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Greening Our Way to Infection
City Journal (Manhattan Institute) ^ | March 12, 2020 | John Tierney

Posted on 03/13/2020 8:02:50 AM PDT by Salman

The COVID-19 outbreak is giving new meaning to those “sustainable” shopping bags that politicians and environmentalists have been so eager to impose on the public. These reusable tote bags can sustain the COVID-19 and flu viruses—and spread the viruses throughout the store.

Researchers have been warning for years about the risks of these bags spreading deadly viral and bacterial diseases, but public officials have ignored their concerns, determined to eliminate single-use bags and other plastic products despite their obvious advantages in reducing the spread of pathogens. In New York State, a new law took effect this month banning single-use plastic bags in most retail businesses, and this week Democratic state legislators advanced a bill that would force coffee shops to accept consumers’ reusable cups—a practice that Starbucks and other chains have wisely suspended to avoid spreading the COVID-19 virus.

John Flanagan, the Republican leader of the New York State Senate, has criticized the new legislation and called for a suspension of the law banning plastic bags. “Senate Democrats’ desperate need to be green is unclean during the coronavirus outbreak,” he said Tuesday, but so far he’s been a lonely voice among public officials.

(Excerpt) Read more at city-journal.org ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: coronavirus; environmentalism
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Libs never count the cost.
1 posted on 03/13/2020 8:02:50 AM PDT by Salman
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To: Salman

we will never learn


2 posted on 03/13/2020 8:06:54 AM PDT by teeman8r (Armageddon won't be pretty, but it's not like it's the end of the world)
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To: Salman

I highly doubt anyone washes their reusable bags. I can’t imagine what’s contaminated on them...leaking meat, dairy...they get throw on the floor of a bus, a car, a house.

It’s pretty disgusting, honestly.


3 posted on 03/13/2020 8:08:45 AM PDT by JenB987
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To: JenB987

We’ve been shopping at Aldi’s with reusable folding boxes for a decade and I don’t think they’ve ever been cleaned.

On my way to the doctor for a Coronovirus checkup....


4 posted on 03/13/2020 8:11:25 AM PDT by nascarnation
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To: JenB987

I have watched people dragging a slew of them into the store, so cruddy, I wouldn’t take home something for my dogs to eat, in them.

The *only* thing I “reuse” is a folding cooler tote to put my *bagged* cold stuff in.


5 posted on 03/13/2020 8:12:58 AM PDT by Salamander (Living On The Ledge....)
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To: Salamander

My dad needed a bone marrow transplant back in 2012. Our whole family had to have a meeting with the doctors beforehand about proper sanitary behaviors and besides the obvious hand washing, the two that i didn’t think about before were Lysol spraying shoes before we come in the house and avoiding usage of anything “reusable” like bags to store his clothes, food or medicine.

It’s been with me since.


6 posted on 03/13/2020 8:17:05 AM PDT by JenB987
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To: JenB987

Very practical.

On a similar note, when I come home from shopping, I go straight upstairs and change my clothes and shoes so I don’t accidentally track in anything my dogs could catch.

The single use bags from the stores become trash bags every two weeks and never used for anything else.


7 posted on 03/13/2020 8:21:05 AM PDT by Salamander (Living On The Ledge....)
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To: JenB987

Almost as filthy a the missus’ designer purse that gets set on the floor in the restroom stall and other grimey places. Eeewwww!!


8 posted on 03/13/2020 8:22:17 AM PDT by Tucker39 ("It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible." George Washington)
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To: Salamander

If i don’t use plastic shopping bags for small trash cans, I’d have to buy more plastic bags for small trash cans...so...I’m saving the environment by conservation.


9 posted on 03/13/2020 8:23:27 AM PDT by JenB987
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To: JenB987

My bags get washed every 2 weeks unless there is a leak, then they are washed with the next load.

Not everyone is a slob.


10 posted on 03/13/2020 8:34:27 AM PDT by Don W (When blacks riot, neighbourhoods and cities burn. When whites riot, nations and continents burn.)
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To: JenB987

Yup.

And the big bags ROSS has are great for bigger bins.


11 posted on 03/13/2020 8:46:15 AM PDT by Salamander (Living On The Ledge....)
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To: Salman; All
"These reusable tote bags can sustain the COVID-19 and flu viruses..."

What about money? Can money spread the virus?

12 posted on 03/13/2020 8:56:53 AM PDT by jackibutterfly (My mind is wandering, and I'm following it!)
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To: Salman

BUT IT’S FOR THE CHILDREN!!!


13 posted on 03/13/2020 8:58:43 AM PDT by Psalm 73 ("You'll never hear surf music again".)
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To: Salman

There’s always an “unintended” consequence.

These “unintended” consequences should have been foreseen. Any reasonable person would have foreseen them. Since they went ahead and passed their idiot laws without thinking, then they are responsible for the “unintended” consequences, as if they had foreseen them and directly intended them.

So wash the dumb bags already!


14 posted on 03/13/2020 9:00:22 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Lying Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: jackibutterfly

It disappeared from the news pretty quick, but I believe a huge amount of counterfeit US money was recently found. The funny thing was that it was all $1 bills. No one counterfeits $1 bills. That’s crazy! But — if you planned to infect the money and then spread it around, it would be a very effective biowarfare delivery device.


15 posted on 03/13/2020 9:01:02 AM PDT by ClearCase_guy (If White Privilege is real, why did Elizabeth Warren lie about being an Indian?)
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To: JenB987
I highly doubt anyone washes their reusable bags. I can’t imagine what’s contaminated on them...leaking meat, dairy...they get throw on the floor of a bus, a car, a house.

It’s pretty disgusting, honestly.


I definitely refuse to use the reusable bags. Much prefer paper, though if the stores have a good strong plastic bag I'll take that.

I do have a couple cloth bags leftover from seminars/conferences type, and I'll use those for taking lunch to work. Make sure to wash them every week or two though!
16 posted on 03/13/2020 11:26:14 AM PDT by Svartalfiar
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To: jackibutterfly

If covid cash is keeping you up at night I’ll take it off your hands


17 posted on 03/13/2020 2:05:06 PM PDT by newbie 10-21-00
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To: Salman

bkmk


18 posted on 03/13/2020 3:06:41 PM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: newbie 10-21-00

:-)!!


19 posted on 03/13/2020 11:32:03 PM PDT by jackibutterfly (My mind is wandering, and I'm following it!)
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To: jackibutterfly; All

How cashless will soon be popularized...”We must rid ourselves of paper money and coin for we cannot guarantee that such instruments can be kept sanitary and not be the sources of dangerous contagions!”

Then the screens that they have you sign with your fingers will be banned, even if you use a stylus, even a personal stylus that you keep clean because all the grease and oils from hands will spread contagion. Then cards, even the cards that have “tapping’ features because they too will have everyone’s germs on them. Ohh well, we’ll all have to have them put on our right hands or fore-heads that can be radio scanned with no touch involved....

Watch for articles that begin to push this notion of ‘infection control”. It’s all to keep us safe....right?/s


20 posted on 03/14/2020 1:37:47 AM PDT by mdmathis6
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