Letters to the Editor: Those thick plastic grocery bags aren’t recyclable. Here’s what to do with them

To the editor: Both during the pandemic and again more recently while recuperating from surgery, I have had to rely on delivery service for my groceries, which resulted in my accruing of those thick plastic bags. (“Yes, California must ban plastic grocery bags — again,” editorial, Aug. 5)

As your editorial correctly points out, I couldn’t just toss them into the recycling bin (it would be pointless for me to do so), and I couldn’t reuse them at the store, because delivery necessitates new bags for every order.

What I did with the pandemic-era bags — and what I will do with my latest stock once I am out and about again — is donate them to a local food bank. They are always in need of bags, and those who depend on food banks are probably more likely to reuse them many times before they become unusable (such is the mindset of anyone forced to make do with fewer resources).

I would urge everyone who has a pile of these thick plastic bags to do likewise. Recycling is important, and so is reusing, but too often we forget about repurposing.

Kymberleigh Richards, Van Nuys

..

To the editor: Thank you for highlighting the absurdity of our existing policies on “recyclable plastic bags.”

How did the minor detail that the new, thicker bags are not in fact recyclable ever get overlooked by the lawmakers who enacted California’s ban in 2016? Add to that the fact that consumers are charged 10 cents per bag, which we were led to believe went to help recycling efforts. Instead, the money is profit for the sellers.

It’s incompetence or collusion, with the only winners being the plastic manufacturers and the margin-starved grocery stores. Keep the spotlight bright on this problem.

Karen Galas, Palos Verdes Estates

..

To the editor: California passed a single-use plastic grocery bag ban in 2016, but loopholes have wasted eight years of environmental progress. Plastic bags still dangerously float around our highways on windy days, on our beaches and everywhere else.

We need the California Legislature to pass Assembly Bill 2236 and Senate Bill 1053, identical bills that would require stores to provide only paper bags made out of a minimum of 50% recycled material. We passed that 2016 single-use plastic bag ban for good reason, but the state still needs to address sustainability issues.

Let’s hope our lawmakers move forward with our environmental standards that keep California beautiful and our landfills less clogged.

Jonathan Light, Laguna Niguel