Banning Plastic Bags
photo credit: racreations
The Los Angeles City Council took a bold step July 22 when it voted to ban plastic shopping bags in grocery and retail stores by July 2010 if California fails to impose a 25-cent fee on every shopper who requests them. I support the ban- not the fee for shopping bags.
Here in Lakeland, the Publix Associates Political Action Committee opposes such a measure. Instead, they want consumers to have a choice. This is what they have to say on the issue:
“Publix supports efforts to protect our environment and reduce the number of plastic bags sent to landfills every year. We believe this is best done by encouraging recycling and the use of reusable bags, not by government-imposed bans or fees on bags.”
As much as I would love to believe that a full-blown marketing and public relations campaign would not only educate every Polk County citizen on the importance of using canvas or other types of reusable bags for shopping, but also spur in them a burning desire to actually do so, I can’t persuade myself to be that optimistic. Here’s why:
Even the store clerks don’t seem to buy into the notion that reusable is the way to go. Or that too many plastic bags make it into the landfill each year. I have a bazillion examples, but let me just share three:
A couple of months ago, my husband and I bought a pair of leather flip flops from the Beall’s in the North Lakeland Best Buy shopping center. I had forgotten my reusable shopping bags in the car, so I told the sales clerk that I didn’t need a bag (it was just one pair of flip flops, after all). The girl told me “we have to give you a bag.” Perhaps, but I don’t have to accept it. I repeated that I didn’t want a bag and grabbed the shoes as my husband paid. The girl acted positively pissed.
On Sunday, my husband and I rode our bikes to Walgreen’s to get some milk and some soup that was on sale. I told the girl as she was putting the milk in a plastic bag that she didn’t need to double-bag it. After all, we were going to put it in our backpacks. She pulled the milk out of the bag altogether. I thought, that’s fine, I really don’t need the bag. Then she took the unused bag and threw it in the garbage. I made her pull it back out and put my soup in it. I didn’t want the bag. But I quickly did the math and decided I’d rather her give me the bag because at least I would recycle it, rather than throw it in the trash.
On the occasions when I’ve forgotten my reusable bags while grocery shopping at Publix, I get so disgusted at how many plastic bags I come home with. I’ll have bags with two items in them. I’ll have 10 bags of groceries, and I know I could have fit all those groceries into 4 reusable bags.
I am not one who believes that the government typically does a great job at solving problems. But when I look at the alternatives, I don’t see how anything but a hard-line approach from government is going to break our habits of carelessness and apathy when it comes to the environment.
If we don’t impose an outright ban on plastic bags, what incentive is there for EVERYONE to quit using them? There’s always going to be a core group of concerned citizens who attempt to do their part, no matter how inconvenient it might be. But what about those who have an “I don’t give a crap” attitude?
Desperate times call for not desperate, but responsible measures. It’s responsible for us to quit using non-renewable resources to make throw-away items.
I hope the Publix Associates PAC will change its stance on this issue. But if not, why don’t we, the citizens and the stewards of our environment, take action and work to persuade our elected officials to ban plastic bags?
August 4th, 2008 at 6:49 am
I’m against a ban of plastic bags. The alternative to using plastic bags would be paper bags, and then you’re cutting down more trees for less convenience. Plastic bags can be — and many are — made of easily biodegradable material like corn, so encouraging your local market to use such bags would be smart because it keeps the consumer convenience of plastic bags while making sure less petroleum is used in their manufacture.
August 4th, 2008 at 7:39 am
Give me a break. How about waste your energy on something worth wasting it on.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:08 am
Donkeyrock: Actually, the alternative to the plastic and paper bags are the reusable bags such as the one pictured.
Banning plastic bags has worked very well in Ireland.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:09 am
I would have to disagree with the ban on plastic bags. I understand your points, and I agree with your anecdotes as sort of egregious examples of waste, but I personally feel the government has absolutely no business telling me what kind of *grocery bag* I can use.
The old standby (paper) has always been there, and many stores are offering the new, reusable bags, and that is about as far as you can go without crossing the line. You can educate, you can offer, but God help you if you force.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:21 am
Chuck,
I doubt many people, maybe 10% or so, are keen on using reusable bags. The best solution would be delivery of groceries. No bags need to be used except by the delivery driver, and those can be reusable. Barring such a large shift in grocery shopping attitudes, I’d still go for the biodegradable plastic bags as they offer the best of all worlds.
