wash them anyway. There's already a bunch more worse shit than a bit of breath condensation from a guy standing a few feet away breathing onto his hands.
I heavily heavily sympathetize. I can't get the damn things open. I bought the reusable mesh bags because it is far less frustrating to use. Except when I forget to bring them...
But at that point I’ve already wandered the whole store and have touched any number of things that could have been manhandled by all the other finger-licking, unmasked hand-sneezing, butt-scratching, non-hand-washing straw men in the grocery store. One of those dudes is a septic tank cleaner, and he doesn’t wear gloves because he says he’s allergic! And soap burns when it gets into all the oozing sores on his hands.
There’s no way I’m licking my fingers until I’ve washed them or at least forgotten about my pus-leaking, poop-handed caricature!
Do you really think that way or are you just making a joke? Seems we humans went from making fun of Semmelweis to absolute germaphobes. Does no one get biology education anymore? Or is it more a failure to examine risk realistically? Freaks me out how fearful people are now days.
Always washed my hands regularly. Even as a toddler, I remember getting sticky ice cream on my hands and hating it. But I'm not manic about it, don't give a shit worrying about bacteria/viruses/fungi/prions/whatever. (Unless I've been into something obviously rotten. Ask me about the fungus I found at camp today. Not touching that with a 10' frog.)
Only time I really think about what I'm doing is after shooting or gunsmithing. Lots of nasty shit, above and beyond lead, you don't want to ingest. Because heavy metals are for life. Bacteria? I'll quote the retards from the pandemic, "i HaVe aN IMMunE sYsteM!"
LOVE your writing BTW! I should trawl your comments. (NM, just did. You're smart and express yourself perfectly. We should be friends. Your damned skin cancer post got me thinking about the tiny spot under my pec. Not sure it's healing, but at least it's smaller and not blackish any longer.)
Should probably mention I pick up the fruits and veggies with the bag like picking up dog doo, so I'm not licking my fingers and then touching food on the shelf. It shouldn't be an issue of licking dirty hands after work; you can wash them in a bathroom either coming into the store or before leaving your jobsite.
Put the opening "line" between your big hands and rub it; both hands goes along the "opening line", one hand moves one way, the other hand the other way for say some centimetres or an inch or two, change direction, repeat.
One of the best life tips I've ever gotten was from some random stranger as I desperately struggled with one of these things: Most times if you slide one edge up and one edge down it pops right open even with super dry skin. Not sure why this works when sliding the halves sideways does not but it dies!
Those bags are almost useless, just throw the vegetables directly in your grocery bag at checkout. It's nice to take one to isolate chicken from the rest, or to put on your bike seat for rainy days, but definitely not useful for veggies.
Man, this stuff is so embarrassing. There have been so many times, I've skipped on buying fruits just because I couldn't open the bag and my anxiety engaged into overdrive