Farewell, plastic bags? You’ll have a lot of company

Seattle PI ^ | 12/18/11 | Vanessa Ho

[freespirited]

With the Seattle City Council expected to vote on a plastic bag ban Monday, is it time to bid farewell to something Seattleites use 292 million of a year?

The bill would banish single-use, carryout bags in not just grocery stores, but department stores, clothing stores, liquor stores, drug stores and home improvement stores.

Customers would be able to buy paper bags from retailers for 5 cents each. Customers on food assistance would be exempted from that charge.

With seven of nine council members sponsoring the bill – and support from environmental and grocery-store groups – the future doesn’t look too bright for plastic.

But bags would have a lot of company in a big graveyard of things once common in Seattle, and now legislated out of existence. Were these the good old days? Or a sign of how far we’ve come?

[DoughtyOne]

As in carbon credits...

[Navy Patriot]

The overall result of this will be the negative public health consequences from unsanitary reused bags, higher food costs and more loose trash in the precious "environment", effectively a lower standard of living.

I use or recycle all plastic and paper bags for trash and litter control.

I haven't thrown away a bag or box for more than a decade, and very little before that. The one item I still have trouble with is Styrofoam.

[Baynative]

A long long time ago I was engaged int he argument against plastic bags because they have such a long non biodegradable life and would impede the natural transition of land fills.

I was asked what I had against trees. I said trees were renewable (this was 30 + years ago)and that it might be worth considering restricting shopping bag fabrication to either recycle or fast growing tree materials.

I was called an idiot and a hater of the environment. It's 30 years hence and I am still working for dirty water, dirty air and maybe even to starve some kids in my spare time.

[Obadiah]

Again, just so FReepers are mindful of historic facts here, at the Third Council of the church of Environmental worship the environazis decreed that using paper grocery bags was a high crime because of the vast deforestation required to produce such paper bags. At the time of this Third Council the environazis determined that they should force people to use plastic bags. It was the order of their church that all must use plastic bags.

Now, apparently, the Third Council of all things environmental has deemed that in fact they were wrong that paper bags are good (at the right price) and that plastic bags are evil.

These are the same people who hold that we all should use one square of toilet paper per incident or we are in violation of their commandments.

[DoughtyOne]

Sounds like the Eco-Boost man should meet the Marlboro man in short order...

[ridesthemiles]

Cannot pick up your dog’s droppings with a paper bag. It just isn’t flexible enough.

Next they will be complaining about the proliferation of dog doo-doo.

[ridesthemiles]

I am under the impression that the current plastic bags are designed to disolve within a certain amount of time. They have cornstarch in them, I think.

[Baynative]

WA Ping

"Cannot pick up your dog’s droppings with a paper bag."

[Baynative]

That would be a smart idea.

I worked for a corporation that used large volumes of giant plastic bags as thick as water bed mattresses. The local politicians decided that the landfill was being degraded and they decided to fine the companies that were dumping industrial plastic. Our CFO asked how much the fine was compared to what we would spend trying to recycle the stuff. In the end he said, "Pay the fine."

The bottom line is the bottom line. Because so many people in government have no idea how business works, they run head long into making rules that often do no good for anyone.

[BwanaNdege]

2011– Ford F-150

365 hp (272 kW) @5500 rpm, 420 lb·ft (569 N·m) @2500 rpm, 90% torque @1700-5000 rpm

You could always buy one, rip off the offending “Eco-Boost” badge and put your own “Belch-Fire 5000” and “I’m a MACHO man” stickers on it. ;-)

[Yardstick]

And I think modern plastic bags don’t even have that problem. I’m pretty sure they’re biodegrabable now. And they are made with an absolute minimum of material, unlike a paper bag which is quite bulky. I’d almost be willing to be that if you looked at the total environmental impact of a plastic versus paper bag, plastic would win.

[BwanaNdege]

“Cannot pick up your dog’s droppings with a paper bag.”

But you could paint the green and sell them as Eco-Friendly Paperweights! /sarc

[chris37]

Heh :D

The thing is, by using that name, they are trying to market the fire belcher to democrats, but we all know democrats buy SMRT cars, because they are SMRT, it even says so in the name of the “car”.

[BwanaNdege]

Correction!

ORGANIC Eco-Friendly Paperweights

[Dr. Sivana]

The headline reminded me of the Dom Deloise ad where he is singing “Sealed with a Kiss” to Baggies or some similar plastic food storage bag/wrap.

[BwanaNdege]

I'm on a roll here, folks!

Biodegradable, Carbon-Neutral, Organic, Eco-Friendly Paperweights. AND, They Are GREEN!

[Chipper]

So the Seattle politicians have investments in either paper bag manufacturing companies, or the cloth bag manufacturers.

[Dr. Sivana]

You mean this one for Ziploc?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhMoT4QJZQc

[Dr. Sivana]

Yeah, doc, that’s the one. Thanks!

[Dr. Sivana]

No prob. By the way. It is spelled “DeLuise”.