California Bill Would Ban All Plastic Shopping Bags At Grocery Stores (sfstandard.com) 276
An anonymous reader quotes a report from the San Francisco Standard: California would ban all plastic shopping bags in 2026 under a new bill announced Thursday in the state Legislature. California already bans thin plastic shopping bags at grocery stores and other shops, but shoppers at checkout can purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly makes them reusable and recyclable. Democratic state Sen. Catherine Blakespear said people are not reusing or recycling those bags. She points to a state study that found the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds per year in 2004 to 11 pounds per year in 2021. "It shows that the plastic bag ban that we passed in this state in 2014 did not reduce the overall use of plastic. It actually resulted in a substantial increase in plastic," Blakespear, a Democrat from Encinitas, said Thursday. "We are literally choking our planet with plastic waste."
While California's bag ban would apply statewide, it would only end up impacting about half the state's population, according to Mark Murray, lead advocate for the environmental advocacy group Californians Against Waste. That's because most of the state's major cities already ban these types of thicker plastic bags. But a state law passed in 2014 and approved by voters in a 2016 referendum bans cities from passing new laws restricting plastic bag use. If the Legislature passes this bill, it would be up to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to decide whether to sign it into law. As San Francisco's mayor in 2007, Newsom signed the nation's first plastic bag ban.
While California's bag ban would apply statewide, it would only end up impacting about half the state's population, according to Mark Murray, lead advocate for the environmental advocacy group Californians Against Waste. That's because most of the state's major cities already ban these types of thicker plastic bags. But a state law passed in 2014 and approved by voters in a 2016 referendum bans cities from passing new laws restricting plastic bag use. If the Legislature passes this bill, it would be up to Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom to decide whether to sign it into law. As San Francisco's mayor in 2007, Newsom signed the nation's first plastic bag ban.
the world is ending!! (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm sure we'll here about the death of civilization in the comments.
In practice the UK merely introduced a small per bag charge and the number of plastic bags plummeted.
After a while it becomes an unthinking habit to bring bags on a shopping trip.
You can live day to day without supermarket carrier bags, it turns out.
Re:the world is ending!! (Score:5, Insightful)
Where I come from, any shopping bag is a small charge, and the paper bag with eco-credentials costs more than plastic.
The charge hasn't stopped much anyone from getting them, though. For a while I was going for the paper option, until a friend pointed out that plastic shopping bags can later be used as trash bags, which I otherwise have to buy separately, and I'm just pointlessly adding the ecological footprint of the paper bags on top of that.
In any case the shopping bag wars can only be considered greenwashing, in light of every shopping bag containing a pound of plastic in food packaging... How about we go and do something about that?
Re: the world is ending!! (Score:5, Interesting)
Agreed! Where I live (northeast U.S.) there's a store that has a brand called "Nature's Promise", which is higher-end produce, usually organically grown. Their fruit (grapes, berries) is very good but sold in stiff plastic containers that are heavy and annoying to store in the fridge. Kind of an odd juxtaposition of appearing "natural" (organic) but not environmentally conscious.
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I'm impressed if your bags are good enough to use as trash bags. Here in Texas, the current fashion is to use relatively small bags made out of the thinnest plastic possible. They're only big enough for a small wastebasket, and they rip if you look at them wrong. So they only put in like two or three items per bag at the checkout, and often double-bag them.
My primary motivation for using cloth bags for groceries is simply to avoid having those awful plastic bags lying around, so I won't be temped to reuse
Re: the world is ending!! (Score:2)
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Re: the world is ending!! (Score:2)
The paper bag is more poluting to produce than plastic. Unless you plan to dump your bag in nature you polute more buying one over plastic
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Lots of people do just dump bags, that's the problem. And if only there was an alternative to single user plastic bags and single user paper bags, you know like almost indefinitely reusable cloth bags for example that are also nearly indestructible and won't tear with heavy or pointy items.
For example.
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Besides not shedding micro-particles that get into our food and water supply, the other nice thing about paper bags is that they can be used to hold food waste for composting because they themselves compost so easily.
My city has curbside composting pickup, and they won't take the "compostable" bioplastic bags. So I wish they would make paper shopping bags free again.
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In any case the shopping bag wars can only be considered greenwashing, in light of every shopping bag containing a pound of plastic in food packaging... How about we go and do something about that?
Oh c'mon now, greenwashing? The goal of these bans is to reduce plastic use not to eliminate it. This should be obvious given how targeted they are. If your plastic packaged groceries go home in a non-plastic bag then thats less plastic used. Goal met.
