The Disgusting Consequences of Plastic-Bag Bans By Ramesh Ponnuru 2013-02-04 They account for only 0.6% of all litter. Tax it!
Reads like reaching by lobbyists for the plastic bag industry. Not that I don't feel for people impacted by illness, etc. if they are up as a result of the ban. Austin has a plastic bag ban coming in the next few months.
Well since they have adorable kids, I wouldn't want any harm to come to them. On the other hand if they were ugly kids, I'd want them all suffocated with their plastic bags. Not to mention, these people are also patriotic. How touching. I've always been told that the plastic bag workforce was especially patriotic, so it's nice to see that mentioned in the media. Spoiler FWIW, I of course don't support a ban on plastic bags. That's just stupid. I just thought the article was ridiculous
I think we have bigger problems that saving the plastic bag industry. Worried about disease (this is hilarious btw), use a paper bag.... ohh I noticed that the propaganda article did not TOUCH that solution. Seriously, just get rid of plastic bags, in most cases we do not need them, and .6% of our total garbage is a lot of garbage.
Those people in favor of saving the "plastic bag industry" should also lobby against ATMs and self serve gas stations.
I read it as .6% of San Francisco's litter. Not a percentage of total garbage in the U.S. In terms of reducing local littering it seems there'd be more effective solutions out there than eliminating .6% of the problem. I understand starting somewhere, but maybe have a little more ambition and higher aim than tackling .6% of local littering.
.6% is still substantial. Further, it is not easily biodegradable and is oil based. I do not see how this is a negative thing. I would not ban them, but I can understand a tax on them based on negative external costs. I like how the article does not even tackle paper bags......
The reason the guy even wrote the article is because of the new reports that have been issued recently on the effects of the bag ban. And you can tell he is sort of tongue in cheek about some of the things he wrote, such as the cute kid bit.
That's what I was thinking. .6% of all litter? From 1 type of item? That's a lot of freaking trash. [edit] http://www.learner.org/interactives/garbage/solidwaste.html 230,000,000 tons x .006 = 1,380,000 tons of plastic bags.
I really don't have an opinion on whether they ban it or not. My reaction is to the press release to justify not banning a particular act. the making of plastic bags supplies a livelihood to 30,000 hard-working, law-abiding, patriotic Americans, many of whom have adorable children to support. Nike says that they supply livelihood to 30,000 hard working child laborers, law-abiding, patriotic Chinese nationals, many of whom have adorable parents to support. So it doesn't matter if a particular industry is causing environmental damage but we need to keep these folks employed? Jonathan Klick and Joshua Wright, who are law professors at the University of Pennsylvania and George Mason University, respectively, have done a more recent study on the public-health impact of plastic-bag bans. They find that emergency-room admissions related to E. coli infections increased in San Francisco after the ban. (Nearby counties did not show this increase.) And this effect showed up as soon as the ban was implemented. (“There is a clear discontinuity at the time of adoption.”) The San Francisco ban was also associated with increases in salmonella and other bacterial infections. Similar effects were found in other California towns that adopted such laws.[/I] This is either piss poor science or they did not provide us with all the data. As soon as Kevin Martin entered the game, James Harden's shooting percentage dropped. Therefore, Martin is playing good defense on Harden. Although that could be true, the conclusion was made based on coincidence alone and nothing else. It does not say that Martin always had a hand on his face, or forced him to go right, etc or maybe Harden is just tired.
Yeah there is absolutely no evidence of causation. Especially when they present their data like that... A happened as soon as B happened, thereforeB caused A. That's a fallacy. Correlation does not equal causation.
I reuse my grocery store bags as trash bags -- much better than buying hefty bags, which i'll have to do now that grocery bags are just about done in Austin.
I don't see the need to ban or tax plastic bags. If there is a problem with plastic bags, its that recycling them isn't popular enough.
Target bags were once the best trash bags, but their bag quality has declined immensely. I don't mind the 10 cent tax on using paper bags in SF. Mostly because I expense everything anyways, but I don't generally buy raw meat and put it in my reusable bag that I never bring with me.
I'm really interested to see how this goes over in Austin. Even before the ban has started I've found myself being a lot more conscience of when I get a bag and when I just carry the items out. I like getting paper bags because I can use those to put recyclables in.
Same here. I go paper as much as possible when I don't have bags with me. No ban planned in Round Rock that I'm aware of...but since the local recycling program doesn't accept plastic bags, I try not to use them when possible. Austinites should check out this place... in.gredients
I hate these kind of arguments. Why hire one person to mow my lawn with a lawnmower when I can hire 10 do it with scissors?
