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A Plattsmouth woman's widower has sued Wal-Mart and the maker of its plastic bags, alleging an overfilled bag given to her at a Bellevue store broke, and, in a strange twist, led to her death. William Freis of Plattsmouth said his wife, Lynette, went grocery shopping April 16, 2010, at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on 15th Street and the cashier gave her one plastic bag for two 42-ounce cans of La Choy and a 2-pound bag of rice. On her way to the car, the bag broke and one of the cans of La Choy fell on her right foot, breaking...

City Councilmembers and advocates announced a plan today to slap a 10 cent charge on all plastic and paper carry-out bags at grocery and retail stores across New York City. Customers would be required to bring their own bags or pay the fee, which stores would get to pocket, according to the proposed legislation, unveiled this afternoon at City Hall.

On Friday, New Jersey Democratic operative James Devine was arrested for attempting to snatch $22 worth of merchandise from a local ShopRite pharmacy. Devine tried to smuggle lettuce, shampoo and protein powder out of the store, perhaps trying to hide the fact that he was about to make the world’s most disgusting salad. To avoid detection, he stashed the goods in a reusable grocery bag. What seems to be just another edition of Democrats doing dumb deeds actually represents a nationwide problem. Thanks to laws in several major cities banning the use of plastic carryout bags in retail stores, there...

The Montgomery County Council is considering an outright ban on plastic bags. Council members are scheduled to hear a review of the county's bag tax, which was implemented in January 2012. As part of that review, a council committee will discuss whether to ban plastic bags, ban both plastic and paper bags, increase the tax or leave it alone. The bag tax brought in about $2.3 million last year for 57.6 million bags, according to the Department of Finance. The benefit to banning plastic bags, according to council staff, would be to effectively force shoppers to use reusable bags, and...

When the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a ban on plastic bags and required businesses to charge a nickel for paper bags, city leaders believed it would be better all around. "I think we've gotten to a place where it's really going to work for the environment, businesses and the community in general," Councilman Mike O'Brien said at the time. But the bag ban is contributing to thousands of dollars in losses for at least one Seattle grocery store, and questions have been raised about the risk of food-borne illness from reusable bags that shoppers don't often wash.

Abstract: Recently, many jurisdictions have implemented bans or imposed taxes upon plastic grocery bags on environmental grounds. San Francisco County was the first major US jurisdiction to enact such a regulation, implementing a ban in 2007. There is evidence, however, that reusable grocery bags, a common substitute for plastic bags, contain potentially harmful bacteria. We examine emergency room admissions related to these bacteria in the wake of the San Francisco ban. We find that ER visits spiked when the ban went into effect. Relative to other counties, ER admissions increase by at least one fourth, and deaths exhibit a similar...

Assemblyman Marc Levine announced today he will revive a proposal banning all single-use plastic bags in California grocery stores. Under the proposal, most grocery retailers could no longer provide thin plastic bags for customers starting in 2015. For 18 months, retailers could offer paper bags made of recycled materials or reusable plastic bags for customers to bag their milk, eggs and other groceries. Starting in July 2016, grocery retailers could only provide reusable plastic bags, which many stores already offer at a fee. The new proposal, Assembly Bill 158, also leaves room for stores to provide recycled paper bags at...

The cost of a ban or fee on plastic bags in New Jersey would most likely be passed on to customers, representatives from Bergen County grocery stores said. The state legislature is weighing a number of bills limiting the use of plastic bags, including a proposal by Assemblyman John McKeon (D-Essex, Morris) that would impose a ban in 2017. Some stores, like Whole Foods, have already banned plastic bags. The grocery chain, which operates three stores in Bergen County, hasn't had plastic bags since 2006, Michael Sinatra, a spokesman for the company, said.

The plastic bag activists are at it again, and they are nothing, if not persistent. With the eleventh bill regulating plastic bags in less than 10 years, grocery stores don’t have a chance in California. Passed today by the Assembly, SB 1219, the latest plastic bag regulation bill, by Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, will require grocery stores to implement, manage, and report on the “At-Store Recycling Program” to the Cal Recycle state agency. . . “This bill is a really, really bad idea,” Assemblyman Tim Donnelly, R-Hesperia, said on the Assembly floor during debate Tuesday. “Plastics manufacturers are leaving the...

From the Property and Environment Research Center, here’s a thought-provoking little vid about why we should all think a little more deeply about the unintended consequences of even our best intentions before we push for government fiat to make them a reality. The environmental movement in particular tends to be a big fan of forcing society to comply with what they deem to be virtuous behavior via government crackdown. The EPA is constantly justifying it’s many regulations by claiming that they’re only safeguarding the public’s health and welfare — for instance, that the costs of their clean-air regulations are trumped...

