Posted on 05/24/2014 8:45:47 AM PDT by Kaslin
Many people question whether or not bureaucrats care about or have common sense. The best example of this is the unending debate on reusable bags and plastic bag bans. Time after time, we’ve seen the truth that bag bans and mandated usage of reusable bags does next to nothing to boost the environment. No, they kill jobs and raise costs for no good reason.
Most recently, an Edelman Berland study sought to examine how frequently so-called reusable bags were actually used. According to the study, some 61 percent of respondents stated that though they preferred the reusable option, they still used plastic bags during their most recent grocery store trip. Another 48 percent said they used plastic bags despite being well-aware of bag legislation being in place and approximately 16.4 million consumers hit grocery stores every week with “reusable” bags that haven’t been cleaned even once.
"The actual reuse rate of 'reusable' grocery bags is only around 15 times, but there is an assumption that people are reusing them at a much higher rate,” stated Jason McGrath, who headed up the research. In other words – reusable bags seldom find themselves reused, instead bought again and again, and we’re footing the bill across the board for the cycle.
It’s becoming apparent that these regulations are pointlessly wiping out jobs for minimal benefit. More than 30,000 Americans are employed in plastic bag manufacturing and recycling. Bag bans endangers those jobs at a time when workforce participation is at its lowest level since the Carter administration. That alone should be enough to merit reconsideration.
It doesn’t stop there. Studies on the impact of bag bans in cities have shown that some grocery stores have reduced their workforce by 10 percent. By contrast, stores outside the regulation’s radius upped their employment by roughly 2 percent. That looks like more than just a coincidence.
Such regulations are yielding negative economic impacts and are making no difference whatsoever. More outrageous still is the fact that these reusable bags take 70 percent more energy to produce than the plastic bags so often demonized by environmental radicals. And bag bans make up less than 1 percent of our solid waste stream.
There appears to be no benefit. On the economic front, it’s a job-killer and economic drain. Environmentally speaking plastic bags take considerably less energy to produce and the reusable bags are going unused. The bureaucrats are pushing bag bans nationwide for no obvious reason, save pacifying one radical sect and upping their own oversight.
Yet none of this is stopping California state Senator Alex Padilla. He’s on a quest to take the bag ban statewide, and it’s clear it’s only being done for the sake of rewarding those who’ve ponied up for this and other nanny state causes. Onlookers have repeatedly shown that his proposal would line the pockets of contributors to his campaigns and causes. And, he is also running for secretary of state this year.
The bill, which would be the first statewide ban in the nation, advanced out of the Natural Resources Committee days ago, meaning time is running short to stop this madness.
We can do better than this kind of excessive government that benefits no one than the regulators run amok with power. It’s past time to rein in that kind of nonsense and start respecting the taxpayers.
At the end of the day, plastic bag bans are an utterly nonsensical waste of resources and time. They must be abandoned at once, lest an entire industry continue to be put on the line for an utterly useless reason.
Watch the libs threaten Walmart with banning their plastic bags.
Make the most of what you have to work with, it's the American way!
That’s true about the doggie waste. This morning we “repurposed” two of our grocery store bags. I’m betting that these greenies are all about the little stations in parks where you can get plastic bags to use to pick up dog waste. We just reuse what we get at the grocery store. And my main gripe is that the reusable bags are not washed and become gross very quickly. Milk and meat are two things that go into bags and leave residue. Premade soup and veggies do too. And the people who use them plop them down on the conveyer belt where I’m then supposed to put mine. Our local Whole Foods store (I do love fresh ground peanut butter) used to have over half the people using the reusable and charging extra for bags. They have changed the policy on charging extra for bags and the number of reusables are dropping so hopefully the publicity is working. Decades ago Mr. Mercat and I helped start a tiny food coop (its now a huge supermarket) One of the main problems is people reusing bags which created roach problems. Of course we couldn’t wouldn’t use pesticides so we got shut down by the health department. Mr M and I moved on.
When your community thinks about banning plastic bags, make sure to demand plastic bags for newspapers (when it rains) be bannded. That will make the liberal press go, “What??”
Paper, please.
Maui cpunty Hawaii banned then on the entire island. Wal-mart included.
Awww the good old days when we were banning paper bags.
Plastic bags are constantly re-used in our household. Many of them are used for taking the kitty litter scoopings out to the bin. If I didn’t have the used bags from the grocery, I’d have to buy new trash bags or go back to using bread bags.
Good points. The reusable bags are a vector for insects, and for bacteria that form from seepage from meats and liquids. They are a health hazard to those that recycle the bags and to those of us that share the conveyer belts at the checkout stand.
Another example of simple-minded nanny-staters deciding what’s good for all of us, and then using the bludgeoning force of government to force their ill-considered views on the rest of us.
Analogous to global warming (”climate change”/”climate disruption”/etc.)
“When your community thinks about banning plastic bags, make sure to demand plastic bags for newspapers (when it rains) be bannded. That will make the liberal press go, “What??””
Excellent point!
My cub and I sometimes go on a mutual shopping trip when she is working in the same area as I work and live-here in BFE-to a favorite meat-and produce market. But I won’t let her get into my vehicle with those icky cloth bags, because they are germ factories-she won’t bleach them after use-spoils the pretty colors. So she either uses plastic like I do, or no hauling a months’ groceries in mom’s 4x4.
Besides, I use the plastic grocery bags for cleaning the cats’ litter boxes, lining my trash cans, cleaning the ashes out of the grill, etc-now that is recycling...
And that’s the whole point. Cats and dogs aren’t going to stop pooping, trash isn’t going to stop needing to be packed out, ashes aren’t going to stop being produced, so what we’re going to have to do is replace all those formerly reusable plastic grocery bags by going out and buying single use... plastic bags.
The only single use plastic bags I buy are the big ones for garbage and trash-I separate the trash from the recycle stuff-which is about 80% of the trash-for the pick-up service. There is no “food” trash-it all goes out for animals in the woods.
As far as I live from any grocery store, paper bags are a waste-any moisture from fresh or frozen veggies or meat has the bags melted and groceries all over the cargo area of the 4x4 by the time I get home-a total mess. I don’t see any sense in not recycling the plastic grocery bags-they are just as good or better than the “bought” bags for trash can liners and other household use...
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