Posted on 01/24/2013 6:31:52 PM PST by grundle
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 increase.
Number of Pages in PDF File: 23
Keywords: plastic, environment, pollution, e-coli
JEL Classification: I18, K32
(Excerpt) Read more at papers.ssrn.com ...
Not surprised
Wow these guys must be right wing extremists.
How could they dispute progressive dogma?
And in that shrine of liberalism, SF CA ??
this is why I throw away any plastic bag that touched raw meat. The reast we reuse for lunches and such.
we use them for dog poop
Ah, the absurdity and idiocy of liberal meddlers. Back in the 70s and 80s they convinced legislative ignoramuses across the country that paper grocery bags don’t biodegrade for decades in landfills an that the grocery stores needed to switch to plastic.
Those of us whose brains stills functioned were against at the complete lack of logic because a paper bag biodegrades much, much faster than does plastice. But, the elected twits in Congress and state legislatures across the country apparently slept through that particular 8th grade science class.
So, today, landfills are full of plastic bags that will still be intact when the next millenia comes and now, the same morons who convinced legislative morons that “paper bad, plastic good” are now telling the same legislative morons, “plastic bad, paper or reusable bags good.”
And people wonder why we are a nation of idiots!
Anyone ever heard of lysol or a washing machine, or are they outlawed in the freak state?
I love reusable bags—not for any “green reasons”. I just don’t have to make 40 trips back and forth to the car when I can put my groceries in 1 or 2 bags and make one trip.
Make sure you check 'em for holes in the bottom. A lot of them have tears and holes after their primary function is completed.
God help us, in Maine, we have a tree growing every square foot.
Yes, similiar here - removing solids from kitty litter boxes (6 cats) and getting dog poo (2 dogs) out of back yard.
It’s better that humans die instead of a pigeon that eats plastic bags.../s
Use them for dog poop, or trash bags.
The obvious answer is who wants to go to the bother. Less obvious is that these reusable bags are not robust enough to withstand machine washing, or they are just plain water proof which does not wash well.
Many of the reusable bags fall apart if you try and wash them.
They are great for non perishable items, I only use plastic for fresh and meat.
I need to get this to the Austin City Council who just enacted a ban on plastic bans. Is San Fran going to somehow be held liable for all those ER visits? or any of them?
What a freaking surprise!
It looks like the paper is written by two attorneys. Look for a class action suit.
Couldn’t happen to nicer liberals.
Libtardism in a land where the Law of Unintended Consequences is functional can be risky to those exhibiting Libtard behavior patterns.
Mr. Libtard meet Mr. Stomach Pump.
Once again, SF leads the way in progressive social change.
I have started to collect my plastic garbage bags- for my storm/emergency prep... not for dog poop.. but for, well...
(People poop)
:)
Just wanted to share for some reason.
Every action has an equal and opposite reaction.
I use them to wrap the containers of motor oil I send to the dump.
Liberals are unaware of pulpwood production and the myth of saving trees. In the South, pines are purposefully overplanted and the first thinning is the pulpwood cut. Irregardless, the trees will be cut to allow the remaining trees to grow to maturity for the sawlog cut.
it seems to me that if they banned the bags, there would be a decrease in illness caused by the “contaminated” bags.
How many diseases are spread by SF homosexuals?
Or the psycho nudists that sit their nasty butts all over public places.
Answers.com puts the number of trees in the world at more than five trillion.
I've only heard of one other person who did that. He is a loony lib who is a waste of oxygen. No saying you are but why? It's good fertilizer that disappears in a matter of days.
They grow so well here, that if I don’t cut trees every day...my lawn will disappear.
I use my plastic bags to suffocate children and choke dolphins. A least that’s what the left accuses me of.
For being so highly educated and so much smarter than the rest of us, liberals -- as a group -- are incredibly ignorant.
They are simply unaware of many facts -- of economics, of history, of science, etc. Nor will they recognize these facts if they conflict with their beliefs.
As Ronaldus Magnus once put it: “It's not that our liberal friends are ignorant, it's just that they know so much that isn't so.”
We live in a rainy climate on the side of a hill. My house is embedded in the hillside, with the rear of the first floor below grade [it is referred to by real estate dealers as a “walk-out basement”]. The soil is hard clay into which the dog poo does not “disappear”.
Every few years we get a snowstrom that dumps about 3 - 4 feet of snow followed by a tropical rainstorm dropping 60 degree rain of about 4 inches per day for three days.
The result is instant flooded basement that stinks of dog shit.
It is much easier to collect the dog poo and avoid the stench.
There was a story not too long ago where several young people died (listeria?) traced to a re-usable bag.
Here is a paper on the subject:
http://www.utexas.edu/law/colloquium/papers-public/2012-2013/10-01-12_Grocery%20Bag%20Bans%20and%20Foodborne%20Illness.pdf
Same might be true for those reusable plastic cups that some coffee spots encourage you to use. I heard a guy was suing a coffee spot because he got sick from his own cup. Hearsay, but pretty reliable.
We have this idiotic ban here in San Luis Obispo County, CA and it is a real pain in the A$$. It slows things up at check out at the grocery store..Clerks have said that folks use all kinds of different bags and figuring out how to best fill them it time consuming, and they tend to fill them so that one needs the strength of Sampson to carry them out and load them in your car. Other stores also have to sell bags ( paper or cloth) if you need one. Then of course, if you have to use these bags, make sure you have your name on the cuz if you don’t and someone tries to pinch one while you are not looking at least you can prove it is your bag! This is more stupid govt control that all too many people are willling to give into..why they let their own liberty go for crap like this is beyond me. I hate the ban..And there are people in our county that are going to Santa Maria to shop as they don’t have that ban there and that is Santa Barbara County. But there is a note...I hear on the radio yesterday that by 2014 Sacramento would like this to be a state wide ban to be in effect..Just one more reason to leave this loony state..and I would if I could.
The reusable bags are non-woven polypropylene. Not sure how that is supposed to be better than plastic.
They are impressively strong for such inexpensive material. But much more practical for non food use.
I remember back in the mid 70s similar conclusions were reached for the brown paper lunch sacks if reused. It seems that facts are mostly inconvenient speed bumps on the fast track to saving Gia from man’s evil presence.
Science proves me right.
There are more trees growing in North America now that there was when the Pilgrims landed. We don't have a tree shortage.
Ick.
Well, perhaps in your part of the country, they used that as the excuse. In MY part of the country it was about how paper bags don’t biodegrade and plastic bags do.
So, I guess we’ll just have to have different memories of the same event.
Thanks for that link!
Do you honestly not clean up your dog poop, ever?
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