At some point in the 1980s....you really started to notice a 'take-off' for plastic bags in Germany. If you went to a shop of any type....you ended up with a plastic bag.
At some point around 2005 to 2010....you started to notice a anti-plastic bag trend....by the environmentalists.
In the past five years....the trend has reached a point where various federal regulations were handed down, and back in January....the 'mother-of-all-bans' occurred, where you weren't supposed to be able to get your goods in a plastic bag.
Well....that was the intention back in January, and how we'd be all saved.
What happened since January? The regulation says you can't use single-use plastic bags (15 microns to 45 microns). Well...the bags which are 50 to 60 microns are considered 'reusable', so the stores all went to a heavy-duty plastic bag.
My wife (German) has been commenting a lot over the past six months about these new bags that the grocery stores give her....all fit into the 50 microns or more type....extra thick.
The funny thing....she keeps all of these and they get a second, third and probably even fourth re-use. Some of them might even be around for a year of continued use.
The environmentalists and government folks peeved? Yes, without any doubt.
The problem here....just about everything you buy...comes in a loose fashion. Paper-bags? Evil. The cloth bags? You need to wash them on a frequent basis....which no one really does. So there is no way to really get around this problem of the 'bag'.
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