Tonight, the City Council will discuss drafting a city ordinance banning plastic bags at grocery stores. Since I’m too lazy to get to a City Council meeting to ask these questions, I very much hope someone has already asked them:
How much money would it cost to make sure that everyone in the City knows that these plastic bags are absolutely 100% recyclable? (Every other week, of course!)
Clearly, bags used to carry raw meats should not be reused without being washed. Are people doing this? What about seniors and lower-income shoppers for whom this will be a burden?
What happens to much the bulkier reusable bags when they can no longer be reused? What is the plan for ensuring these don’t “clog our rivers”?
I just read that using the Higgs Boson mass, scientists were able to literally calculate the date of the end of the universe. But the biodegradable plastic bag is an impenetrable scientific barrier?
If this ban were in place, we would live in a county where drug addicts can exchange needles but shoppers cannot ask for plastic bags. I actually don’t have a question for this one, just wanted to irresponsibly and annoyingly connect those two facts.
What are your thoughts on plastic bag bans?
Tonight, the City Council will discuss drafting a city ordinance banning plastic bags at grocery stores. Since I’m too lazy to get to a City Council meeting to ask these questions, I very much hope someone has already asked them:
The Sac Rag 
Idiots. When our local grocery store stopped carrying plastic bags, we ordered a box of 1000 from uline.com. We use those for so many things around the house; we can’t live without them.
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Best to take your head out of the sand, Dear, and buy a little canvas bag or two for a dollar apiece. You may want to catch up on the state of our planet earth after impact from lazy thinking and lazy acting folks, rather than trying to think up ridiculous reasons for how to get around behaving responisbly.
My God, what is the burden to low income and seniors?
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Hi Jill, thanks for your comment.
These non recyclable shopping bags should not be reused without washing after carrying raw meats, I assume. People who lack the resources to wash them weekly in hot water with bleach are going to be more likely to sicken themselves.
As far as lazy thinking goes, I’d like to remind you that our city is so broke it can’t afford to employ enough police officers to keep us safe, and yet it spends its time considering pet projects like this. And also consider that it recently cut its recycling pickup program in half, which was a curious step for body that is looking to cause less environmental damage.
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Yeah, comments!
Are we arguing that the city doesn’t spend its money wisely?
Or, that plastic bags are better than paper are better than canvas?
Or, the research paper published last year by professors at the University of Pennsylvania and George Mason University regarding San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags having a significant negative repercussions on public health? You know, because of poor cleaning habits?
I think there is plenty of room to point fingers to the left and the right here, we just need to get a little organized first.
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There are people in Sacramento who don’t have access to bleach and hot water? My goodness, things are pretty bad. I had no idea we were living in a third world city. Where are these people? Maybe I can bring them some bleach and a cauldron.
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I’m taking a little from column A and a little from column B. This won’t fix or worsen the city’s budget hole, but their time costs money too. Obviously governments don’t spend all of their time addressing only the most pressing problems, but at this level it seems like more time should be spent on service delivery and less on the latest fad.
Somebody definitely needs to press the council on the public health concerns.
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RonTopofIt is always wrong.
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Hard to argue against the time spent on service delivery point, CoolDMZ. And, yes, this totally comes off as a misguided focus on the latest fad.
However, are we asking for *more* government involvement in our lives by pressing the council on the public health concerns of people not washing their bags properly?
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Good question. I guess ideally the health concern would be something everyone can weigh for themselves, but by banning plastic bags and creating heavier use of the reusable bags the council is taking that responsibility out of peoples’ hands which might end up making a public health situation where there isn’t one now. I wouldn’t personally consider a public service campaign an overreach in and of itself.
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I’m with you on the banning angle. Let people decide paper, plastic, or other. If plastic doesn’t match up with your sensibilities, then Rock the Tote©.
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When Sacramento suddenly pursues silly laws (anti Iraq war resolution, a ban doing business with certain Arizona companies, to name a couple) it usually is just leading indicator of looming budget crisis or a Dept of Utilities scandal.
Hope that makes everyone feel better about this.
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Things to look forward to:
http://vitals.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/05/09/11604166-reusable-grocery-bag-carried-nasty-norovirus-scientists-say?lite
Also, the cauldron comment was ironic because it made me think of a witch.
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Jill I missed your second comment. Wow, comments! Who knew?
There would be people on a fixed income for whom each change to what they have to purchase has to be weighed. As for donating bleach and cauldrons, that’s a great idea. Have you not heard of collecting things like toilet paper and toothpaste for people who visit food banks? Not all these people are homeless.
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Thanks for the tip on ordering plastic bags! I am pro-choice when it comes to shopping bags. U.S. out of my shopping cart.
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Senior citizen w/cats & litterbox; scoop poop into 1 plastic bag/day….or WHAT?? It doesn’t flush; paper isn’t much better than plastic (and I’d get 365 paper bags…WHERE?)….Reusable canvas bag? haha Carry litterbox to landfill daily?? C’mon, sometimes your options are limited for good reasons…It’s not one answer fits all. I’ll be ordering the box of bags. (And I do bring reusable bags to grocery store….Just need that 1 plastic bag a day.) Put the burden back on industry for biodegradable bags!
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Stop worrying; people will eventually learn to deactivate the wheel lock and take the shopping cart home.
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A follow up on this story from the Sacramento Press: Plastic bag ban passes Sacramento city council committee.
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