Crazy L.A. Bans Plastic Grocery Bags and Imposes a 10 Cent Charge on Paper

[Jack Springer]

No more "plastic or paper" in L. A. They've decided to ban plastic in 6 to 12 months and almost banned paper bags.

No one likes pollution, but this crazy.

Looks like the poor are going to strapped with another tax. If the poor can't afford re-useable bags -- what do they do.

Also, wasn't there some research done about how re-usable bags help transmit bugs.

Ban on plastic bags at L.A. markets is approved - latimes.com

 

[chrisrobin]

Looks like the poor are going to strapped with another tax. If the poor can't afford re-useable bags -- what do they do.

Send them to death camps.

But seriously Jack, this sudden interest in the poor is fascinating. I am neither rich nor poor, but I do have a couple of canvas bags that were free. The "bugs" issue comes up because of leaky packages of meat - the bacteria. The solution would be to avoid leaky packages. Grocery stores could assume some responsibility for this.

L.A. is a big place - 12 million people or so. Imagine one plastic bag per person per week. For all practical purposes, the landfills are filling much too quickly.

 

[TheFireGod]

I suppose these same people that wanted plastic bags to be banned will be protesting the big corporation that makes and sells them because now people will have to buy their own little trashbin liners instead of getting it for free at the stores.

Hope the women wearing these bags gives it away or recycles them. Hope they enjoy having a stinking wet trash wall.

 

[yeahright1991]

Oh dear....This is just insane. Just so insane. Not just LA but California laws in general are f-ed up.

 

[CowboyBob]

Oh my God, it's the end of civilization as we know it.

Take a long your reusable cloth bag and use it when you shop. Most supermarkets sell them for under a dollar or give them away. My bank has piles of them near the door for people to take.

Problem solved.

PS... since when are you so concerned about the poor anyway?

 

[Benvolio]

I think a better solution is for power companies to burn garbage in their coal burning power plants, saving money on fuel and reducing landfills and that expense.

 

[nondescript]

Seems like a reasonable decision. Apparently there is an area of ocean the size of America where the plastic trash of the world accumulates - you can literally step out of the boat and walk on top the plastic.

This stuff will still be here in 100,000 years - killing birds, fish, etc.

Paper and reusable canvas or cotton bags are the way to go.

 

[Kulindahr]

Paper? Plastic?

Both are stupid: we should be using hemp.

Hemp is stronger than paper, and can be thrown in the laundry once a month in case of leaky meat or veggies or fruit. And when it starts to wear out, you can use it as a trash bag.

 

[Rolyo85]

I'm trying to be outraged, but somehow I fail.

Also, if a person is too poor to buy a reusable bag, they would be too poor to buy anything to put in it anyway...

 

[Kulindahr]

Seems like a reasonable decision. Apparently there is an area of ocean the size of America where the plastic trash of the world accumulates - you can literally step out of the boat and walk on top the plastic.

This stuff will still be here in 100,000 years - killing birds, fish, etc.

Paper and reusable canvas or cotton bags are the way to go.

That's a little over stated on the plastic in the gyre -- but it makes the point. The actual size where there's significant density is roughly the size of Alaska. You actually can't walk on it because the vast majority of material is small pellet-sized stuff, which floats barely at the surface and in the top foot of water. Other means of measuring have it as much as 2500 miles long and 1600 wide.

It's been estimated to contain enough plastic to match all the plastic packaging in the US at a given moment -- I don't know if that includes grocery bags.

There have been some efforts at figuring out ways to clean it up, but there's no real incentive since it's in no shape to be recycled. I'll note here, though, that if we had some "anything to oil" plants up and running, they could handle the stuff . . . if someone can figure out how to harvest it, and how many years it would take.


Oh -- Great Pacific Garbage Patch - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- pretty good coverage.

 

[LuvFindsAndyHardy]

Looks like the poor are going to strapped with another tax. If the poor can't afford re-useable bags -- what do they do.

