California Becomes First State to Ban Plastic Bags

ABC News ^ | September 30, 2014 | By FENIT NIRAPPIL

[Oldeconomybuyer]

Gov. Jerry Brown has signed legislation imposing the nation's first statewide ban on single-use plastic bags.

Plastic bags will be phased out of large grocery stores starting next year and convenience stores and pharmacies in 2016. The legislation is meant to encourage consumers to bring their own bags and as a way to reduce litter.

[Rusty0604]

When I was a kid anything bio-degradable went into the compost. We went to refill glass milk bottles. After we had moved out of the city district, everything else we burned.

[Organic Panic]

Finally. The citizens of California can relax now that all the problems are solved they can start tackling the big problems.

[rockinqsranch]

This is really outright funny as these people, the Jerry Brown Leftist types pushed for those bags way back when to “save the trees”. THEY ARE RESPONSIBLE for those bags.

[ColdOne]

lol

[Rusty0604]

And the pushed so hard for the gasoline additive and charged consumers for it, and then later found that it made pollution worse. I think Boxer had a hand in that.

[morphing libertarian]

The propaganda is that the are single use but most of us use them multiple times

[Carry_Okie]

I prefer paper. It provides economic reason to harvest our massively overstocked forests.

[LALALAW]

California Freepers- Any interest in a state initiative drive to overturn? Would love to show them who is boss.

[C210N]

I am old enough to recall what trash day was like before the advent of plastic bags.

Time to bring back the old tried and true technologies.

[texhenry]

I can see it now-—Box of 500 plastic bags 19.95—Amazon.com

[forgotten man]

This is not a plastic bag ban. It is a tax on bags. The grocery stores will still offer bags, but you will have to pay for them. The UFCW union gets a piece of the tax. The good news is that the welfare class will have to pay too.

[jeannineinsd]

I asked a grocery store clerk if, under the new law, her store would still offer plastic bags for our produce. I use the thin, clear plastic bags for my apples, zucchini, oranges, etc. She thought the store would move to all prepackaged produce.

For people who live in areas that already have the plastic bag ban, how is the purchase of produce affected?

[Patriot Babe]

AMEN! That came to my mind. More jobs in 5he timber industry. I hoper futur paper bags can be made more sturdy with a strong handle to carry several items.

[rey]

The next thing to happen is you will be fined or forced to buy a paper bag or reusable bag when going to the store. I say this because the bags are banned in some counties already and if you make a purchase and hand carry items or take them to your vehicle in a cart you get some odd looks. These people demand tolerance, then legitimization, then celebration, then participation. We are at the legitimization point teetering on the participation point.

[rwfromkansas]

I don’t see why anybody these days doesn’t use their own cloth bags. I can get two weeks of groceries with 4 cloth bags. It literally takes a good 10-15 with plastic bags, which means at least 3 trips to the car. It’s absurd.

Those reusable cloth bags are awesome.

That said, it’s wrong and ridiculous to have a law requiring them.

[easternsky]

So if we save some up and use them next year, will we be arrested? And what about all the plastic diapers, make them go back to cloth. It is soooo stoooooopid.

[CyberAnt]

So .. I guess we’re going back to KILLING ALL THE TREES ..??

When are we going to elect a Governor of California who has a brain ..?? I’m not holding my breath.

[rwfromkansas]

Disagree with the law, but this is picky. You should have your things already in boxes anyway aside from fruit, in which case there are bags anyway you can get to put in the cloth bag.

The bags are great. Worrying about bacteria is crazy.

[Logical me]

Aren’t trash bags single use plastic bags? What do you use for trash?

Same bags just called trash bags. By the way, the internet still sells the same type bag the markets use and is much less expensive than the regular trash container liner. Moonbeam solved nothing except make the markets harder to work.

[BlatherNaut]

“San Francisco passed America’s first in the nation ban on plastic bags in chain grocery stores in 2007. More recently, law professors Jonathan Klick and Joshua Wright from the Wharton School Institute for Law and Economics, analyzed state and federal data on emergency room admissions and food borne illness deaths and discovered that the San Francisco ban led to an increase in infections immediately upon implementation. They found a 46 percent rise in food borne illness deaths...”

http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/56605