Canada bans plastic bags.

I've already converted to the reuseable ones (which are replaced for free if they rip) & haven't missed a beat in my food shopping routine. It feels good to do my part wherever I can, whether big or small because it all adds up.

This is great news!

It is a shame that some American politicians like ron paul don't believe in global warming and are slowing our country's progress toward ending the climate crisis.

Here is one of many times he has denied Global Warming - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUm1aVwRnC0&feature=...

http://current.com/items/89060217_breaking_news_ron_pau...

woo hoo. way to go canada! plastic bags have been outlawed (for the most part) in san francisco and you are even give a "bag credit" at grocery stores for bringing your own bags.

this has also been done in San Francisco, but small businesses are still allowed to use plastic bags as well as styrofoam. This needs to be banned nationwide, just like in Canada.

LET'S STEP ON IT AMERICA!

I also propose that paper bags be banned as well. Just make bringing your own bag mandatory, or buy canvas bags at the store. Before you know it, not bringing your bags with you to the store will be as unthinkable as getting in the car without your keys.

it's the right thing to do!

Inspiring to see a whole nation taking part in helping the earth, if only that kind of togetherness existed here in the US.

I'v noticed a lot of stores are starting to sell these reusable bags. Including Home Depot - my family actually got one for our grocery shopping. Here there has always been a chain of supermarkets called No-Frills (don't know if it's Canada only) that has never offered plastic bags. Instead they give you the cardboard boxes that all their products are shipped in.

The reusable canvas bags are *nice* when they're used over in the states but they really don't help matters when one considers the shear amount of plastic bags produced nonetheless. It'd be nice to see the US shift to 100% reusable bags but we'd also be the first to shout bloody murder when "jobs are lost" due to the closing of bag factories and what not.

There are similar stores in the u.s., ipodrulz... one here is named Save-A-Lot, another Aldi's.

Just in the last year I've seen the reusable bags go from being offered in one store here in my town to being offered in almost all of them. Prices range from 1-3 dollars per bag. I probably have a dozen of them now! I forget once in a while, but it's becoming a habit to bring them.

North America is sadly well behind europe where plastic bags have been replaced for years.
I believe bag boys are to blame for america's slowness to act on this issue.

Great stuff - pity everything that goes into the new reusable bag is packaged in plastic.

Whoopee.... now all they need to do is ban tar sand excavation that more than makes up for announcing this. Their government is not even considering a carbon tax so the CO2 will continue to roll in Canada regardless.

I try to be environmentally friendly, but i can't see reusable bags as useful...

At all the stores I go to, they're like $20, and very weak. So I can't afford enough of them to get all that I need home. I can't return to the store, because gas is WAY too expensive for that... so i'm pretty dependant on plastic bags.

I feel bad about it.. but there's not much that i can really do. I can't go spend 2-3 hundred on bags. You can see my dilemma.

its things like this that will really turn around where we're headed evironmentally and polution-wise. and if jobs are lost then the country can create jobs involving wind, solar energy etc. or if they really miss their bags why don't they just get a job making non-plastic bags?

i usually opt for my backpack for groceries, but i wrap cold/wet things up in plastic bags. I use them to clean up messes and have a trash bag all in one, especially animal messes. I think it is great that an entire country can ban something harmful to the environment, but there are practicalities for plastic bags & as long as they are disposed of properly or recycled back at the supermarket there shouldn't be a problem... and yet, it exists.

overall: A wonderful step in the right direction.

An alternative is always the bio-degradable grown plastic which keeps the sanitary effect provided by plastics for some time, but allows them to bio-degrade without harmful remainders which might run-off in only a few monthes, if composted.

This is a little fascist, but ok.

It is great to see a nation taking responsibility for it's greater role on the planet!

I love my reuseables. They fold up with a snap and hold more items than a plastic. I really like knowing my wine is safe and not going to crash out in the parking lot, like with the flimsy plastic bags. Has anyone seen the 2x Texas size plastic island in the pacific. I hear that plastic sand floats up to Oahu once a year. Gross, I just need to find dishsoap in a glass bottle and I'll be set!

This is a little fascist and what all of these people shouting about how great this is have not considered is how those little reusable bags really do not benefit people who go to the store and purchase vast amounts of groceries at one time, i.e. to feed a family of four. Do you know how many of those reusable bags someone would have to own to fit $300.00 worth of groceries in.

Well, I guess it will not matter as long as grocery stores continue to produce paper bags, but I am not sure when the last time I saw a paper bag here in Australia.

awsome!!!!!!!!

GO CANADA!!....
a maple leaf forever...

its not fascist and even if it was who cares.. the envirornment is getting slightly nothin major but slightly better... and if you check your history books fascism and dictator ship made two very powerful countries from basically scrap metal: Germany and Italy in WW2 (and one for that matter).... true both Mussolini and Hitler weere A-holes but as far as philantrophy and leadership goes, they were succesful

nice one canada!

i completely agree with judahevan, taxing them would be a better idea..in Ireland i think its about 33 cents or something like that(plastic bags), and now nobody uses them anymore...but this was in 2004, and the next 2 times i brought my own bag. Now here, theyre 99 cents at the store i go to(the reusable bags) and they hold more stuff in them. My friends think im insane, but i use them all the time and I would love for the US to take that kind of a stand.

We had better get on board before this train leaves the station. It does't seem as if our government entities are going to do anything. We certainly don't want to miff the plastic (petroleum) industry. I have no problem buying cotton bags from my stores. It would be even better if the sacks had a big sign on the side, MADE IN THE U.S.A. BY HAND.

I think they should all be more proactive, and stop distributing bags, paper or plastic, all together. And it should be the supermarkets themselves who establish that policy. After all, they are establishments pursued for their convenience of proximity, and their product is a vital one - food. So it's not like they'd be risking the loss of patronage.

People will accept it and get used to it so fast it will be like getting a haircut. They'll wonder why they didnt reuse canvas bags all along, and if they have any decency they'll blush.

I can see it all now: the billboard in anticipation of the new ban that reads, "Going to the grocery store? Dont forget your bags." Someone will snap a picture of this billboard because it will have been a message of fleeting relevance, artifact of the postmodern almost overnight.

So did China, I think(banning plastic)

This is a good way to end over consumption. If the US got hip to this we could really make a big impact.

--Jade

Hooray Canada. This is remarkable but would it make a difference. I'm a man of results!

Sweet! I get 3 cents off whenever I bring my own bag to Thrifty's, but I still forget now and then and get plastic to supplement.

The only way to make people change in this country is to hit them in the wallet.

I've been using cloth bags for years - they are so much easier to carry and never break! Score one for Canada!

Our local WalMart only offers plastic! Booo.

Awesome. Next step, plastic water bottles.

yeah we must change on ourselves. luckyily the u.s.a wil never make a law forcing us to bring our own bags. but we should use our commonsense to do so

Go Canada!

This is great news! Hopefully, everyone will remember to have their reusable bags on them to avoid buying a brand new bag every time they go shopping.

My food coop in Brooklyn has niether Plastic Bags of plastic water bottles..

http://foodcoop.com/?page=contact

Paper bags aren't much better. You have to cut down a lot of trees to make paper bags.