CANASTOTA CORNER Cloth shopping bags used to be the norm

All this brings to mymind what wasusedwhenI was a childand used to gowith my Grandmother orMomshopping. Hangingonapost in our cellar is a clothbagwhichmy Grandmother used for shopping.

How do you feel about plastic bags? Could you be able to find some other receptacle to use when you shop at stores for your purchases? Or, most stores would probably find another way to use some other bags for your purchases.

Some have already found substitutes for plastic when the subject first came out last year and then seemed to fade away when there wasn’t enough public involvement in the meetings. The Madison County Solid Waste Authority and Recycling Committee has decided to reintroduce legislation to ban certain types of carry-out plastic bags from use in the county. The committee decision was made in January and the committee proposed the law early in 2017. Restaurants and liquor stores were exempt from the ban. Now the committee consulted with the full Board of Supervisors in Wampsville to seek consensus for moving forward with the local law. Because of a minor change the new law could be introduced in 2018.

Young people today don’t know any other shopping bags. A few stores still carry paper bags and at one time when you shopped the clerk would generally ask, “paper or plastic?” But you see very few shoppers using paper.

All of this has come up because of the worry of our situation in our landfill and the fact that there is too much of every kind of waste that is being taken there to accommodate the public. We have to think of our young people coming up who will eventually have their own worry if we will have no way to be able to meet this demand. Plastic is one very important item that causes a problem and we must think of an alternative.

All this brings to my mind what was used when I was a child and used to go with my Grandmother or Mom shopping. Hanging on a post in our cellar is a cloth bag which my Grandmother used for shopping. Back in those days that was what most house- wives and men used to carry their purchases. For those without bags it was paper, the brown, sturdy type. The cloth bag was homemade, I assume. My grandmother’s was of ticking material and there were two wooden handles that grandfather had whittled to carry it. She also had a market basket made of wicker that my mom also had use of. Occasionally they would get a brown paper bag that was used also here in the house for many, many things and that is why they would ask for one. That had many uses for many things in the house.

Haven’t you received in your mail the past few years a cloth or waterproof material shopping or other use bag that could easily be used for groceries or other uses? They are gifts from charity institutions for you to send a contribution for it.

There are a few stores locally that have shopping bags you can purchase for a reasonable amount. Most all are made from some other material than plastic. Today backpacks have come into being for most everything to carry that aren’t groceries. I wonder if that couldn’t be another alternative for groceries? Of course there would be some things that couldn’t be carried in many of these suggestions. I’m sure there are people working right now on substitute carryalls in the event that these plastic bags will be made illegal or not — it will eventually come up for use for the individual to vote on some type of resolution I’m thinking. Or maybe not; it might just be a law introduced to the public.

P.S. I didn’t mention cardboard in some type of conveyance.