As for using them as garbage bags, if you're getting all of your groceries in plastic then you are getting far more plastic bags then you could ever use on garbage as unless you have some other major source of garbage creation outside of food waste and packagi
Re: the world is ending!! (Score:2)
Agreed, I haven't been using them for a long time, and it wasn't a tough transition. I use "reusable" bags, some of which are nice because they're insulated, but I have seen some studies that say such bags may be worse in the long term because they have proportionally more plastic per use. As I wear out these, I'm looking for alternatives (canvas?) that may be better.
The only thing I miss about plastic bags is that they're handy around the house for a second use to bag up smelly expired food, throw out a de
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I'm on a mix. I use cloth bags almost exclusively, with the number slowly growing over time as I get random freebies. I have a few insulated ones too which once had for ages. I've got a few woven plastic ones, Sainsbury's reliabags, which are really really good bags to the point where they end up getting dedicated to moving and storing heavy stuff rather than day to day shopping.
Generally I just grab a handful of bags on the way to the shop. Or just use my panier bag if I'm going by bike.
I do have a few pla
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Reusable plastic bags are a good choice but be sure to sterilize them regularly.
https://health.clevelandclinic... [clevelandclinic.org]
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And how does the energy and resources used in cleaning the bag affect the environmental footprint? Bet it's more than negligable. Not to mention the suggestion in that article to not store the bags in the car, which would result in more cases where you forgot the bags and had to buy more, leading to less reuse.
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It's more or less nonexistent.
I use micro fibre cloths for cleaning because they are superior to disposable alternatives, especially for the kitchen. I have a microfiber mop head too. And I use cloth tea towels like a normal person. When they are done, I chuck them in a bucket and every so often, usually once a week was the lot at a sterilizing heat.
I neither want enough spares that it fills up a wash and I don't want old cleaning stuff to fester for weeks, so the washing machine is never at capacity.
And gu
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I think ultimately banni
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I've been in France for a while now and the only plastic bags you see are the nice reusable kind that you pay for if you forget your own shopping bag.
It's actually quite nice to bring your own bag that doesn't rip apart with heavy items.
Per the OP, yes you can live day to day without supermarket bags. It's not hard.
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Cambridge, MA does this (Score:2)
My local g
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Re:the world is ending!! (Score:5, Insightful)
To which I say, "What? Your freedom to pollute the land & oceans that everyone else depends on?"
All my life I've been reusing shopping bags as trash bags. Now that they're out all that's changed is I buy dedicated trash bags, so the impact of this legislation on oceans is exactly *zero*. But I guess I'm sacrificing my convenience as an offering to Gaia and that makes her happy, right?
Re: the world is ending!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Unless you are a very unusual consumer, the number of bags acquired on a normal shopping trip is roughly 4x the number of bags needed to hold the trash from purchased products. Most shopping bags are too small to hold the trash from larger purchases. So yes, buying dedicated shopping bags will decrease substantially the number of bags used by the average consumer. Every region that has passed such bags has seen such decrease. Moreover, most consumers are not reusing shopping bags ever. So kudos to you, but please support the ban.
Re: Current CA bags being banned already reusable (Score:3)
"All non-reusable bags are already banned." That is a subtly I had missed. Thanks.
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To which I say, "What? Your freedom to pollute the land & oceans that everyone else depends on?"
False dichotomy. There's plenty of middle ground between treating the whole world as a garbage dump and banning plastic bags for any and all reasons.
My grocery store has a recycling bin specifically for bags. I've never littered a plastic bag in my life. I bring my own carryall bags when I shop, but sometimes I end up with more than the bags I brought can carry and I get a few plastic bags, too, or the store puts meat or frozen stuff in a plastic bag before putting it in my carryall. Sometimes I just forget
Re:the world is ending!! (Score:5, Informative)
BTW, recycling doesn't work. Less than 2% of plastics get recycled & plastic can be recycled a couple of times then it becomes useless & it's dumped into the sea or landfill anyway. Pretty pointless.
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Previous laws (Score:5, Informative)
Apparently something similar has been passed in 2022 in California, to start in 2025, maybe someone can explain what's new here https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org] Recent coverage said similar laws has reduced by 98% the amount of bags used in UK https://news.slashdot.org/stor... [slashdot.org] . Outside slashdot we learn that about 100 countries have banned plastics bags https://www.euronews.com/green... [euronews.com] It's not clear if all of these 100 countries have similar terms, but the terms explained above (free thin bags banned, thick recyclable bags allowed for a fee) are the same as those in force in many European countries for some years.
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Most Ontario grocery stores voluntarily stopped providing thin plastic grocery bags some time ago. It's not a big deal. The heavy, recycled plastic bags last for years. They gave some out at a tree planting festival I organized 10 or 11 years ago, and I'm still using mine.
Isn't it ironic (Score:5, Interesting)
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I saw the same whIle in Europe.