As Seattle's ban on plastic grocery bags goes into effect on Sunday July 1, some shoppers may not realize that they need to wash their reusable grocery bags or risk contamination with harmful bacteria. "I'm very careful about what I put in the bag, but I'm not good about washing the bag," says one Seattle shopper. That could be a problem for that Seattle shopper, as she and more than half a million others transition to using only reusable bags for their regular trips to the grocery store. A 2010 outbreak of norovirus in a group of young soccer players...

An Open Letter to Bottom Dollar Foods by Daniel Clark When Bottom Dollar Foods arrived in Pittsburgh, it immediately became my favorite grocery store. A discount supermarket that carries name brand items in addition to its store brands, it has also got reasonably-priced meats and excellent produce. Disappointingly, my shopping days at Bottom Dollar may be numbered, however, if my recent experience there turns out to be the start of a trend. As I was about to check out, I noticed that the 5-cent plastic shopping bags that normally hang near the registers were missing. The cashier informed me that...

Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation Wednesday to approve a ban on plastic bags at supermarket checkout lines, handing a major victory to clean-water advocates who sought to reduce the amount of trash clogging landfills, the region’s waterways and the ocean. Egged on by actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus and an array of environmental groups, the City Council voted 13 to 1 to phase out plastic bags over the next 12 months at an estimated 7,500 stores. Councilman Bernard Parks cast the lone no vote.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — The Los Angeles City Council Wednesday approved a proposal to ban single-use plastic bags across the city. The ban was approved 13-1 and will affect 7,500 grocery stores in the city. Large retailers will have six months to phase out the bags, while small retailers would have one year. Paper bags would also cost customers 10 cents. City Councilman Eric Garcetti, who recently announced his candidacy for the mayor of L.A., told KNX 1070 NEWSRADIO less than 5 percent of the bags used across the city ever reach a recycling bin. "Tese plastic bags clog our...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Shoppers in San Francisco will have to pay 10 cents per bag and more retailers are now banned from handing out plastic bags under a proposal approved Tuesday by the city's Board of Supervisors. San Francisco already bans large grocery stores and chain pharmacies from using plastic bags, which are blamed for clogging landfills and waterways. The proposal extends that ban to restaurants and to gift shops, hardware stores, boutiques and other retailers.

With the Seattle City Council expected to vote on a plastic bag ban Monday, is it time to bid farewell to something Seattleites use 292 million of a year? The bill would banish single-use, carryout bags in not just grocery stores, but department stores, clothing stores, liquor stores, drug stores and home improvement stores. Customers would be able to buy paper bags from retailers for 5 cents each. Customers on food assistance would be exempted from that charge. With seven of nine council members sponsoring the bill – and support from environmental and grocery-store groups – the future doesn’t look...

Austin retailers and grocery stores could no longer offer plastic bags at checkout counters under a ban Mayor Lee Leffingwell and two other City Council members will propose today . The ban would be phased in gradually, though it's not clear when it would start. Leffingwell said Sunday that plastic bags pollute waterways, harm wildlife, clog drainage systems and take up landfill space, where they don't biodegrade. A January report from the city's Solid Waste Services Department said Austinites use 263 million plastic bags a year, and the bags cost the city $850,000 a year to put in landfills and...

Anti-plastic-bag forces got a boost today when the California Supreme Court ruled that an environmental impact report is not necessary before a city or county bans the use of plastic shopping bags. The decision strikes down rulings by trial and appellate courts in Los Angeles in the legal fight over an ordinance enacted in 2008 by the south coastal city of Manhattan Beach banning "point-of-sale plastic carry-out bags." Both courts said the city had to prepare an EIR before implementing its ban. "We disagree," a unanimous Supreme Court stated.

Los Angeles County passed a major ban last night on plastic bags, according to the LA Times. Beginning in July, 67 large supermarkets and pharmacies will stop providing plastic. By 2012, the ban will cover 1,000 local stores. They will also charge a 10-cent surcharge for paper bags. Although the ban will affect only the unincorporated areas outside L.A., it's seen as a model for the rest of the California -- as will be the lawsuit that might follow. Outside of California this idea seems years away at best. But it could only help local businesses, which wouldn't have to...

Under new changes to the ban on plastic bags in Brownsville, shoppers will be charged an extra dollar for every transaction in which they use plastic bags after the ban goes into effect. Starting January 5, the use of plastic bags will be banned inside the Brownsville city limits in effort to go green. "We want to have a beautiful city,” Commissioner Edward Camarillo said. “We want to make sure that we take care of the environment." The surcharge would be handed out by the stores.