August 4th, 2008 at 8:45 am
What about us who actually “reuse” those plastic bags? I’ve got a three year old and his daycare uses them. We also use them in the house for trash bags as well. I understand that banning the bags would cut down in their volume in landfills, but understand that there are going to be “victims” as well.
August 4th, 2008 at 9:48 am
“I don’t want the government telling me…” seriously? How many areas in your life, big areas does the government influence you in what you should and should not do? You seriously need to be kidding me if you are going to overlook those and get spiffed on a bag. Pick your four favorite months of the year…those four months you work your wages go straight to them, and that doesn’t make you a bit angry?
I mean, god forbid you be inconvenienced a few minutes each shopping trip to grab your own bags. And you can find great bags out there. Lacoste and Marc Jacobs make shopping bags upward of $200 if you are worried about the big green bag crashing your style.
The reality is… Think about how much junk we are leaving behind for our children. Look at your daughter, son, grandchildren…you wouldn’t consciously feed them poison but the waste of not only the bags themselves but the manufacturing process is building up in the air, soil and even the kids bodies.
If you don’t want to relinquish your precious bags because you don’t want people telling you what to do your a moron, or lazy. Neither of which I think is true. The real reason is you are afraid. Change is scary but it’s required or we will self destruct. You touch a stove, it’s hot and you get burned. Touching the sotve doesn’t work. You know that now. You don’t do it again. This is where we are at now. Have you heard of the Pacific Vortex? Look at this map, it’s huge! 10 million tons of trash, mostly plastic in our oceans. Plastic that does not decompose. And plastic has only been around for less than 150 years. 10 million tons (and plastic is light, how much takes up a ton?) in less than 150 years. And it’s not going anywhere.
I love this article, seeing how San Francisco just passed a ban on them. The youth (and young at heart) are really taking to living responsibly. A lot of people don’t understand that the “modern conveniences” so readily handed to them are products of commerce and not necessarily of sustainable interest. If we keep pushing this idea from a marketing objective that the young are going green, eventually in our desperate pursuit of youth and beauty it will catch on. Probably with less hostility than “the government will pry my plastic bag from my cold, dead hand.”
August 4th, 2008 at 10:49 am
To all those opposed to the idea of banning plastic bags, travel with me back to the days of old…before plastic bags existed. People got along fine without them. To those who reuse plastic bags, I applaud you. My plastic bags often get a second, third or fourth life before being recycled. But join me one weekend on a Keep Polk County Beautiful cleanup and you will see that plastic bags are frequently littered items. When left to float in water, they harm aquatic wildlife. Reusable bags are inexpensive- $1 each, usually- and washable. They are a wise choice, in my opinion.
August 4th, 2008 at 11:09 am
Shell, I think I will go grab a couple extra trash bags and just throw them away. Not because its the right thing to do, just because militants like yourself do nothing to help their cause (either one, we all have our militants)… and I would like to know I made your day a bit worse.
Maybe thats the pain meds talking, but I really cannot stand people who take for fact what “science” they are given, and who are willing to capitulate *any* daily freedoms they have because they figure they have already given up “too much” to the government.
You don’t like how it is? Great, try to change it. But don’t give in to this one demand because “they already control too much,” when it is just something you agree with. If there were to be a proposed ban on cellphones, or cars, or something else you need, you would be less likely to go along.
And please. San Francisco is not a model for ANY city in America, they are the most dysfunctional lot I have ever had the displeasure to come in contact with. No ROTC in the schools? You don’t want your kids in the military thats fine, but why ban it outright? Protesting the Marine Corps recruiters? Let me come down and protest you at your coffee shop, while you do *your* job.
A true bastion of “peace and love,” to be sure… as long as you agree with their beliefs, neh?
August 4th, 2008 at 11:48 am
Lorrie:
You’re entirely correct, and I didn’t mean for the argument to get out of hand here a bit ago. But the thing is, many *do* reuse their shopping bags (mine stay in the rotation until they are used to pick up dog poo, for example).
Yeah reusable bags are inexpensive, but why should we not be able to use the plastic bags if we want? What ever happened to personal responsibility, instead of dictated responsibility, know what I mean?
August 4th, 2008 at 12:30 pm
Yes, militants are evil, vial people who run around the net scheming ways of beautifying the world, believing their children have rights to healthy, fruitful lives and *gas* saving marine wildlife (THE HORROR! To trial with you for your war crimes)! And yes, there should be a ban on cellphones until there are more studies done on the effects they have on society and culture both physically and anthropologically. And as for cars, don’t get me started. I’m not saying I don’t appreciate our freedoms, I’m saying you’re getting pissed over a plastic bag.
