san francisco looks to tax grocery bags

[jadinolf]

Originally posted by: rahvin
Actually in this case I think it can be justified, the bags cost landfill space and sanfran like most of cali exports their garbage to other states at a huge premium. Garbage fees go up for everyone or they put a tax in place to cover the excess garbage and hit the people causing it.

They also use up a bit of our oil.

 

[daniel1113]

Originally posted by: FlyLice
How many canvas bags would a mother need to bring to fill her groceries for a family of 4-5?

My mom needs about 10 grocery bags every time she goes to the grocery store, and that is for a family of 6. Then again, we re-use all of the bags for things around the house, many of which were mentioned above.

Hell, we even use paper bags from the grocery store to hold our weekly recycling. Ironic, eh?

 

[kranky]

Originally posted by: FoBoT
the hippies want to force people to bring an earth friendly canvas bag with them

after all, 79% of landfill volume is from grocery bags

What?

 

[Fingers]

Well If you already pay waste management fees then this is unjustified.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: FoBoT
the hippies want to force people to bring an earth friendly canvas bag with them

after all, 79% of landfill volume is from grocery bags

What?

Yeah, that does seem a little outrageous given how compressible grocery bags are. I also remember similar numbers being claimed about baby diapers.

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

Originally posted by: jjones

Originally posted by: Citrix
Grocery bags (paper and plastic) are a huge waste of resources.

Not for me, I use them as garbage bags around the house.

We use them as "dog poo containment and disposal devices" when taking the dog for a walk in the neighborhood.

Exactly. There's a million uses for those bags. In addition to using them for garbage, I also use them for general storage of things I want to keep protected from dust or just want to keep all together like spare cables and such.

 

[SchrodingersDog]

Good, I also think we should be taxed for every thread we start, quality control.

 

[FlyLice]

Seriously, I never throw away my grocery bags. I hoard them in the pantry for other uses...

 

[Demon-Xanth]

My family actually USES the grocery bags as trash bags. If we had to pay for grocery bags, we'd end up buying plastic bags instead of just using the paper ones. Not exactly a win for anyone.

 

[Vic]

How is a $0.17 per bag tax justified by a $0.052 per bag actual cost? 😕

Seems to me that the city is trying to make a nearly $0.12 per bag profit. Bad precedent indeed.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I remember years ago a lot of grocery stores would charge you a per-bag fee anyway. You saved money bringing in your own boxes.

Laundry baskets work great for groceries.

See. Now there's a good idea.

If we could make some sort of collapsable box-like structure that could be cleaned when things got spilled in it we'd be onto something. 🙂

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: Vic
How is a $0.17 per bag tax justified by a $0.052 per bag actual cost? 😕

Seems to me that the city is trying to make a nearly $0.12 per bag profit. Bad precedent indeed.

We're talking about a city in California. Sacramento has a courthouse that charges $1 for parking and all the curbs within about half a mile are painted red on a 50' wide two lane road.

...of course someone's looking for revenue.

 

[Demon-Xanth]

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I remember years ago a lot of grocery stores would charge you a per-bag fee anyway. You saved money bringing in your own boxes.

Laundry baskets work great for groceries.

See. Now there's a good idea.

If we could make some sort of collapsable box-like structure that could be cleaned when things got spilled in it we'd be onto something. 🙂

Actually, those USPS bins would own (and likely be stolen much more often if this passed)

 

[jjones]

Originally posted by: Vic
How is a $0.17 per bag tax justified by a $0.052 per bag actual cost? 😕

Seems to me that the city is trying to make a nearly $0.12 per bag profit. Bad precedent indeed.

That's what I was thinking. The city just wants another tax in their coffers to spend and are trying to wrap the tax idea in some feel-good proposal for all the enviro-wackjobs to get a boner over.

 

[EyeMWing]

We keep all our plastic bags, end up using them as garbage bags - better than throwing both the empty bags AND full purpose-built garbage bags away.

