L.A. County passes sweeping ban on plastic bags

Los Angeles Times ^ | 11/16/10 | Staff

[Nachum]

Enacting one of the nation's most aggressive environmental measures, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.

The vote was 3-1, supported by Supervisors Gloria Molina, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Zev Yaroslavsky, and opposed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Supervisor Don Knabe was absent.

The ban, which will cover nearly 1.1 million residents countywide, is to the point: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.” An exception would be made for plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items.

If grocers choose to offer paper bags, they must sell them for 10 cents each, according to the ordinance. The revenue will be retained by the stores to purchase the paper bags and educate customers about the law.

“Plastic bags are a pollutant. They pollute the urban landscape. They are what we call in our county urban tumbleweed,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said.

[blkmontecarlo]

I never did like plastic bags, so I use paper. I wonder why they are charging .10 for the paper bags?

FYI Trader Joe’s has great reusable bags.

[Cinnamon Girl]

The schools are a disaster, the city is in a financial shambles, they outlawed watering our lawns regularly so there’s a lot of brown grass around in the summer, their squandering tons of cash on a commuter rail that no one will use, and now they want to make us use dirty bags from China instead of clean disposable plastic ones. WHY WHY WHY?

[1_Rain_Drop]

The plastic bags on this side of the States must be different. If I leave a plastic bag out in the sun over the summer it becomes brittle and breaks down into tiny pieces. Meanwhile the paper bag is still doing its job as mulch. Some plastic bags are so thin that the cashier double bags. Go figure.

WHat happens to all the products that are sold in cellophane? Candy bar packages, egg noodles, ramen!!!!

[oyez]

Now days, paper mills can get more bags out of tree than ever possible. Just add some acrylic polymer to the pulp.

Of course those people don't want chemicals being made. It could be worse that chopping up a tree.

[FrankR]

That's Great! Just the breakthough we've been waiting for.

OK, all you military types, just go on home. Disband the Congress.

Cancel TSA and the Immigration department.

Sell all the bombs and weapons to some third world country.

Start driving 9 mpg cars again, and strip all that smog equipment off, it robs horsepower.

Knock down all those windmills and burn all of the "global warming" literature.

We don't need any of these things anymore for California has BANNED F***ING PLASTIC BAGS.

The world's dangers are now, officially over.

/sarcasm

[Secret Agent Man]

Just saw the other day a scientist that had a small countertop device that he tossed a bunch of plastic bags and other plastic parts into, screwed the lid down, and the plastic melted, was heated to gas, run through a water condenser on the other side and got clean oil. I think he said 3kg of plastic yielded 1 liter of oil. He’s further been able to refine that oil to gas, kerosene ,etc.

It’s out on youtube I believe.

[Wagonboy]

That should fix everything that's wrong here in the land of fruits, nuts, commies, illegals, environmental wackos, the light-in-the-loafers set and the state employee union leeches. I've always said, “If only California could do away with the plastic grocery bag..... It would be perfect”. Good job Sacramento. That's why you all get the big bucks and wise individuals keep reelecting you.
-Wb

[CdMGuy]

I used to work in LA. These three are the biggest left wing A-holes around.

We use those plastic bags to line our under-the-sink trash containers. So, all those bags end up in the landfill. So now, folks like us who live in LA County will have to buy plastic trash liners.

What is funny is that the percentage of folks who live in unincorporated LA County is small compared to those living in all of the incorporated cities.

[ErnBatavia]

I don’t care for plastic bags myself

I'm not nuts about 'em either, due to their flimsiness.....Trojan probably is envious that they can't make their scumcatchers as thin. Thus, if you go to Walmart and buy 10 items, you're probably going to end up with 12 bags.

[unixfox]

Didn’t they start off saying to use plastic instead of killing trees for paper bags ....

Yep, they (the envirowackos) said just that.

It won't matter what it is , they will find a way to say it's BAD.

They should all go to a deserted island and see how long they can survive. I'd guess less than a week.

[Mr. K]

Geez.. weren’t these the same bozo’s who wanted us to stop using paper bags to ‘save the trees’?

They are RESPONSIBLE for plastic bags being invented

[Mr. K]

" If they can make edible undies why can’t they make edible grocery bags? "

DING! "

DING! "

DING! "

DING! WE HAVE A WINNER!

Thanks for playing

[unixfox]

If they can make edible undies why can’t they make edible grocery bags?

In order to satisfy the idiots, it would have to be made of organic wheat or some other crap that nobody would eat. But hey, it would "protect" the environment and make us all feel good. Right?

[drubyfive]

Buy in bulk.

[Ezekiel]

All the supermarkets switched to plastic bags because the green fascists complained that paper bags were a waste of trees.

At the time I pictured the inevitable "bags that got away" snarled on fences, bushes, and trees. It was obvious that the enviro-Mentals weren't opposed to litter, they just wanted more of it. All necessary to create perpetual outrage and victimhood.

And who didn't *recycle* paper bags? It just made sense. They were good for a zillion kids' craft projects (if not used at home the schools gladly took them), wrapping packages for mailing, mulch for under the bark mulch, etc. Plus, I didn't need a *plastic* bin or cardboard box in my trunk to get the groceries home undamaged.

Now the greenies want everyone to use the icky quasi-reuseable bacteria-magnet green "cloth" bags with the recycling logo, so they can all show how much they care. The green bags do function like ID badges though, so they aren't a total waste. :)

Reminds me of the time I had the misfortune of living next door to a hardcore greenie. He had the rattiest yard on the block and generated an enormous amount of trash. Impossible not to notice because the overloaded cans would predictably fall over into the street, and that was on a good day when dogs didn't scatter the mess.

[M-cubed]

When the “Bagladies” are forced to use paper...the first rainstorm is gonna bring the biggest lawsuit in California history!... I can hear it now

I LOST EVERYTHING!

[Persevero]

“An exception would be made for plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items. “

Well, just offer them for that purpose, then.

[Zeppo]

The ban, which will cover nearly 1.1 million residents countywide, is to the point: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.”

There's a good way to confound these nanny-state idiots - the prohibition has been placed on stores offering the bags. The law does not prohibit individual, independent freedom fighters from offering plastic bags to customers. So there is a business opportunity here for willing entrepreneurs - have bags printed up advertising something other than a store (for example, advertising a book, a movie, a band, a car, etc.) and have people offer bags for free (single ones, five packs, or whatever) to grocery shoppers before they enter the store...

[boop]

Leftists ban everything THEY don’t like. Then they blame the “religious Right” for “imposing their will”. I’ve never had a preacher pick through my garbage to make sure I was recycling.

[max americana]

I live in L.A. and I know the mexican clerks wont give a sh*t about it, they’ll just hand me the plastic bag if I ask for it. Starting tomorrow, I;ll grab more than a handful and they can F off.