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Trans fat in lunches, bumper nuts and now paper or plastic will have no meaning.
Would the following ordiance be enacted in Charlottesville?
§ 15.2-977. Plastic carryout bags.
Any locality may, by ordinance, provide that a retail merchant located within its jurisdiction shall not provide to any of its customers at the point of sale any plastic carryout bag in which a product or products purchased by any such customer from such store is placed unless such plastic carryout bag is a durable plastic bag, with handles, that is at least 2.25 mils thick and is specifically designed and manufactured for multiple reuse.
What is wrong with plastic bags if you recycle them? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
[Thanks to RealCentralVA who posted this first.]
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Tagged as: Blogs, Charlottesville, Politics, Questions
I feel this is in direct response to the cashier at Harris Teeter who mysteriously double bagged all of my groceries yesterday, even though they contained such lightweight objects as yogurt and bananas.
In seriousness, I worry this ordinance would reduce nothing, it’d just mean heavier and more durable plastic bags would end up in the landfill.
People…please just bring your own bags! It’s done all over the world, why not here? oh, I forgot, no one cares about the environment in the US…
ditto, ditto.
I proclaim my ownership of a thick bag by putting bumper nuts on my car. You got damn right!
Now you know.
Those bags aretotally illegal in SF currently. The available alternatives are still too pricy to be practical in this area.
Whole Foods has retro reusable bags available for $1, not pricey at all
a few facts:
14,000,000,000 plastic shopping bags are used each year in the US alone
12,000,000 barrels of oil are required for US plastic bag consumption
100,000 marine animals are killed each year due to plastic bags
In other countries you bring your own bag, why can’t we do that here? We can. We are too lazy.
Thor — you ask “what is wrong with plastic bags if you recycle them?” Plenty. First, most bags you put in the recycling bin at the supermarket never get recycled. They get shipped abroad and incinerated in places where the laws don’t regulate the burning of plastics. Second, recycling bags makes no economic sense. It costs more than $1000, in energy costs alone, to recycle a ton of plastic bags. And the raw material that the process yields is worth less than $100. Third, plastic bag recycling is messy — esp. b/c the inks used on plastic bags are pretty toxic.
There’s a reason “recycle” comes last in the phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle” — it’s b/c recycling is not any kind of panacea. As for shopping bags, it’s simply crazy not to purchase re-usable bags. Everyone else in the world does it. Why can’t Americans? Are we all too spoiled? Maybe that’s why we’re so widely hated.
I had no idea that the bags I trustingly place in the recycling bin end up incinerated. That’s awful. I do reuse as many bags as possible–they line my small trash cans and I use them to pick up after my dogs.
I’m all for people being strongly encouraged to bring their own reusable bags. I don’t see how this proposed legislation will achieve that. The typical Joe Consumer will toss his thicker bags in the trash and get brand new ones every time he goes to the store.
Yeah. That comes as a shock to me as well. I’m going to look into it a lot more, but I can say that I may have just decided to start taking re-usable bags to the store.
Thanks for the comment.
actually, in Europe they charge you for each plastic bag…therefore, people bring their own….we can ALL be nice to the environment, can’t we? …charged or not!
Yeah…ummm Caroline, a buck a bag is a lot more expensive than .015 cents. And stores that use hundreds a day….
Additionally, while those of the world with a more socially oreinted view do occur, the majority of the world is not. So for every 1 person spending a buck on your bag, there is 1000 who need that buck for something else.
Hey Danpri, all I’m sayin’ is it’s a start okay?
…and they’re cute! Honey bees, oysters…I bring them into Harris Teeter, Cville Market, CVS, and other stores.
I hate plastic bags. I currently have more than I’ll ever need to line to itty bitty waste bin in my bathroom. If they get phased out, that’d be great.
I know this is common, but consider getting biodegradable pick up bags at the pet store. All those bags go to the landfill and the ones in eco-friendly pick up bags disappear in 20 days or so.
I carry pick up bags in a cute tote on my dog’s leash. I stash my keys and treats in there, too.
This is a big problem with them. They are so light the wind picks them up easily and carries them to trees or drainage ditches where they clog pipes. Bangladesh recently banned them because they contribute to flooding.
Fuck that. I want to see the absolute destruction of this planet within my lifetime. Global warming seems exciting.
Chuck - Great article. thanks for the link
Ethan - I hope you’re not joking
Consider that each moment is the end of the world.
/been watching the ceiling fan too long…
ohmmm.
belmont yo, I think I just cyber stalked you in posts. Hi. Met you once and can somewhat picture you, but with only your cyber posting’s personality. Oh and once I stumbled in to a#*cafe (is that kosher)? and grooved on your abilities. Are we supposed to be drunken posting? is that in the rules?
Yeah, I know. But maybe more an exciting idea than global warming?
/i guess you can take the boy outta cali…
Seriously, I should not be left alone with my mind. You would have thought it would have filled out a restraining order by now, what with me molesting it so.
Distract me. Somebody show me something shiny, like lip gloss.
*le sigh.
And for the record, I went shopping today and re-used the same paper bags I’ve been re-using for 6 months. (for relevancy)
stalk away string… next time you see me, say hi! I love meeting villains and I will keep your secret identity, if needed.
And yes, you can say ass cafe. Mo’ town, even. Its all love. And last anyone told me, drunken posting is highly encouraged.
relevant is for the newspapers.
but plastic bags, yeah. collect ‘em all!
sell ‘em on ebay in twenty years.
make them into clever outfits. set yourself on fire and make a shrink-wrapped action figure!