I'm sensing a theme here:

But seriously Jack, this sudden interest in the poor is fascinating.

PS... since when are you so concerned about the poor anyway?

BTW, what an insulting thread to poor people.

The answer, gentlemen, is simple. Springer pretends to have a passing concern about the poor only when he can use them as a front for another of his "loony lefty California" threads. His hatred of the left knows no limits and if he's forced to express a hollow concern for the poor in the course of that hatred then well, he's willing to "man up" (THAT'S commitment!)

In Boston you get a discount when you bring your own reusable bags, by the way.

 

[Telstra]

Over here,
we have to pay for plastic bags for years. Most people bring their own bag or pay a 15c per plastic bag.

 

[rareboy]

Toronto imposed a 5 cent surcharge on plastic bags and the use of plastic dropped by 50 per cent. No one has paper any more so that isn't an option.

The amount of wasted plastic bags is staggering. The world has to stop using them.


You know what was really depressing?

Being out in the Sahara desert and seeing discarded plastic bags littering the landscape.

In India, discarded plastic bags clogged the sewers, resulting in flooding that resulted in deaths.

The US is appallingly behind the rest of the western world in reducing the amount of waste generated per capita and the recycling programs in most cities are quite poor. Or non-existent.

We have used re-useable, recycled plastic fibre bags for a decade now.

So can you Jack.

 

[Jack Springer]

You got it guys, I hate poor people.

I also hate puppies, sunsets, walks along the beach.

 

[rareboy]

^ No. Frankly we don't think you really give two shits about the poor except to use them when convenient to complain about what those damned socialists are trying to do with the US of A.

 

[T-Rexx]

Over here,
we have to pay for plastic bags for years. Most people bring their own bag or pay a 15c per plastic bag.

Virtually the entire developed world uses this same approach, and has for decades - except the United States.

As you can see from the OP, Republicans are consistently resistant to the USA adopting measures that have worked for decades for the rest of the world. Republicans, as a rule, tend to prefer policies of proven failure over policies of proven success. I've never understood why.

 

[CowboyBob]

Virtually the entire developed world uses this same approach, and has for decades - except the United States.

As you can see from the OP, Republicans are consistently resistant to the USA adopting measures that have worked for decades for the rest of the world. Republicans, as a rule, tend to prefer policies of proven failure over policies of proven success. I've never understood why.

It's fear of change. Republicans and conservatives fear change. That's why they're called conservatives. They also view change as "big brother pushing us around" and "someone telling us what to do".

I'm sensing a theme here:


The answer, gentlemen, is simple. Springer pretends to have a passing concern about the poor only when he can use them as a front for another of his "loony lefty California" threads. His hatred of the left knows no limits and if he's forced to express a hollow concern for the poor in the course of that hatred then well, he's willing to "man up" (THAT'S commitment!)

In Boston you get a discount when you bring your own reusable bags, by the way.

Exactly. This is what this thread is all about. All encompassing blind hatred and trembling fear for anything progressive.

 

[palbert]

Poor Jack, you world is collapsing.

I have used my own bags for years. You should start. Apologies for telling you what to do. My bad.

 

[Jack Springer]

Sorry, if you can't restrain yourselves in proper use and disposing of trash bags and you need the government to tell you what you can and can't do on a very simple matter.

Maybe your local government can come up with more ways to interact within you personal life.

 

[Kulindahr]

The answer, gentlemen, is simple. Springer pretends to have a passing concern about the poor only when he can use them as a front for another of his "loony lefty California" threads. His hatred of the left knows no limits and if he's forced to express a hollow concern for the poor in the course of that hatred then well, he's willing to "man up" (THAT'S commitment!)

In Boston you get a discount when you bring your own reusable bags, by the way.

Discounts here for using your own bags range from two to seven cents per bag -- and they don't cram them extra heavy to save pennies, either.

I saw a cute one the other day -- the bottom, on the inside, said "WASH ME".