Get ready to pay for grocery bags in CA

[DrPizza]

If you don't believe that the full cost of plastic bags is significantly higher than just the purchase cost you've got your head in the sand. Beyond that, the environmental effects of plastic bags is extremely hard to deny.

Saying plastic bags are bad isn't something just for tree huggers. It's easy to see the effects of it and the people paying the purchase price don't foot the whole bill for the all the issues that their choice causes.

If you believe that it costs anywhere near 17 cents to dispose of a single plastic garbage bag from a store, you're delusional.

 

[Pneumothorax]

To offset this idiocy, if it passes, I will burn something plastic in my backyard and increase my carbon footprint.

I'm going to do my part too and dump stale gasoline/anti-freeze/used motor oil down sewer drains and trash cans. Meanwhile, when my dog takes a dump in the park lawn, I'll leave it up to the overpaid CA state park worker with the 80% pension to pick it up as I don't have used grocery bags anymore to put his crap in.

 

[MJinZ]

If you believe that it costs anywhere near 17 cents to dispose of a single plastic garbage bag from a store, you're delusional.

That's crazy.. I use plastic bags as trash bags around the house.

They are disposed of for free after doing double duty.

 

[obamanation]

I'm going to do my part too and dump stale gasoline/anti-freeze/used motor oil down sewer drains and trash cans. Meanwhile, when my dog takes a dump in the park lawn, I'll leave it up to the overpaid CA state park worker with the 80% pension to pick it up as I don't have used grocery bags anymore to put his crap in.

they have pooper scooper bags at most dog parks to let you put the dog poop in. Also I wouldn't recommend using grocery bags for handling dog poop because those bags are semi-permeable and if you're holding the bag with the poop in it, you're touching the poop. Don't believe me? Try pouring some water in those bags and watch all the water leak out.

 

[zinfamous]

That's crazy.. I use plastic bags as trash bags around the house.

They are disposed of for free after doing double duty.

not saying anything about that price breakdown, but depending on how detailed your local sanitation department is, those bags are indeed separated out after pick up. so, there is an implied cost for that single activity, on a much larger scales, of course.

I think most cities have been cutting that type of activity, though.

 

[Bignate603]

If you believe that it costs anywhere near 17 cents to dispose of a single plastic garbage bag from a store, you're delusional.

🙄 I never said 17 cents was the correct number, just that the purchase price didn't really include the complete price.

I hate to break it to you but the vast majority of bags are never reused. Some are recycled, most are chucked in the trash, and plenty end up as litter. Some even end up blown into the cacti in my front yard because there are enough idiots in my town that can't be bothered to throw away their trash.

I've been using reusable bags for my groceries for years, it's not a huge deal and they are just better bags. I still get enough plastic bags from random stuff to fill all the small garbage cans in my house.

 

[Anonemous]

L.A. bans plastic bags , also paper bags are now $.10


http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2...t-us-city-to-ban-single-use-plastic-bags?lite.

LA becomes largest US city to ban single-use plastic bags
By Miguel Llanos, msnbc.com
May 23, 2012, 5:29 pm
MSN.com

Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images

The Ralphs supermarket chain is among those impacted by a plastic and paper bag ban approved Wednesday in Los Angeles. Many neighboring jurisdictions already have similar bans in place.

Withstanding a strong lobby from the plastic bag industry, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a ban on single-use plastic bags at checkout counters as well as a 10-cent fee on paper bags.

With a population of 4 million -- and using an estimated 2.7 billion plastic bags each year -- Los Angeles becomes the largest city in the U.S. to enact a ban and joins 47 other cities in California alone.

"This is a tipping point" for banning plastic bags around the world, City Councilman Paul Koretz, a ban sponsor, declared just before the 13-1 vote.

The industry counters that the ban will be bad for the environment and health and will cost local jobs.

Reusable bags "are hazardous because consumers seldom wash them, and they have been found to transport bacteria," Mark Daniels, chair of the American Progressive Bag Alliance, told msnbc.com, citing a case earlier this month of girls getting norovirus from cookies left in a reusable bag.

"Plastic bags make up a fraction a percent of the litter stream," Daniels added, citing a 2009 litter survey. "A policy to target and ban one product will not address the root issue" of pollution.

City staff countered at Wednesday's meeting that 43 percent of Los Angeles' trash is plastic and that the largest component of that plastic is plastic bags at 19 percent.

Daniels added that "reusables cannot be recycled" but city staff insisted standards would be adopted to make that a requirement.

As for jobs, city staff noted that the 750 jobs at companies making plastic bags in the area are not in the city, but in the county.

Large stores are allowed to phase out plastic bags over six months and then provide free paper bags for another six months. Small retailers will have a year to phase out plastic.

After a year, retailers will be allowed to charge 10 cents for paper bags -- a "disincentive" designed to steer consumers to reusable bags.

The council did back away from also banning paper bags, which would have made it the only city to ban both plastic and paper.

Koretz said the city would study the issue again in two years to see whether the 10 cent fee was enough to reduce paper bags.

The city ban was modeled on one enacted by Los Angeles County, with a population of 10 million. A state court is hearing an appeal in a lawsuit against the county ban after the plaintiffs, a plastic bag maker among them, lost a lower court ruling.

Story: Bag ban taking shape across Hawaii
Interactive: The paper or plastic debate

City Council members who supported the ban noted that the vote was about creating environmental awareness among Angelenos.

"Let's not stop with plastic bags," said Councilman Richard Alarcon.

The ban will go into effect after a standard environmental review, which is expected to take four months.

Yay more norovirus from reuseable cloth bags!

 

[schneiderguy]

San Jose (or Santa Clara county maybe) did the same thing at the beginning of this year. No plastic bags and 10 cents per paper bag.

 

[Lithium381]

San Jose (or Santa Clara county maybe) did the same thing at the beginning of this year. No plastic bags and 10 cents per paper bag.

I think it's just San Jose . . . .it's weird when i go shopping in Los Gatos and they start putting my stuff in plastic bags . . . but i have to shop outside of San jose once in a while . . . use the plastic bags for trash! This way i don't have to pay for them.

 

[DCal430]

I give $25 a month to environment California for this and banning gold mining in California. Glad to see it is working.

 

[schneiderguy]

I give $25 a month to environment California for this and banning gold mining in California. Glad to see it is working.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Its already annoying that they banned styrofoam in LA. Jamba Juice gives you paper cups instead and its fucking cold on your hand.

/firstworldproblems

 

[Away]

 

[Pr0d1gy]

I really have no hope for this world anymore. People bitching about using re-usable bags have no grasp on community or the well being of this planet.

 

[Bignate603]

After having to deal with stupid plastic bags getting blown on to my yard constantly I fully support this, I wish they did it in my area.

 

[sdifox]

Its already annoying that they banned styrofoam in LA. Jamba Juice gives you paper cups instead and its fucking cold on your hand.

/firstworldproblems

let me get this straight, you are complaining the cup is too cold for your hand and you are putting the content in your body? :sneaky:

 

[KeithP]

$32 gets 1,000 of them:
http://www.amazon.com/T-Shirt-Carry-.../dp/B001EGZXK6

If I lived in a city banning them, I would buy these and bring them with me. 🙂

-KeithP