Banning plastic bags?

Uptosnuff

Uptosnuff

Member
Location
Great Plains, USA
Our city council is considering a ban on plastic bags. I know that many other places have already done this and I really hope they pass it. I have been using my own bags for years now and they work really well. I have heard people complain about the cost of reusable bags and frankly, I think that's a poor excuse. You can get reusable bags for free from so many places and events.

I believe in other places they have considered charging people for the bags (tax), rewarding people for using their own bags, and outright banning them. They are considering the ban here because they say you get the best result from an outright ban.


What do you think? Does your city or state have a plastic bag ban? Does it affect people? Good, bad?
 

I lived on the Big Island of Hawaii for several years, and plastic bags were banned. I took some changing of habits, but I think it was good thing. I had at least a dozen reusable bags that I just kept in the car. SafeWay grocery stores, though, still used paper bags if I forgot my own bags. I forget the details.

BTW, this was done with county-wide legislation, not state wide.
 
The so-called "single use" plastic bags typically used at supermarkets were banned in California a while ago. This was good, and I see far less of them on the streets.

However, the law has a number of requirements in addition to the banning of the bags itself. There are rules about what kinds of bags the stores are allowed to sell to customers, how they must be priced, and where the profit from such sales goes (which is not to the store, making it a form of taxation).

So, banning the bags = good. All the extra rules = bad.
 

They aren’t banned where we live but they certainly are discouraged by stores. Grocery stores that used to give out free bags don’t any more. They need to be purchased which encourages shoppers to bring their own cloth ones.

Some smaller stores don’t give out bags at all. You have to bring your own. Then there are some stores that use paper ones.

I personally am in favour of the idea of banning them especially knowing how long it takes plastic to decompose.
It helps influence society to be more aware and responsible for our/their earth.
 
If people would recycle/reuse on their own or ensure there trash winds up in the trash things wouldn't have to be mandated.

When I see supermarkets promote bag recycling yet their own employees throw all sorts of trash in the recycling containers to make their job easier why should the public care or take the intent of these laws seriously.
 
I just wonder what that is going to do to the grocery pickup service? Paper?....then the tree-huggers will start back bitch'in about that.

Only other thing I can think of would be reusable bags on an exchange program ?
 
Uptosnuff said:
Our city council is considering a ban on plastic bags. I know that many other places have already done this and I really hope they pass it. I have been using my own bags for years now and they work really well. I have heard people complain about the cost of reusable bags and frankly, I think that's a poor excuse. You can get reusable bags for free from so many places and events.

I believe in other places they have considered charging people for the bags (tax), rewarding people for using their own bags, and outright banning them. They are considering the ban here because they say you get the best result from an outright ban.


What do you think? Does your city or state have a plastic bag ban? Does it affect people? Good, bad?
Click to expand...

I'm all for it. Plastic bags and bottles too. They have been a scourge on the environment.

<font size="3">

Will the state I currently reside in ever have a ban on them? Not in any foreseeable future. I live in Alabama. A state that closes all government offices every year in honor of Jefferson Davis' birthday.
 
rgp said:
I just wonder what that is going to do to the grocery pickup service? Paper?....then the tree-huggers will start back bitch'in about that.

Only other thing I can think of would be reusable bags on an exchange program ?
Click to expand...

Good point. I wonder if they could use boxes. I know grocery stores get a ton of boxes they need to dispose of. Natural Grocers provides boxes to their shoppers in place of any kind of bag. You either bring in your own bag or use their boxes.
 
Our ban goes into effect next spring.

For me and the environment, it will be a wash because I use the grocery store plastic bags for my trash and now I will have to buy a comparable amount of trash bags.

I'm not clear if the ban will only involve grocery stores or if it will involve stores like Walmart, Target, Best Buy, etc...

The local stores will be allowed to sell paper bags if customers don't have a reusable bag but one store has pointed out that the paper bags are not environmentally friendly. In addition, it will cost more to ship paper bags to stores because they take up more room in the trucks by a ratio of 7 truckloads of paper bags to replace one truckload of plastic bags.

