Haven't had plastic bags in SF in several years. If the $0.10 bag charge is too much for you, you have much bigger issues.
Reusable bags definitely make things easier, when I remember to bring them. But outright banning plastic may be a bit of an overeach. Put the choice in the grocery stores hands...they could ban them or offer incentives for using reusables. Actually read something awhile back though that the cloth bags spread bacteria a lot more because people don't wash them after every use, especially when using them to transportt raw meats.
The choice is in the grocery stores' hands right now. They pretty much all offer them, and it'd probably be suicide to not offer them, outside of a Whole Foods type specialty clientele. Left to market forces, the industry will not change to re-usable bags in any foreseeable future. If we as a society want to make a change, we'd have to all be in it together, which means government and regulation and municipal bans. But, this is Texas, so it'll never happen.
I don't support banning anything. People who support bans are naive, in my opinion. Plastic bags are available because they're useful. If they weren't so useful and convenient, people wouldn't use them. Some people care about the environment, and those people are completely free to not use plastic bags. However, they shouldn't be free to push their point of view on everybody. Stores providing plastic bags price it into their overhead, so consumers are paying for the convenience. There's nothing wrong with that!
I see what you're saying, and it's not that I don't agree. But at the same time, how much government regulation and intervention is too much? It's like the attempted soda ban in NY. Sure soda is unhealthy and we want people to make better choices, but maybe instead of forcing them, we strive to target behavioral change so they want to. So grocery stores essentially have the choice now, but do they really encourage customers to bring reusables? I've seen somewhat of an attempt to, but not much. Or tax customers who use plastic, like we tax everything else.
Stores are pricing in the cost of the provision of the bags, but they are not pricing in the environmental damage caused by the bags. So consumers pay for the convenience of having the bag, but not the clean-up of the negative consequences of the bag. So, there is something wrong with it. The price signals are not encapsulating the entire picture of the purchasing decision.
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-20963-hotseat_david_tyler.html They have the lowest carbon footprint, the lowest water use, and the lowest municipal waste [of any bagging option]. A plastic bag in many impact categories is better than a tote bag, it’s better than a paper bag. There are environmental trade-offs when you pick this product over another one. When you use plastic bags rather than paper bags or cotton bags, there’s much less waste going into landfills. Where plastics fall down is that they don’t degrade, so they get into lakes and streams and harm wildlife.
You have a valid point, but I don't believe that justifies banning plastic bags. We've set up markets for emissions credits in other fields that produce similar externalities with much success. Why not do something similar with manufacturers of plastic bags? Another thing to point out: If consumers start trending toward using their own re-usable bags, you may end up seeing grocery stores charging customers to use bags, which would be beneficial to the market.
Interestingly, that's a good idea even if you're just joking. Most people would ultimately starve because we don't know how to grow our own food. Makes you wonder what would happen if society were to collapse in any way (Chaos for $1000 Alex).
I'm down for that too, with or without a ban. But, it's many of the same people who say we shouldn't ban grocery bags that say we shouldn't have these burdensome regulations on emissions. It'll increase the cost of doing business and reduce jobs, yada yada yada. If you block regulation as the production level, and at the retail level, the only lever you're left with is at the post-consumer level -- waste management. Which is probably the most ineffectual lever you could avail yourself of.
Dear LORD, why must people want to make Houston like Austin...? First the bicycle crap... now the plastic bag crap... next they'll want us to make a "sixth street." OK, that last one is fine.
I think a better plan is recycling. You could charge people for trash by weight and recycling is free.
Yup. It might seem like a hassle, but it doesn't take that much effort to bring your own bag to a grocery store. Above all else, I think its better to incentivize it rather than force it down everyone's throats.
Bacteria in reusable cloth bags. No thanks. So basically "third world" countries we scoff at and patronize and tribal people are the model of low carbon footprint. Even the hardest core hipster wont do that
When you buy meat in Austin they still put it in a plastic bag to prevent this. It didn't take that long to get used to up here as now pretty much every place uses paper bags anyway. I actually kind of like it as it promotes reusing paper bags or cloth bags which hold more anyways. (and are more environmentally friendly)
Same article: Portland in 2011 banned plastic bags in stores. Did we make a huge mistake? It comes back to what environmental impact you’re trying to alleviate. If you’re worried about global warming or the amount of waste going into landfills or the amount of water used to make a bag, then yes. But if they’re worried about plastics in the environment and their effects on wildlife and litter, then no, they didn’t.
