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California Outlaws Plastic Bags And Ignores The Scientific Evidence
Forbes ^ | 10/22/2014 | Stephen DeMaura

Posted on 10/23/2014 4:08:41 PM PDT by Rusty0604

California made history late last month in a manner that only its legislature could. ... the state became the first in the nation to outlaw plastic bags statewide.

In both environmental and fiscal measures, bag bans are unqualified failures. This ban will engender no positive outcomes for our environment and in turn only toughen the job climate. And yet it gets even worse ...

Here, greedy special interests and desperate legislators struck an agreement to allow grocers to retain all the paper bag fees in return for their support of the legislation. Projected to earn as much as $1 billion in new revenue, the grocers gladly obliged. With the help of the grocers’ lobbyists, legislators in Sacramento had the necessary air cover to ignore the environmental science and potential for dramatic job loss.

Plastic bags generate fully 80 percent less solid waste than paper bags. They require 70 percent less energy to manufacture and 91 percent less energy to recycle. They occupy 85 percent less landfill space than bulky paper alternatives.

According to a lifecycle analysis by the United Kingdom’s environmental authority, shoppers would need to reuse their reusable totes 131 times before it became more environmentally advantageous ...

But the problems with reusable bags aren’t simply limited to its gross environmental failings. They also pose a growing public health risk, as demonstrated by a particularly disturbing vignette from Oregon, where a girls soccer team was stricken by the Norovirus traced to a reusable tote.

In the seven years since San Francisco became the first American municipality to ban plastic bags in 2007, researchers have tracked a 5-percent increase in death from food-borne illness. ... According to a 2011 white paper by the International Association for Food Protection, a majority of reusable bags contain coliform bacteria.

(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: bagban
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1 posted on 10/23/2014 4:08:41 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Rusty0604

Ft. Collins Colorado backed off or enforcing a non reusable bag ban off the table after about 2,500 signatures against.


2 posted on 10/23/2014 4:15:35 PM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: Rusty0604

Government in Cali just likes to show that it has the power to push the people around.

One does not have to be too very old to remember the phony “environmental concerns” that led to the introduction of plastic bags in the first place. It was to save the trees from being cut down and used for paper grocery bags.

That’s right — the eco-kooks were the ones who forced us into plastic bags in the first place.

Lefties are a blight.


3 posted on 10/23/2014 4:17:29 PM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both.)
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To: Rusty0604

More Lib insanity.

Their early excuse was that too many errant bags would take off across parking lots and streets.

I haven’t seen an errant bag blowing across a store parking lot or street in ages.

Give them a few years and the Libs will be complaining about the contamination caused by reusable bags.


4 posted on 10/23/2014 4:20:36 PM PDT by TomGuy
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To: TomGuy

Liberals love killing people for their utopian fantasies.


5 posted on 10/23/2014 4:22:57 PM PDT by headstamp 2
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To: Rusty0604
It happened here in Corvallis, Oregon a year ago.

Now the lefties with their reusable cloth bags are getting botulism poisoning by not washing the bags after meat juices leaked and then a week later they placed their organic lettuce in the fetid bags.

Just desserts.

6 posted on 10/23/2014 4:26:06 PM PDT by PROCON (Ask Yourself This..Are You More Likely to be Infected or Beheaded Today Than You Were 6 Years Ago?)
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To: Rusty0604

Morgan Hill passed a plastic bag ban a few months ago. A local store now uses green colored plastic bags printed with the word “Reusable” on them. I’m wondering if the state ban specifies “single use” bags. These aren’t since they’re clearly reusable. :=)


7 posted on 10/23/2014 4:26:31 PM PDT by Bob
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To: Rusty0604
it takes seven truckloads of paper bags to equal ONE truckload of plastic... but it' all about ecology, right???
8 posted on 10/23/2014 4:28:13 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -vvv- NO Pity for the LAZY - 86-44)
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To: Rusty0604

My family just bought a whole bunch off the internet and we use them to bag our groceries. Take that, California.


9 posted on 10/23/2014 4:31:36 PM PDT by Politicalkiddo (Our obligations to our country never cease but with our lives.- John Adams)
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To: Rusty0604

What do they use for dog poop?


10 posted on 10/23/2014 4:32:20 PM PDT by FatherofFive (Islam is evil and must be eradicated)
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To: BenLurkin

I remember all of that.


11 posted on 10/23/2014 4:35:02 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (NRA)
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To: Politicalkiddo

I want to do the same, where do you find them?


12 posted on 10/23/2014 4:36:25 PM PDT by Inyo-Mono (NRA)
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To: Rusty0604

I wish I could say I opposed this but here we live two miles from the main road and we see plastic bags on the barbwire fence all the time. They’re not ours, they’re not our neighbors, so they must have blown in from who knows where.

As much as I enjoy the convenience of these bags I’d be okay with having my own bags or using paper.


13 posted on 10/23/2014 4:39:00 PM PDT by MeganC (It took Democrats four hours to deport Elian Gonzalez)
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To: BenLurkin

There was a time when the environmentalists warned us of the coming Ice Age, and told us to use plastic bags instead of paper.


14 posted on 10/23/2014 4:40:55 PM PDT by 04-Bravo
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To: FatherofFive
What do they use for dog poop?

If a dog poops on our property we use a rifle. (-:

(Seriously, we do shoot dogs when we see them on the ranch because they LOVE to chase the livestock)

15 posted on 10/23/2014 4:41:34 PM PDT by MeganC (It took Democrats four hours to deport Elian Gonzalez)
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To: BenLurkin

I remember that. They also pushed gasoline additives that turned out to not do anything other than make gas more expensive.


16 posted on 10/23/2014 4:43:03 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: PROCON

My daughter used to live in Corvallis. It’s such a beautiful place. She moved to be closer to family, but wants to go back.


17 posted on 10/23/2014 4:44:47 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Rusty0604

Bag up my purchase for free, or put it back on the shelf and refund my money. Your choice.

Funny it only didn’t work one time...


18 posted on 10/23/2014 4:47:52 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: Rusty0604

They should ban dog owners from using plastic too! It’s such a terrible thing these plastic bags. They should use their left hands and their pockets, bring it home to their garden or local democratic precinct office.


19 posted on 10/23/2014 4:48:14 PM PDT by If You Want It Fixed - Fix It
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To: 04-Bravo

And to quit using aerosol hair spray. I guess everybody overdid their part, because we went from impending ice age to global warming real fast.


20 posted on 10/23/2014 4:48:54 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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