 

[Electric Amish]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth

Originally posted by: Electric Amish

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I remember years ago a lot of grocery stores would charge you a per-bag fee anyway. You saved money bringing in your own boxes.

Laundry baskets work great for groceries.

See. Now there's a good idea.

If we could make some sort of collapsable box-like structure that could be cleaned when things got spilled in it we'd be onto something. 🙂

Actually, those USPS bins would own (and likely be stolen much more often if this passed)

They'd have to be kinda small or have multiple sizes for people to put in their back seat.

 

[EyeMWing]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: FoBoT
the hippies want to force people to bring an earth friendly canvas bag with them

after all, 79% of landfill volume is from grocery bags

What?

Yeah, that does seem a little outrageous given how compressible grocery bags are. I also remember similar numbers being claimed about baby diapers.

Nobody that cites those stats has ever been to a landfill.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: jjones

Originally posted by: Vic
How is a $0.17 per bag tax justified by a $0.052 per bag actual cost? 😕

Seems to me that the city is trying to make a nearly $0.12 per bag profit. Bad precedent indeed.

That's what I was thinking. The city just wants another tax in their coffers to spend and are trying to wrap the tax idea in some feel-good proposal for all the enviro-wackjobs to get a boner over.

Well, the city isn't the one paying for the cost of the bag. They're claiming they are having to pay too much for the recycling and litter pickup.

Officials calculate that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs.

That's still a 10.4 cent per bag profit for them though.

 

[CPA]

Originally posted by: FlyLice
How many canvas bags would a mother need to bring to fill her groceries for a family of 4-5?

I would need to bring about 20. seriously.

 

[rise]

Originally posted by: jjones

Originally posted by: Citrix
Grocery bags (paper and plastic) are a huge waste of resources.

Not for me, I use them as garbage bags around the house.

 

[Hammer]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: jjones

Originally posted by: Vic
How is a $0.17 per bag tax justified by a $0.052 per bag actual cost? 😕

Seems to me that the city is trying to make a nearly $0.12 per bag profit. Bad precedent indeed.

That's what I was thinking. The city just wants another tax in their coffers to spend and are trying to wrap the tax idea in some feel-good proposal for all the enviro-wackjobs to get a boner over.

Well, the city isn't the one paying for the cost of the bag. They're claiming they are having to pay too much for the recycling and litter pickup.

Officials calculate that the city spends 5.2 cents per bag annually for street litter pickup and 1.4 cents per bag for extra recycling costs.

That's still a 10.4 cent per bag profit for them though.

that's probably the "administration fee"

 

[kranky]

In my house, 0.0% of my trash volume consists of unrecycled grocery bags. I can take all the plastic grocery bags I get in three months and compress them into a wad small enough to fit in a shoe box. Then it's simple enough to drop them off at the grocery store recycling box.

And the paper bags go into the paper recycling bin.

And that's the kicker - even if you recycle them, you still pay (using their inflated numbers) over 15 cents per bag more than the cost of recycling! If it actually costs 1.4 cents to recycle a plastic grocery bag I would be astonished.

This is about tax dollars, not "earth-friendly". California is great at finding things like this that people are too intimidated to fight against.

 

[Hammer]

Its now on the front page of CNN

 

[DurocShark]

Originally posted by: kranky

Originally posted by: FoBoT
the hippies want to force people to bring an earth friendly canvas bag with them

after all, 79% of landfill volume is from grocery bags

What?

I agree.

90% of all statistics are BS.

😛

 

[JulesMaximus]

Originally posted by: rahvin
Actually in this case I think it can be justified, the bags cost landfill space and sanfran like most of cali exports their garbage to other states at a huge premium. Garbage fees go up for everyone or they put a tax in place to cover the excess garbage and hit the people causing it.

None of the money from that is going to pay for environmental causes. It is going into the general fund (if passed). It's just another stupid tax sugar coated for the tree hugging liberals to feel good about.