Posted on 09/25/2007 8:24:07 AM PDT by Cat loving Texan
Bag the Bags Coalition will gather petition signatures, raise money for canvas bag giveaway
By Sarah Coppola AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Plastic bags will no longer be an option at most Austin checkout counters if a group of residents gets its way.
The Bag the Bags Coalition began a campaign Monday to stop grocery stores and large retailers from offering petroleum-based plastic shopping bags. It wants stores to offer canvas bags, recycled paper bags or compostable plastic bags instead.
The coalition will gather petition signatures to show the City Council that there is support for a ban. Also, it hopes to raise money to buy 500,000 canvas bags to give away, coalition founder Rick Cofer said.
"We've become accustomed to the convenience of plastic bags, but they are actually quite decadent," he said.
San Francisco banned plastic shopping bags this spring, and other cities, including El Paso and Philadelphia, are considering bans.
The U.S. uses 100 billion plastic bags a year, but only 2 percent are recycled, said David Foster of Clean Water Action. Most end up in landfills, where they don't decompose, he said.
Heftier bags (such as those provided by department stores) would be allowed because they can more readily be reused, Cofer said.
At the urging of Council Member Lee Leffingwell, the Austin City Council agreed in April to study ways to limit the use of plastic bags. Leffingwell said Monday that he prefers a voluntary approach.
scoppola@statesman.com; 912-2939
Oh yea, encourage them to put more smug in the environment.. thanks a lot..
Excepting the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center, because that's where I'm gonna be married in a few months.
And, BTW, you're all invited.
As the article points out, plastic bags are recyclable. They would actually probably me more successfull with a campaign urging people to recycle them. They could even offer to go door-to-door once a month or so collecting everyone’s plastic bags.
Will there be a live thread?
:)
“They could even offer to go door-to-door once a month or so collecting everyone’s plastic bags...”
They can start with the ones I use to pick up my dog’s poo
Dumb ass students.
Idiots who 30 years earlier were BANNING PAPER BAGS!!!!!!
Point and laugh folks.
We should not suffer these fools gladly.
I live in the northern suburbs of Austin in Williamson County. We get to enjoy some of the nice things about Austin, without having to live there.
So far, we are immune from the insanity of Austinites.
“They would actually probably me more successfull with a campaign urging people to recycle them.”
They make pretty good liners for my small trash cans. I use them as trash bags when I clean out my vehicles. I throw, literally, a handfull away on grocery day, maybe once a month.
When I say handful, I mean I can wad them up and fit them in a take-out coffee cup.
This is just silly.
they also work well for cleaning litter boxes
People living in this country have WAAAAAY too much free time on their hands.
Anytime you see “Coalition” think Communist.
I recycle mine as trash can liners and use them to pack items in my luggage.
Make it easier and more economic to recycle - or use paper, etc. Don’t just wipe out by trash sacks!
The plastic grocery bag is the main reason the dog park in my neighborhood changed from mine field to idyllic retreat. Prohibiting plastic bags will set community hygiene back a generation.
Wasn’t the point of plastic bags to save trees?
Wasn’t part of the reason stores switched to plastic bags was that the environmentalists whined about too many trees being cut down for paper bags?
I call them totalitarian mamas.
I live a little north of the PRA (People’s Republic of Austin). The idiocy of the people of Austin is epic. Anyone that can look at a plastic grocery bag and arrive at a conclusion of ‘decadence’ has way too much time on their hands. As has been pointed out here earlier, these plastic bags exist because of the tree huggers demands in the 1970s and 1980s. Liberal thinking is inherently flawed because of it’s circular logic. It eventually travels full circle and must consume itself.
That is what they were saying back then. They asked to make the switch to plastic bags to save the trees.
If Austin would allow the Austin Statesman newspaper, that would save enough trees to save the planet( from noxious gases that is)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.