Free Republic

Since May, residents in New Jersey have become overwhelmed with reusable sacks due to state law prohibiting grocery stores from using single-use paper or plastic bags, NJ.com reported Tuesday. Shoppers are allowed to use their own bags or purchase reusable ones, however, in many grocery stores, Instacart shoppers and employees put groceries in fresh reusable bags each time someone places an order.

Maryland lawmakers advanced a bill Monday that would prohibit stores from providing plastic bags to customers starting July 2022. An iteration of this legislation passed the House and was voted out of the Senate Finance Committee last year, but it did not reach the Senate floor due to the abbreviated legislative session. With an amendment from Del. Brian Crosby (D-St. Mary’s) that would allow orchard farmers to provide plastic bags to customers for its fruits and vegetables, the Plastic Bag Reduction Act, sponsored by Del. Brooke Lierman (D-Baltimore City) and Sen. Malcom Augustine (D-Prince George’s), moved out of the House...

Paper or plastic? In New Jersey, try neither. The state Legislature on Thursday voted to make New Jersey the first in the country to ban single-use paper bags in supermarkets along with all single-use plastic bags in stores and restaurants. Eight other states, including California, New York and Vermont, have bans on single-use plastic bags either in effect now or scheduled to go into effect in the coming years. But by banning both plastic and paper single-use bags, as well as disposable food containers and cups made out of polystyrene foam, environmental advocates said the New Jersey bill is among...

LOWELL -- Paper or reusable? That's the question you'll be asked in Lowell supermarkets later this week when the plastic bag ban goes into effect. On Jan. 1, the Mill City will join a rising number of Massachusetts communities banning single-use plastic bags, including Boston most notably in mid-December. Westford's ban also goes into effect on Jan. 1. The Lowell City Council voted in May to approve the ordinance. The city ban is limited to retail establishments 3,000 square feet or larger. The Market Basket at the corner of Fletcher and Broadway streets now has signs in the checkout line...

The Detroit Free Press once had a columnist by the name of Bob Talbert. He wasn’t a deep thinker but he was deeply beloved for his down home (he originally hailed from South Carolina) take on things and his humor – back when writers for that rag were still allowed to be apolitical and funny. Bob Talbert: Detroit Free Press columnist 1968-1999At one time he wrote 7 days a week, but at the time of his premature death in 1999 his column was a must-read Monday thru Friday and the first column of the workweek was dubbed Monday Moanin’ Out...

San Jose council votes to ban most plastic and paper bags beginning in 2011 The San Jose City Council on Tuesday voted to make the city the largest in the nation to ban most plastic and paper shopping bags — and took steps to bring other Santa Clara County cities along with them. Although the ban approved Tuesday won't take effect until 2011 — and still must go through an environmental impact study that will require the council's final signoff — it's a major new front in the war on plastic bags, which environmentalists say foul waterways, clog landfills and...

OAKLAND, Calif. -- A proposed strategy for reducing ocean litter calls for a statewide ban on foam food containers, fees for using plastic and paper bags, and making producers responsible for the collection and disposal of packaging. The California Ocean Protection Council announced its plans (PDF [319KB]) earlier this month and voted on actions for preventing and reducing waste that could end up in the ocean. The state council also aims to change producer and consumer behavior with its three recommendations for reducing packaging waste: adopting extended producer responsibility, prohibiting certain items and charging fees for items that commonly become...

The plastic grocery bag is fighting for its crinkly life.From the city of San Francisco to Los Angeles County, more than a dozen local governments around the state have proposed or passed plastic-bag restrictions, ranging from recycling mandates to outright bans.Now, a proposal in the Legislature would put a 25-cent fee on all disposable bags – paper or plastic – given out at drug and grocery store check stands starting Jan. 1, 2010. It has won key support from the grocery and retail industries and faces its next legislative step today. Those in favor of the fee, led by Assemblyman...