I’ll dedicate my plastic bag bra burning to your ROTC program if you “come to the dark side”…
Semper fi, chris, semper fi.
P.S. Do I really sound like a barista?
August 4th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
Chris, I read Shell’s comment a little differently than you seemed to have read it. I think she was saying it’s silly to get worked up about something unnecessary, like the availability of plastic grocery bags, which the government may attempt to regulate, when they are already busy over-regulating things like speech (never mind the free speech zones of the Bush era, how about the Hayes Act?), and are happily laying claim to a chunk of your yearly income to boot. At least, I think she was making an allusion to taxes.
I don’t think she’s saying we might as well just keep giving in, as we have obviously reached the point of no return. I gleaned quite the opposite interpretation.
Your examples of cell phones and cars don’t further your argument, either, at least to me. Neither of these is actually necessary. They are merely modern conveniences that we take for granted today, if we are lucky enough to be in a position to do so.
I’m also a little wary of a rebuttal that includes the word science placed inside quotation marks when there is obvious physical evidence and numerous studies which are, for the majority, in agreement.
Not to mention saying you’re going to do something you admit is harmful simply to agitate your supposed enemy. That sort of juvenile attitude takes away from any legitimate point one has to make.
Back to the topic at hand, I personally try to remember my reusable bags, and I walk to the store when it’s not absolutely stifling out. But if I forget? I do tend to go with plastic because there are more convenient, I can reuse them a few times, and then I can recycle them. If my area put the kibosh on them, I don’t think I’d really care one way or the other.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
In the middle of something, so I will respond later, but wanted to clarify something:
Shell, didn’t mean to sound like I was aiming the San Fran stuff (and barista, etc) at you, that wasn’t intended as a personal attack and I’m sorry if I came off that way.
August 4th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
So why is this even a problem when there are biodegradable plastic bags already available and in use? The point of banning the plastic bags was to help the environment, but if these bags biodegrade after six months, the ban is moot.
There is already a solution to this problem, so no government interference is necessary or welcome.
Aaaaaand scene. *curtains fall* :>
August 4th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Hi Chris, I’m responding to this: “Yeah reusable bags are inexpensive, but why should we not be able to use the plastic bags if we want? What ever happened to personal responsibility, instead of dictated responsibility, know what I mean?”
I understand what you mean. But people who don’t recycle because it’s “too confusing,” “I didn’t know Publix recycled plastic bags” or whatever the lame reason of the week is likely won’t just suddenly get a clue and decide to do the right thing without some government prompting, in my opinion.
Also, I firmly believe there are other alternatives to the plastic shopping bags. For example, I have gotten free doggie doo cannisters from the City of Lakeland’s lakes and stormwater mgmt. department that dispense plastic bags for that occasion. I use the bags my newspaper comes in for the dog poop issue. What about the plastic bags your bread or bagels come in? You could even wad up a piece of newspaper and pick up poop with that. I think that if the plastic shopping bag option was taken away, we all would be resourceful and find another option. I realize that I’ve given options that still require plastic bags, but it’s simply to say that I know we won’t get rid of ALL plastic bags. But if we got rid of the easiest, most-common plastic bags, wouldn’t you agree that would help?
August 4th, 2008 at 4:47 pm
I am on Chris’ side in this one. The article wasn’t about taxes or we would be talking about taxes. The statement about plastic bags and government staying out of it, can be put to use in every aspect of our lives. The government has gotten way to big, but then we get people who will vote for politicians who are for bigger government. I mean I don’t want the government to wipe for me and it seems that we keep getting closer and closer to that day. The states on the west coast can do what they want, but don’t tell me what I need to do over here in Florida. They can keep destroying there city and state and before long the people will come around.
August 4th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Taxes didn’t have anything to do with the article, I was referring to it as an example of a way government is effecting our lives with their decisions.
Here’s the solution to all our problems: we’ll just make infinite wallets out of them. ( see the tutorial!):)
Chris,
I was so confused. I was telling people I was called a militant today over a plastic bag and then THEY were confused (which was kinda cool, mass confusion). Thank you. I’ll still burn my plastic bag bra for the ROTC if you want. It’s a good program, keeps a LOT of kids out of trouble. I didn’t know they banned it there.
P.S. I went to the grocery store today…I used a paper bag. :O (I’m on business in knoxville and their organic store was selling canvas bags…for $8 each!) I figured we could color on it afterwards. <—-GUILTY!