Be careful what you ask for:
http://img253.imageshack.us/my.php?image=walmartgreeterbiggs5.jpg
oh my. that was unpleasant at best.
i’ll be back at 2.
oh my!
Yo That is awesome. I am just corpsing to know the backstory on tat one. Is it a staged photo or was the dude totally liquored up. Genious!
We can always talk, Yo Just give a shout out
Shoe, do I know you [my name at g mail]
I would tell you the back story, but Old Uncle Gerald made me promise on his death bed that I would not. Suffice it to say, he did not like working for MallWart very much toward the end, anyway.
_________
/poor parlie, has never seen lemonparty, which is this image on steroids.
//dont do it.
///i warned you.
I would tell you the back story, but Old Uncle Gerald made me promise on his death bed, not to tell anyone, syrupy or otherwise. Suffice it to say, he did not like working at MallWart too much toward the end, anyway.
/oh the humanity!
Dude is HOT!
/ just sayin’
You’d have liked him. You metroflexible bastard, you.
So, metroflexible is a category now? ehh?:to Lilith and Thor…
Fuc. I’m gonna go to millers and see Sarah White!!!
I LOOOOVE Sarah White! Is lil’ acorn gonna be there.
YO: The dude in the photo is pretty hot but he has nothing on the picture of Box Car Willie in diapers
i think shoestring is thor. vice-versa, also.
parlie, I had the same thought… but don’t say it too loudly, I don’t wanna scare him off.
Lilith: recycling is not a viable or sustainable way of dealing with the throw-away plastic bags, it ultimately end up polluting more when recycling materials like plastic between transportation energy and chemicals than it does to just toss them in a landfill. The only current product that is sustainable when recycled is cans. (Sorry recyclers everywhere, neither glass nor paper recycling is good for the environment).
I actually brought my grocery bags from Denmark, which is the armored plastic kind (and they say MAD on the outside, ’cause that means Food in Danish, so that just adds to the fashion statement, and I have used these bags for 10 years!!!) You can also buy your regular plastic grocery bag in store, the kind that is heavy duty and have sturdy handles, but they cost 50c, but you can use them over and over again, how is that not both affordable and sustainable?
IKEA recently began charging for their bags, as they would in Europe to begin discouraging customers from producing excess waste by using more than necessary plastic bags, and they have been selling the giant re-usable IKEA bags all along. This is not a new concept, and I was amazed to find that people seem to think that they need special “grocery-reusable-bags-made-from-organic-cotton†at a premium, to haul their groceries around in a sustainable way. Use your imagination, anything with handles will do the trick. As long as you use it more than once and preferably until it falls apart from years of wear, you are doing the right thing.
Here are a few things you could use multiple times, be environmentally conscious and still look fashionable:
The paper bag with handles from the fancy grocery place can also carry Food Lion groceries. (And they make you feel like an origami master when you fold and unfold them)
Your backpack from college
Your carry-on rolling suitcase.
The fancy gift bag you are saving anyway for re-gifting.
Your giant hobo hand-bag that is out of style anyway. (if my bag is bulky, in all likelihood you will find five bananas and a half gallon of whole milk in there)
Of course the famous IKEA bag, (no I do not receive commission folks).
Please use your imagination.
Arh and a quick idea for self regulating your usage of flimsy plastic bags (it works, I speak from experience), keep every single one of them, (I do because I get nauseus when I think of the sea animal slowly dying from intestinal blockage) so they don’t polute in a landfill or in the air when incinerated. Slowly fill up every cavity, cabinet and drawer in your house hold with these little menacing bags from your shopping trips when you forgot the alternative. That will help you remember to bring your re-usable grocery carrying devices, especially when you have to begin using your neighboors bathroom, because you can no longer find your own.
Damnit Caroline, be careful with slinging numbers out like that, you don’t know what it does to me
so which is better: paper or plastic?
i always thought plastic was better than destroying trees for paper. im pretty sure that is based on nothing, though. what about paper bags made out of recycled paper? i know a reusable, durable bag is best, but unfortunately most people wont bother.
Indie Dork, well change begins with you? Other people will be more compelled to follow an idea when someone else sets the precedence ..Interesting question however.
Paper or plastic? Depends if you live near the chemical plant where they make the plastic. Talk about buy local
Yet.. plastic is much lighter, and that is much important. Recycling plastic is probably a joke though, just an example of corporate greenwashing. Reduce, reuse, and forget about recycling for a while (except for aluminum). If you want to be a curmudgeon like me.
two, I threw out the numbers just for you. When we take our trip back to Denmark I want to get lotsa MAD Bags, I think we could make that very fashionable here. *SmOoCh!!
the only reason i ask for plastic bags from a merchant is to re-use them to pick up my dog’s poop from the backyard. so yes, the more durable the better.
hell, make ‘em 5 mm, and scented!
Where I went to undergrad, the supermarkets charged for plastic bags, didn’t carry paper bags, and covered the front of the store with their own inventory boxes for people to take their groceries home in for free. Now *that’s* re-using. I loved it. The supermarket boxes replaced wastebaskets for me.
I try to make an effort to ask for paper bags, and it often seems to annoy the cashiers. I try to compensate by starting to bag my own groceries (also a common practice in many other countries) in paper while they’re still ringing up. Of course, I have no idea if any of this really helps anything.
this just in, or perhaps I’m just now noticing it: Harris Teeter has fantastic reusable bags for 99 cents. They look small and the handles fit over your shoulder (handsfreebags!) but I just fit all my groceries in one bag. That normally would have been two or three plastics and who knows how many more if they make the mysterious choice to double bag it. yay!