What are you substituting for banned plastic bags?

Plastic bags at retail checkout are now banned in many areas. I’ve just read that 150 districts in California have banned them (with certain exceptions) and that a statewide ban is under active consideration.

It’s easy enough to carry reusable tote bags along when shopping, once you acquire the habit. But what about all those other things that the plastic bags are (were) good for?

Number-one use at my house: lining wastebaskets around the house, and especially in bathrooms, making emptying very easy.

Many other uses included tidy disposal of certain garbage items, such as a turkey carcass or a quantity of fruit peels; sending things to school with kids; wrapping shoes before they go in a suitcase; protecting stored items from dust in a closet or basement; and many more. I think we typically used all we had for one purpose or another.

If the bags are banned in your area and you were in the habit of reusing them, what are you doing now instead?

Do you buy plastic bags at the store?
Do you do without?
Do you replace them with paper?

And…what about all the other uses you used to have for newspaper? Can’t do that any more with the online edition, can we? Try lining your kitchen floor with msnbc.com at pumpkin-carving time.

 
Tags as I wrote them: plastic bags, recycling, reusing, Great Pacific Garbage Patch, environment, pollution.