Free Republic

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...

The Boston City Council on Wednesday unanimously passed an ordinance that would seek to reduce the number of single-use plastic bags used at retail stores and other businesses throughout the city. Mayor Martin Walsh, who must still sign the bill into law, is currently reviewing the proposal, a spokeswoman said.

The State Department is hosting a two-day conference on the world's oceans, beginning today, and it's expected to produce a raft of announcements and initiatives, including new marine protected areas -- one off the coast of New England -- as well as a ban on single-use plastic bags. Ahead of the conference, press reports said President Obama on Thursday will establish the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean to permanently protect nearly 5,000 square miles of underwater canyons and mountains off the coast of New England. The White House said the designation will lead to a ban on...

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) - Puerto Rico's governor signed an executive order Friday banning the use of plastic bags across the U.S. territory, defying legislators who just days ago rejected a similar bill. The ban will take effect in mid-2016 and will be preceded by a six-month educational campaign, Gov. Alejandro Garcia Padilla said.

In an effort to protect the environment, Austin,Texas passed an ordinance banning single-use plastic bags in 2013. However, a recent review concludes that AustinÂ’s bag ban has backfired, creating more negative effects on the environment than the plastic bags it outlawed. [Â…] Two years after the bag ban was implemented, the city asked the Austin Resource Recovery group to investigate its effectiveness. Their June 10 report, written by Aaron Waters, states that while the ban was successful in lowering the amount of single-use plastic bags made from high-density polyethylene in city landfills, it was actually worse for the environment overall....

After six minutes of discussion, the Huntington Beach City Council voted 6 to 1 on Monday night to allow stores to use plastic carryout bags, taking a step toward reversing a ban that was enacted in 2013.

The 28 EU member states gave their final approval to new rules regarding plastic bags on Monday. Member states are required to reduce the use of flimsy plastic bags by 80 percent by 2025. However, they are given a choice on how to achieve that goal. According to the new rules, EU countries are permitted to introduce extra taxes on plastic bags or even ban single-use plastic bags on a national level.Margrete Auken, a Danish Member of the European Parliament from the Green Party, pushed the new legislation through and called the approval “a historic breakthrough in tackling the pervasive...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) — A trade group has turned in enough signatures to qualify a referendum on California’s plastic bag ban law, suspending implementation of the nation’s first statewide ban until voters weigh in on the November 2016 ballot, state elections officials said Tuesday.</p>

California lawmakers have approved a measure that would make the state the first to impose a statewide ban on single-use plastic bags. SB270 cleared the Senate on a 22-15 vote Friday and sent to Gov. Jerry Brown. It was approved by the Assembly a day earlier. …

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Plastic shopping bags, an abundant source of litter on land and at sea, can be converted into diesel, natural gas and other useful petroleum products, researchers report. The conversion produces significantly more energy than it requires and results in transportation fuels – diesel, for example – that can be blended with existing ultra-low-sulfur diesels and biodiesels. Other products, such as natural gas, naphtha (a solvent), gasoline, waxes and lubricating oils such as engine oil and hydraulic oil also can be obtained from shopping bags. A report of the new study appears in the journal Fuel Processing Technology....

The European Commission Monday (4 November) tabled measures to reduce the use of thin plastic bags by 80 percent, with about 710,000 tonnes of them being thrown away each year. Each EU citizen use almost 200 such bags—below 50 microns in thickness—yearly and, for the most part (89 percent of the time), throws them away after just one go. The practice is causing “enormous environmental damage,” said environment commissioner Janez Potocnik. He said the bags are a symbol of our “throwaway” culture, as the bags take hundreds of years to degrade “yet we only use them for a few minutes.”...

WALNUT CREEK -- Citing his oath to uphold the Constitution, Councilman Justin Wedel says Walnut Creek voters, not elected leaders, should decide where people can smoke and whether shoppers can choose paper or plastic. Wedel aims to get two initiatives on the June ballot -- one that would repeal a portion of the city's recently adopted secondhand-smoke ordinance and another to prevent a ban on plastic shopping bags in Walnut Creek. "This is not a smoking or plastic bag issue; this is a government-intrusion-into-our-daily-lives issue," said Wedel, elected to his first term in 2012. "I swore an oath to protect...

A Plattsmouth woman's widower has sued Wal-Mart and the maker of its plastic bags, alleging an overfilled bag given to her at a Bellevue store broke, and, in a strange twist, led to her death. William Freis of Plattsmouth said his wife, Lynette, went grocery shopping April 16, 2010, at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on 15th Street and the cashier gave her one plastic bag for two 42-ounce cans of La Choy and a 2-pound bag of rice. On her way to the car, the bag broke and one of the cans of La Choy fell on her right foot, breaking...

City Councilmembers and advocates announced a plan today to slap a 10 cent charge on all plastic and paper carry-out bags at grocery and retail stores across New York City. Customers would be required to bring their own bags or pay the fee, which stores would get to pocket, according to the proposed legislation, unveiled this afternoon at City Hall.

On Friday, New Jersey Democratic operative James Devine was arrested for attempting to snatch $22 worth of merchandise from a local ShopRite pharmacy. Devine tried to smuggle lettuce, shampoo and protein powder out of the store, perhaps trying to hide the fact that he was about to make the world’s most disgusting salad. To avoid detection, he stashed the goods in a reusable grocery bag. What seems to be just another edition of Democrats doing dumb deeds actually represents a nationwide problem. Thanks to laws in several major cities banning the use of plastic carryout bags in retail stores, there...

The Montgomery County Council is considering an outright ban on plastic bags. Council members are scheduled to hear a review of the county's bag tax, which was implemented in January 2012. As part of that review, a council committee will discuss whether to ban plastic bags, ban both plastic and paper bags, increase the tax or leave it alone. The bag tax brought in about $2.3 million last year for 57.6 million bags, according to the Department of Finance. The benefit to banning plastic bags, according to council staff, would be to effectively force shoppers to use reusable bags, and...

When the Seattle City Council unanimously passed a ban on plastic bags and required businesses to charge a nickel for paper bags, city leaders believed it would be better all around. "I think we've gotten to a place where it's really going to work for the environment, businesses and the community in general," Councilman Mike O'Brien said at the time. But the bag ban is contributing to thousands of dollars in losses for at least one Seattle grocery store, and questions have been raised about the risk of food-borne illness from reusable bags that shoppers don't often wash.

Abstract: Recently, many jurisdictions have implemented bans or imposed taxes upon plastic grocery bags on environmental grounds. San Francisco County was the first major US jurisdiction to enact such a regulation, implementing a ban in 2007. There is evidence, however, that reusable grocery bags, a common substitute for plastic bags, contain potentially harmful bacteria. We examine emergency room admissions related to these bacteria in the wake of the San Francisco ban. We find that ER visits spiked when the ban went into effect. Relative to other counties, ER admissions increase by at least one fourth, and deaths exhibit a similar...

Assemblyman Marc Levine announced today he will revive a proposal banning all single-use plastic bags in California grocery stores. Under the proposal, most grocery retailers could no longer provide thin plastic bags for customers starting in 2015. For 18 months, retailers could offer paper bags made of recycled materials or reusable plastic bags for customers to bag their milk, eggs and other groceries. Starting in July 2016, grocery retailers could only provide reusable plastic bags, which many stores already offer at a fee. The new proposal, Assembly Bill 158, also leaves room for stores to provide recycled paper bags at...