[bgill]

We taxpayers will be charged 25 cents per bag but foodstamp cardholders will be exempt. So, which is it? Are plastic bags not so bad that special groups can still use them or is that 25 cent penalty doubled for taxpayers so we must pay the fines for welfare recipients whom we're already supporting?

[DonaldC]

I mis paper bags. They are, after all, a green renewable resource.

[Brownie63]

We went to the plastic bags in the first place to “save the trees”. The tree-huggers need to make up their minds.

[Hodar]

What about those big 55 gallon, 5 mil thick black garbage bags? There is a lot of plastic in those, and you could make a lot of plastic bags out of a single 20 ounce plastic soda bottle.

Seem’s their drive is a little single-minded and short-sighted.

[kingu]

Any bets as to how many people are killed by contamination spread from improperly cleaned ‘reusable’ shopping bags? The universal goal of turning us into a 3rd world nation continues... That's all the Greenies want, it's not about the environment, it is about making your lifestyle worse.

[Arrowhead1952]

Yeah, but what about all the bread wrappers and other plastic that food is packed in, then put into a plastic garbage bag and put into the trash cans?

[GunRunner]

I’m glad I live in Williamson County. We always get plastic because they’re great for reusing as pooper-scooper bags.

[NEMDF]

Yes, we must pay double. We cannot expect the poor people whose only income is in government benefits to have to pay for things like plastic bags from their welfare money.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

The idea is to eliminate these types of plastic bags and certain types of paper bags from our landfills. To do that, the city is considering charging customers for these types of bags for three years, then eventually banning them from many stores across the city...

The ban will never happen. Governments don't just let income streams from taxes disappear without a fight. This is just a way for the city to impose a new, permanent tax.

The simple fact is that plastic bags make life easier for consumers and are re-usable. That's enough for environmentalists to oppose them - any small features of modern life which improve sanitation or convenience for ordinary people are automatically targets for the environmental hairshirt lunatics and politicians looking for innovative ways to tax.

[jonrick46]

Why can’t the evironweenies put a little mental energy into finding a use for all of that plastic going into the landfills? I could use a cheaper plastic decking material than what we have now.

[Signalman]

Using plastic bags saves trees.

[lapsus calami]

 

 

 

This is nothing but an extortion stunt - I seem to recall in the distant past that the ingredient composition of the "plastic" hard to be worked out in order to get past tree-hugger objections in the first dang place. The things are engineered to break down and decompose into nothingness by design. I dimly remember the bags being heralded in the media as the "environmentally friendly" solution to paper bags - an intrepid researcher could no doubt dig up the AP news articles touting that. Somebody around there needs to dig up the bag engineering specs, old news articles about them along with a Information Quality Act (aka the Data Quality Act) request and watch their underhanded tax scheme fall apart.

 

 

 

[Madam Theophilus]

India has the ultimate idea in recycling. They make bags out of children’s used school papers. You buy a pound of sugar and then can read a kid’s spelling lesson on the side of the package. The liberals wouldn’t go for this because adults would actually find out what the kids are learning! :-)

[The Great RJ]

While I have seen “green” reusable bags made out of recycled materials, most are pretty flimsy and will soon end up in landfills anyway. Some heavier bags, particularly those that are insulated, may not be recyclable at all and may be made of plastics from oil. What ever happened to those biodegradable bags made from corn starch? When I was a kid, the local grocery store packed your groceries in re-used boxes.

[kevkrom]

In my neck of the woods, this type of plan goes into effect Jan. 1, though it’s only 5 cents per bag.

They have the never to call it a “fee” and deny it’s a tax, when it’s about the clearest example of an excise tax as you’ll ever see.