Its time has come even it's only a token gesture towards the environment.

I have my hippie granny sack for small trips and a couple of larger reusable bags that started life as cattle feed bags.
 
To answer the original question directly, "single use" plastic bags are not banned here. We routinely use our own cloth shopping bags (laundered frequently) for larger shopping trips and use the stores' free plastic (or paper) bags for incidental trips. Our larger stores give us back 5 cents for every bag of our own that we use - even "single use" plastic bags as long as they will safely hold our products. The plastic store bags that we bring home are reused for garbage. Our few paper bags are used repeatedly to collect recyclable paper. All of this is done for our convenience rather than from any bandwagon "save the planet" mindset.

Biodegradable and compostable plastics have been around for some time and are constantly getting better. Rather than banning plastic bags, I'd rather see strong enforcement of strict anti-littering laws. When we lived in Anchorage, Alaska in the mid-1980s, the fine of littering was $1000 and the law was enforced, both by the police and by the courts.
 
Same as keesha said.... We still have single use plastic bags, in smaller stores they cost 5p..supermarkets 10p... and stonger ones anything up to £2..

I take my own now, I use Jute bags. and string bags.. But I do kick myself on occasions when I forget to take them and have to pay for one!!

400x400.png
71KpH6PDhbL._SX466_.jpg
 
We still get plastic in CT, except for Aldi. I bring my own and have been for quite a while. These and plastic bottles need to go, he sooner the better! Now, if you have a well with inadequate water, that would be different.

There are very few stores here that will sell grains, flour, cereals, oils and vinegars in your own packaging, whether glass jars or whatever reusable container you bring.

Every toy in the world is made of plastic.

My answer is yes.
 
I've posted before that DW and I have been working with a local environmental group for 30+ years. We're trying to ban all plastic bags in the county. People just refuse to change and to carry reusable bags, even when given out for free. One of my (many) pet peeves. Everyone complains about environmental issues, but few do anything to mitigate problems.
So yes, ban them.

May I add --- the next largest problem with plastic is straws. We're also trying to get restaurants to either use paper straws, or not automatically hand out straws when one is given a beverage. We'll never get them banned, but raising awareness about the tonnage of plastic straws in the environment is the primary goal, along with people refusing to use plastic straws. They are not needed.
 
retiredtraveler said:
I've posted before that DW and I have been working with a local environmental group for 30+ years. We're trying to ban all plastic bags in the county. People just refuse to change and to carry reusable bags, even when given out for free. One of my (many) pet peeves. Everyone complains about environmental issues, but few do anything to mitigate problems.
So yes, ban them.

May I add --- the next largest problem with plastic is straws. We're also trying to get restaurants to either use paper straws, or not automatically hand out straws when one is given a beverage. We'll never get them banned, but raising awareness about the tonnage of plastic straws in the environment is the primary goal, along with people refusing to use plastic straws. They are not needed.
Click to expand...

No, straws are not needed except for the ill. Good work, RT.
 
Austin was one of the first US cities to implement a bag ban. It was a hassle, and a big inconvenience, until we got used to it. Now, the ban has been ruled illegal, so stores are slowly bringing back plastic bags, albeit the newer bio degradable ones. Far better for the environment. I'm all for that.
 
Banning these things is fine but I think that we really need to look at an individuals overall impact on the environment.

In my area it is very common to see enourmous 4 wheel drive vehicles driven by folks that never travel on anything rougher than the parking lot at Walmart.

Also the idea of eating produce that has been flown or trucked halfway round the world.

Relying on the central heating and airconditioning instead of dressing or undressing for the weather.

The banning of plastic bags, bottles and straws seem like small symbolic gestures to me.
 
Not such a small symbolic gesture.

The world's largest collection of ocean garbage is growing.

