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7-11 now charging for the plastic bags they put your items in??

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I don't mind them charging for something, but it's pretty ridiculous. Better for the environment? Bullshit. They're easy to recycle (just put them in a bag and bring them to the store every couple weeks). If you throw them away in the garbage it's not any worse than any other plastic. I don't get what the hatred is for plastic bags.

They don't pollute any more than any other inorganic material that's improperly disposed of. Is there a landfill capacity shortage in the US? I don't think so.

If there's any problem, it's with improper disposal, not the bags themselves.
 
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Yeah the bag tax just started in MD, today. We are supposed to start it at work, they didn't give us any information on the tax though so my boss said Fuck 'em until they tell us how to collect it.
 
It seems there are a lot of uniformed people and a lot of misinformation. Understandable since this specific bag tax is not a nation wide thing. However, I'm quite surprised that some people live in the DC metro area, and especially montgomery county MD, and have not heard about this yet. The law was passed back in May and I've heard it mentioned on the news several times since. In the past week I've seen signs at retailers notifying customers that the bag tax goes into effect with the new year.

Some information about the bag tax.
-The bag tax is for montgomery county MD. Other areas, such as DC, may already have a bag tax but those are most likely not what the OP is referring to.
-The bag tax takes effect on January 1st, 2011. In other words, today.
-While I believe the DC bag tax only applies to plastic bags and specifically grocery stores, the montgomery county bag tax applies to both paper and plastic bags, and applies to all retail stores. I think there are some exceptions, but I'm not sure what they are.
-The bag tax is 5 cents. Supposedly, 1 cent will go to retailers for administrative fees and the other 4 cents will be used by the county for fighting water pollution.

On a side note, some retailers (per their own initiative) offer discounts for using your own bags while others (I think Ikea is one) charge extra if you don't provide your own bags.
 
It's been here for awhile now. Toronto started it with the 5 cent bag "tax", under the guise of environmentalism. The city doesn't actually collect the money. They just mandate retailers charge it to discourage people from using plastic bags. Retailers pocket all revenue made off it. Retailers won't say exactly how much profit they're making off it, but when you figure each bag probably costs no more than two cents, do the math.

The problem with the reusable bags is they're not really reusable. They cost $1 but have a relatively short useful life (they're shoddy) and don't hold very much. Studies have also shown that cloth and paper bags are actually more harmful to the environment than the recyclable plastic ones. I don't know about you guys but I reuse my plastic bags all the time. Usually to carry my lunch in, or for the wastebaskets.

I'll go out of my way to use stores that provide the bags for free, or give a discount for using your own. That's called service. The other is gouging.
 
When that happens I usually ask for a refund and go to another store and avoid spending any money in cities that have laws which force retailers to charge for bags.
 
Patranus said:
To be fair I get 90% of my groceries from Costco and get the other 10% delivered from Safeway so I don't really know the state of the bag industry these days.
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If this ever happened in my county/state I would simply order everything from amazon. More gas, more paper/cardboard, plastic shipping materials, 'Merica - Fuck Yeah.
 
No stores I've been to here in SE Michigan charge for them.

In 2008 when I moved to NY, I overheard a Walmart employee saying they were going to phase out the plastic bags. So from that point I always kept my plastic bags even though I had more than I thought I'd need. But they never got rid of them.

So now I have probably 6 plastic bags filled with plastic bags. They are really useful though for garbage bags in small cans like the bathroom, and well just about a million other reasons.
 
This happens in Washington when I go shopping with my older brother down there. Haven't seen it here in NJ yet.
 
was in 7-11 today, ordered a sandwich and a few sodas. when the cashier said i had to pay for two plastic bags, i said.. there is no notice of this anywhere.

after a few mins of arguing, i walked out and left my order behind. my sandwich had oil soaking thru the bag, not going to put that on my car seat or floor mats.

terrible idea 7-11, will never go there again.
 
No Frills has been doing this for a long time, so it's not surprising other stores are following suit.

In a way I think it's good as it may encourage people to use reusable bags.
 
spidey07 said:
If this ever happened in my county/state I would simply order everything from amazon. More gas, more paper/cardboard, plastic shipping materials, 'Merica - Fuck Yeah.
Click to expand...

Local "feel good" politicians driving business away form local small business to the Internet for no reason. What could go wrong?
 
Oh noes, they took away my free plastic bag for every twiddly crap I buy at the store! They are encroaching on my liberties! They took our jerbs! Rabble rabble!

Either bring your own, or at least start stuffing the 5c bags tighter with items you buy. Every time I see cashiers putting 1 jar of pickles in a double bag and then a box of aspirin in another - I cringe.

Good move overall.
 
dan4patriots said:
all you complaining- stfu its only .05 and its meant to encourage you to use resuable cloth bags
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Why would I want to use resuable cloth bags, get them dirty, use the energy to clean them, the hot water, the detergent, etc? I don't want meat juices soaked into my cloth bag and then have the bags sitting in a nice 74 degree house for a week plus at a time.

No you shut the fuck up, you don't get to decide what bags I use and charge a TAX for a FREAKING BAG.

Like I said, keep this shit up and I will waste even more energy and pollute even more to avoid it based on principle alone. You do NOT get to dictate how I live or what resources I use. I do.
 
paulney said:
Oh noes, they took away my free plastic bag for every twiddly crap I buy at the store! They are encroaching on my liberties! They took our jerbs! Rabble rabble!

Either bring your own, or at least start stuffing the 5c bags tighter with items you buy. Every time I see cashiers putting 1 jar of pickles in a double bag and then a box of aspirin in another - I cringe.

Good move overall.
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Here is an idea.

How about you let people/businesses make their own decisions as to what is best for them?

If the general public doesn't want plastic bags then that is what will happen, no law required.


dan4patriots said:
all you complaining- stfu its only .05 and its meant to encourage you to use resuable cloth bags
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Thats really not the point. These people are trying to make it as difficult as possible.

There is really no reason to have laws that outlaw plastic bags. Free plastic bags do not inherently create litter, people create litter and people who litter are going to litter always, plastic bags or not.
 
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spidey07 said:
Why would I want to use resuable cloth bags, get them dirty, use the energy to clean them, the hot water, the detergent, etc? I don't want meat juices soaked into my cloth bag and then have the bags sitting in a nice 74 degree house for a week plus at a time.

No you shut the fuck up, you don't get to decide what bags I use and charge a TAX for a FREAKING BAG.

Like I said, keep this shit up and I will waste even more energy and pollute even more to avoid it based on principle alone. You do NOT get to dictate how I live or what resources I use. I do.
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🙄
 
dan4patriots said:
all you complaining- stfu its only .05 and its meant to encourage you to use resuable cloth bags
Click to expand...

Reusable cloth bags are a bad idea for many reasons, the biggest of which is that raw meats tend to leak, as do other foods such as deli sandwiches.

I will use paper bags before I will ever use a cloth bag.
 
spidey07 said:
Why would I want to use resuable cloth bags, get them dirty, use the energy to clean them, the hot water, the detergent, etc? I don't want meat juices soaked into my cloth bag and then have the bags sitting in a nice 74 degree house for a week plus at a time.

No you shut the fuck up, you don't get to decide what bags I use and charge a TAX for a FREAKING BAG.

Like I said, keep this shit up and I will waste even more energy and pollute even more to avoid it based on principle alone. You do NOT get to dictate how I live or what resources I use. I do.
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Hey, that's great. You can help the economy and on top of that, pay more in gasoline and sales taxes than you were paying before (on the bag). I applaud you! Maybe we need more of this to spur on the economy!!! BRAVO!

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