Most grocery stores now discourage the use of plastic grocery bags in favor of reusable canvas totes. Apparently plastic bags require too much energy to produce, and are unsightly populating landfills. Stores like Whole Foods even give a 10-cent discount when we opt out of a plastic bag. Others like Aldi, don’t even have plastic bags to offer. Years ago many stores in East Asia already began charging for use of plastic bags.

While it is true that plastic bags are produced from natural gas and recycling them can cut down on crude oil usage, we need plastic bags. Aren’t those large garbage bags we use in the kitchen made out of plastic (polyethylene)? What about the black bags lying on sidewalks of NYC awaiting transport to the landfill?

Plastic grocery bags are perfect as trashcan liners. They are the right size to help isolate your garbage from within your large 13-gallon kitchen trash bags. It typically takes me an entire week to fill a 13-gallon bag with trash. Do I want my watermelon rinds, chicken bones, and avocado pits lying in my kitchen for a entire week? Hell no.

Small grocery bags are also great for cleaning up pet litter, especially in the park.

Indeed, it would be a sad day when all plastic grocery bags are gone.

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