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch, a collection of plastic, floating trash halfway between Hawaii and California, has grown to more than 600,000 square miles, a study found. That's twice the size of Texas.

Winds and converging ocean currents funnel the garbage into a central location, said study lead author Laurent Lebreton of the Ocean Cleanup Foundation, a non-profit organization that spearheaded the research.

First discovered in the early 1990s, the trash in the patch comes from around the Pacific Rim, including nations in Asia and North and South America, Lebreton said.

The patch is not a solid mass of plastic. It includes about 1.8 trillion pieces and weighs 88,000 tons — the equivalent of 500 jumbo jets. The new figures are as much as 16 times higher than previous estimates.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/science/2018/03/22/great-pacific-garbage-patch-grows/446405002/
Click to expand...
 
RT , most places if not all have now changed to paper straws here, and many places from plastic cutlery to wood ( like a balsa wood)

Also C'est Moi and RR..our Aldi's does provide Plastic bags, there's 3 different prices ranging from 5p to 50p
 
Holly--our Aldi's has the bags for sale, too. But unless you ask for them, you don't get bagged. :D (And actually, you still don't get bagged; they just hand you the bag and you are left to your own devices as far as bagging goes.)
 
Aunt Bea said:
Banning these things is fine but I think that we really need to look at an individuals overall impact on the environment.

In my area it is very common to see enourmous 4 wheel drive vehicles driven by folks that never travel on anything rougher than the parking lot at Walmart.

Also the idea of eating produce that has been flown or trucked halfway round the world.

Relying on the central heating and airconditioning instead of dressing or undressing for the weather.

The banning of plastic bags, bottles and straws seem like small symbolic gestures to me.
Click to expand...

Absolutely! People state they want clean air, but best-selling vehicle in America is an F150.
And yes, they sit around in their homes in dead of winter in a tee shirt, and blast the A/C in the summer.
And yes, produce being shipped from all over is more air pollution.
And no home should be without low-flow shower heads.
But wrong on plastic bans being 'symbolic'. Do you realize all water now contains microplastic. That includes bottled water. That plastic is also transferred to foods when washed. So, we're all consuming plastic on a daily basis. No symbolism here.
 
Aunt Bea said:
Our ban goes into effect next spring..... it will be a wash because I use the grocery store plastic bags for my trash and now I will have to buy a comparable amount of trash bags...
Click to expand...

I don't get that one, if you're recycling. Wife and I don't put out a garbage bag more than every 10 weeks. Virtually everything is compostable or recyclable. All food scraps get composted or simply left outdoors for the critters. No food is ever put in garbage. All your cans, bottles, cardboard, chipboard, paper, plastic, are recyclable. And wife and I volunteer to bag styrofoam for a center that our group set up, so that is now recyclable around here (but almost no place else). Meat packaging can be tossed. I don't know what kinds of things people don't think they can't recycle.
 
I wish they would ban them here. I often take my own bags but sometimes not.

Some stores like Kroger don't train their baggers very well. They use 15 plastic bags when 3 would work fine. I hate sorting thru that when I get home.

And most plastic bags are so cheaply made and tear easily; I'm often afraid to use them when I scoop the litterbox and use 2 at a time. ugh... :yuk:
 
retiredtraveler said:
I don't get that one, if you're recycling. Wife and I don't put out a garbage bag more than every 10 weeks. Virtually everything is compostable or recyclable. All food scraps get composted or simply left outdoors for the critters. No food is ever put in garbage. All your cans, bottles, cardboard, chipboard, paper, plastic, are recyclable. And wife and I volunteer to bag styrofoam for a center that our group set up, so that is now recyclable around here (but almost no place else). Meat packaging can be tossed. I don't know what kinds of things people don't think they can't recycle.
Click to expand...
This is admirable but may ask what you mean by tossing meat packaging?
I like the idea of feeding outdoor critters but we would attract dangerous critters to our home. With domestic animals on the premise it wouldn’t work here.

It’s still impressive though.
 

You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top