Posted on 07/24/2011 11:50:58 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Austin retailers and grocery stores could no longer offer plastic bags at checkout counters under a ban Mayor Lee Leffingwell and two other City Council members will propose today .
The ban would be phased in gradually, though it's not clear when it would start.
Leffingwell said Sunday that plastic bags pollute waterways, harm wildlife, clog drainage systems and take up landfill space, where they don't biodegrade. A January report from the city's Solid Waste Services Department said Austinites use 263 million plastic bags a year, and the bags cost the city $850,000 a year to put in landfills and to clean up as litter.
"I think there will be a cost benefit and a benefit to the environment of going down this road and coming up with a reasonable ordinance" that bans the bags, Leffingwell said.
To stave off a possible ban in 2008 , six large retailers agreed to try to voluntarily reduce the use of plastic bags, but that program hasn't been effective enough, Leffingwell said.
The City Council will vote Aug. 4 on a resolution from Leffingwell and Council Members Mike Martinez and Chris Riley that would direct staff members to propose a scope for the ban and a timetable for phasing it in. Staff members would have to present a plan to the council in November .
City staffers will work with retailers and other stakeholders to write that plan, the mayor said.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
And paper bags kill trees.
Best not to eat.
Austin, lol.
Texas’ own little piece of San Fransicko.
“To stave off a possible ban in 2008 , six large retailers agreed to try to voluntarily reduce the use of plastic bags, but that program hasn’t been effective enough, Leffingwell said.”
The reason for limited government is to allow people the CHOICE in how they want to live their lives.
And if the program wasn’t ‘effective enough’, then this means the people CHOSE plastic bags to be used for their groceries.
Just goes to show that big government politicians can be so prickly stupid.
Not totally. I blame the critical mass of young (and therefore naive) people for the influx of weirdos.
On the other hand having naive young people around has certain advantages.
Meant “DID NOT CHOOSE” in my comment above.
My apologies for this typo.
So plastic bags take up more room than paper bags? If so, than why does it takes 7 pallets of paper bags to replace one pallet of plastic bags? And what about the poor ‘ol spotted owl and old growth trees that was the cause of switching from paper bags to plastic bags while ruining the logging industry in the Pacific Northwest? Are we looking for another industry to ruin with bogus claims?
The same debate is happening in Portland, OR as we speak.
The funniest thing is that when I moved here almost 20 years ago, they banned the paper bag because they killed trees, and substituted the plastic bag.
Now, they are endorsing the reusable bag.....that comes at a price.
For those who don’t want or can’t afford the reusable bag, I wonder if they will replace the plastic bag with the paper bag? After all, the paper bag is biodegradable.
Environmentalists.......they are so funny!
/s
Annoys me, because that's where I buy most of my sustenance.
Some life insurance salespeople have made a small fortune in college towns.
Just wow. Thank you. I had never looked at this debate from that angle. Should be fun next time I’m making fun of my Austin coworkers for this.
While they lament the amount of landfill space is taken up with plastic grocery bags, not one word is spent on the amount of plastic goes to packaging and wrapping those pallets of paper bags with shrink wrap. In fact, compared to the amount of plastic for industrial purposes, plastic bags amount to a minuscule amount of the total in landfills. As time goes on, even less as more plastic bags are recycled. The only reason for this ban on plastic bags is they want to control Joe Citizen.
They’ve been doing this in Europe for a few years. What’s happening there is coming here...global standardization.
I am i the only one who thinks things like this tend to end up giving liberal democrats a bad name? yust sayin’
1. The plastic bags are great for use as a trash can liner.
2. Reusable bags are not expensive. They can be had for $1.00. That's not a deal breaker.
3. I had a point three but I forgot it...
Sorry, too late to be up typing.
This is fine...just make every grocery within the city limits as “bag-less”, and then everyone will shop outside of the city-limits. There you go...problem fixed.
Plastic bags for smaller trash cans, and paper bags for kitchen trash.
Also use them all the time for hauling stuff to relatives, etc.
Plastic bags carried by all (most...)dog-walkers - - -
Advise taking a moment to cut plastic bag handles when finally tossing (empty), and even when recycling.
About 5 years ago I saw a seagull flying and dragging a plastic bag near me as I was driving, 10 miles inland. The bag kept billowing with air.
Don’t have a clue how that all ended.
Any over abundance of paper bags, and they go with the newspapers for recycling here.
Far as I’m concerned, both types of bags are highly (re)useful.
Then we can talk about how to re-use/re-cycle the narrow plastic bags that enclose the daily newspaper - - - !
Starting in January, in Montgomery country Maryland (the Freak state) you will be charged $.05 for each bag you use. Under the guise of “pollution control” the county finds yet another way to steal money from the consumer. Blatant theft.
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