China cups to return?

biodegradable? thats one big joke.
The plastic that is wrapped around carpets says biodegradable.
I put one of the sheets in the garden to see if it did biodegrade.
It did in about six months,yet grass NEVER grew in the area ever again.

I had the same problem with one of those waterproof ponchos. Always kept one in the car in case I got caught out in a rainstorm without a raincoat but the first time it happened I opened the bag and, as you say, there was the proverbial snowstorm.

Bluebellwould Ages ago I was helping with a charity stall at a fair. Tesco had given us a whole load of new plastic bags to put things into. Only a few were used, the rest put away for future use and forgotten about. When they were unearthed a few years later, it was like a snowstorm - a couple of hundred disintegrating poly bags.

They are OK for things which will only be used for a while and then thrown out.

It crossed my mind the other day that biodegradable carrier bags are actually worse than non degradable ones as they probably result in microfibres going into the ground/water supply (or are they different to microfibres ?). Will we be allowed to use our bamboo cups in future as that means the people working in the coffee shops will have to touch things that we’ve ve touched? Unless they could bring the coffee out in washable containers. That rules out cappuccinos though....I suppose an upside down cappuccino is just a coffee....Maybe outside cafes could just charge us to sit n their chairs and we could just bring our own flasks with us? I think DH and I will have to revert back to taking fold up chairs in the car and sitting in lay byes. Something I refused to do years ago as it was ‘what old people did....‘

Anything made from tesco bags will disintegrate. I had some yarn in a tesco bag and 6 months later went to use it and I thought a mouse had nested in it. The bag was in flaky bits about the size of my thumb and dusty bits. Had to vacuum my yarn!

I'm much happier with disposable (recyclable) cups when out. I didn't like China cups before but now even less, as they aren't always washed in dishwashers. I'll take my own travelling mug if allowed.

You cut them into inch or inch-and-a-half strips (thicker plastic = narrower strip) right across the width of the bag, discarding the bottom seam and the reinforced bits at the handles, to make circles of plastic yarn (plarn) You loop the circles through each other to make a continuous doubled "yarn" Crochet hook size 10mm at least.

Tesco have gone back to putting online orders into plastic bags since lockdown. They use cheap plain white ones - which are better for crocheting than thicker ones. Their meat packs and/or dairy items are in red bags. I found some coloured ones stored away at the back of a cupboard - green or turquoise from M&S, orange from Sainsbury's, a large golden yellow one with red logo from Argos. Bin liners are a plain black. Some brands of bin liners are too good though, they are too thick to work with.

We have a lot of carrier bags from internet grocery shopping, though not quite as many as MawB’s eleventy million. We usually just give them back to the delivery person, the following week.

We keep a few for the food bank donations.

The crochet work sounds fascinating Elegran. Turning carrier bags into sleeping mats for homeless people seems really inventive to me. I am going to google ‘plarn’.

MawB You could crochet them into something useful - shopping bags for instance? Not entirely daft, I've been using plarn to make a garden kneeling mat and I have vague plans for a wastepaper basket from plarn and an old lampshade. It fills in lockdown time, and it feels virtuous saving them from going into landfill. Apparently there are groups crocheting sleeping mats for rough sleepers. That takes a lot of bags!

I know- hasn’t it been ridiculous (although I can see why) but I am sure any industrial type dishwasher was more than capable of dealing with the bugs and taking your own cup can’t have been that risky to staff?
Not that I have had a takeaway coffee since about February.
On the same subject, I have eleventy million plastic carrier bags from my internet shopping. Pre CV Ocado used to charge 5 p for bags but pay me 5p for every bag returned - from whatever shop.
At this rate my future first half dozen internet shops with them will be FREE !

I would just take my own china mug along even when the virus has gone. Sorry but I have been plagued with cold sores in the past so I would be protecting myself and others. Stay safe.