Posted on 06/27/2010 12:14:26 AM PDT by nickcarraway
Paper or plastic? Soon the answer may be neither. California would become the first state to ban grocery, liquor and drug stores from providing free paper or plastic bags under legislation pushed by Democrats and supported by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The goal is to fight litter and lighten the load on landfills by getting shoppers to use reusable fabric bags. Those who don't could buy paper bags for a nickel or more.
"I think the proliferation of plastic bags is unnecessary, and it's a pollutant, an urban tumbleweed," Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, said of the lightweight bags that can litter yards and clog waterways. Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags per year, about 552 bags apiece, according to a legislative committee analysis of Brownley's proposal, Assembly Bill 1998. Tim Shestek of the American Chemistry Council said the plastic bag industry would rather pay to bolster recycling programs than ban plastic bags. He said that with California's economy struggling, it makes no sense to jeopardize about 500 plastic-bag manufacturing jobs and to promote paper bags that produce more greenhouse gas during their life cycle than plastic bags do. "We frankly think this is a dangerous precedent for the state to be setting," Shestek said.
The crackdown on disposable bags would cost an estimated $1.5 million the first year and $1 million annually to launch, administer and Advertisement
enforce, payable from fees on makers of reusable bags. AB 1998 was approved by the Assembly this month on a party-line vote, 42-27, with Republicans opposed; it is pending in the Senate. Schwarzenegger praised the bill when it cleared the lower house, calling it "a great victory for our environment."
Shoppers outside a West Sacramento Raley's grocery store had mixed feelings.
(Excerpt) Read more at mercurynews.com ...
What is going to happen, is people will need to have “their” bags with them at all times, lest they be forced to buy another bunch of them. Govt is going to kill us all with all the madness. Sure many of these things seem harmless, but bit by bit, they are draining whatever liberty there is left.
The newer plastic bags are cornstarch based & fall apart in about a year.
How about a law that you can only buy what you can carry home with two arms.”
I clean up more broken beer bottles from my corner property than anything else.
Are they going to fix that, also?
The California Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, through code, requires distilled spirit containers be concealed (paper bag) before being taken from the place of purchase into the public place. The purveyor must provide the bag. It’s the law.”
Knew it would not be long before this law would collide with a previous law.
I was worried about the wino/homeless person & what he was going to use to cover up his daily bottle?
I love plastic bags.
I don’t give rat’s patoot about that. The corporations are the ones with the political pull to keep it from becoming law. They are the ones who either serve their customers or lose them. Your misplaced sympathy doesn’t impress me. It has nothing to do with real compassion or reality.
>>That fee goes to a dedicated fund for river clean up I think.<<
That fee is a non deductible TAX. Support the TEA Party candidates.
“What is wrong with libs that they must control everything?”
They believe you’re just too stupid to rule yourself!
It’s their whole reason for living - “... the public is stupid; republicans are bad”.
I’d laugh but you are so right.
First grader, eh ? He’s gonna have to cinch that sumbitch.
I am told a number of stores were giving free bags to use for groceries. They had 6 from Harris Teeter. Also after the first few weeks about 80 of white people were bringing their own bags, but only about half the black people who live over by the river with the big plastic bag problem.
Make it a rule that if you use a food stamp card you must bring your own bag. Problem solved.
If you run your bag through dryer it should kill most bugs. I put my bed pillows through the dryer every few weeks to kill the dust mites, helps my allergies.
They have already been in our bedrooms. I remember when the only legal position was the “missionary position” in some states. Not to mention things like oral sex (called oral sodomy), and other things which many legally married people do in the privacy of their homes. One thing liberals have done is force many states to abolish these violations of personal privacy. Now if they would just go home and enjoy themselves in privacy.
The crackdown on disposable bags would cost an estimated $1.5 million the first year and $1 million annually to launch, administer and AdvertisementAh, so that is what it is all about! That's the money quote rite thar.
Some Pol's buddies are going to make millions off of this.
Why "launch", why advertise and WHY for a million years into the future.
They don't advertize for the hundreds of other laws that are passed every year in this state.
Just pass the law and start arresting (or issuing citations to) those stores that continue to use them and the customers that take the banned bags.
If they impose a large fine with no jail time what a bonus!
All they have done is find a way to spend more government (read my taxes) money.
As an aside, I saw a show on TV the other night where a business is manufacturing a product which is made of half recycled plastic bags and half another material.
There is a use for these bags. And they don't have that long of a life in the elements.
We have been experimenting with the degradation of plastic bags, plastic garments and other plastic products for years at the Institute of Phenomonology and they break down about 50% throughout one summer and one winter.
I altered my tag line for this thread
Another enviroweenie irony: they preach against the wasteful use of electricity in the use of dryers. Yet dryers are one of the greatest inventions known to man for the prevention of the spread of disease in the home.
The CA Assembly is made up of a group of Leftist wannabe dictators including the head schmuck, Arnold. When talking to people in CA, most want to leave the state ASAP.
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