No you didn't. In Europe the move to really thick bags has seen a significant decline in plastic waste. People here actually reuse them. Of course it helps that most European countries also put a small charge for the bags (more countries do this than banning plastic bags). Results have varied from a crappy 50% to upwards of 90% reduction in plastic bag consumption.
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We have a small charge in the US but it's like 10-15 cents, it's negligible compared to the cost of the food in the bag so it doesn't work. But if you raise the charge then it's abusive to poor people if they forget their bags. And most public transport is bad enough that they can't just go home and get them, it will take all damn day.
Re:Isn't it ironic (Score:5, Insightful)
Anecdote time, as a fellow American only 1 of 5 grocery chains in my area charges for bags (Aldi) and as that's my weekly shop I see very very few people purchase the bags. It seems like a negligible charge does in fact work.
But if you raise the charge then it's abusive to poor people if they forget their bags.
Unrelated issues, if plastic bags are a pollution problem that should be dealt with. If the solution to that problem means some people are unfairly disadvantaged we can tackle that problem on it's own, either by providing free re-usable bags or providing a bag stipend directly. If poor people were disadvantaged because they can't afford time to dispose of their hazardous waste we wouldn't just allow them to dump.
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Take your canvas bags (Score:5, Interesting)
The idea is to use canvas because it lasts basically forever, can be washed and doesn't put microplastics out there. The really think plastic bags aren't nearly as long lasting. They easily get punctured and once they do they basically fall apart.
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Re:Isn't it ironic (Score:5, Informative)
The problem is not the carbon footprint of the manufacture. The problem is the thin plastic bags are discarded and end up as a blight on the landscape.
For single-use plastic bags, granted. Other type of, reusable, bags have a much higher carbon and manufacturing footprint and must be reused many times to offset that. From Plastic, Paper or Cotton: Which Shopping Bag is Best? [columbia.edu] and Here’s how many times you need to reuse your reusable grocery bags [cnn.com] (and many other sources):
Generally speaking, bags that are intended to last longer are made of heavier materials, so they use more resources in production and therefore have greater environmental impacts. To equal the relatively low global warming impact of plastic bags, paper and cotton bags need to be used many times; however, it’s unlikely that either could survive long enough to be reused enough times to equal the plastic bag’s lower impact.
Ultimately, the single use of any bag is the worst possible choice. The key to reducing your environmental impact is to use whatever bags you have around the house as many times and in as many ways as possible.
From the CNN article:
A report produced for the United Nations Environmental Programme [lifecycleinitiative.org] in 2020 (PDF) found a thick and durable polypropylene (PP) bag (they often have a woven feel) must be used for an estimated 10 to 20 times compared to one single use plastic bag, while a slimmer but still reusable polyethylene (PE) bag five to 10 times.
This 2018 study Life Cycle Assessment of grocery carrier bags [www2.mst.dk] (PDF) goes into a LOT of detail on different kinds of bags, also noting:
A 2018 Danish Environmental Protection Agency report suggested that a cotton bag should be used at least 7,100 times to offset its environment impact when compared to a classic supermarket plastic bag that’s reused once as a trash bag and then incinerated. (If that cotton is organic, the figure is an eye-popping 20,000 times, with the report assuming a lower yield but the same input of raw materials.)
Re:Isn't it ironic (Score:4, Informative)
Great (Score:5, Insightful)
This is great news. Now please ban the use of plastic for packaging of small items. Literally everything is wrapped in tons of plastic.
And then it would be nice to see to return to glass packaging for milk and its derivatives, e.g. yogurt. And make it so that returning the packaging would grant you money or a discount on new purchases, so that people would be incentivized to do so.
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Totally agree. I really don't understand why all the packaging. It must add a lot to costs.
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Less glass = less breakage in handling and transport = lower costs.
I hate glass. Do you know how many times my kid drops something or puts it hanging over the edge in the fridge like a "fridge IED" waiting to go off when the next unlucky person opens the fridge sending a -plastic- container to the floor?
I don't care what they use as long as it can take a 6 foot drop without leaving a mess of glass and food splattered everywhere.
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Depends on the good, things such as cucumbers or paprikas see a significant increase in shelf life and a reduction in food waste when wrapped in plastic. But that's no excuse for stupid shit like pre-peeled oranges wrapped in plastic.
Re: Great (Score:3)
Or individually wrapped cookies.
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And then it would be nice to see to return to glass packaging for milk and its derivatives, e.g. yogurt. And make it so that returning the packaging would grant you money or a discount on new purchases, so that people would be incentivized to do so.
Some things are plastic wrapped because they improve shelf life and reduce food waste. That said there's plenty of stupid examples too, like I bought a paint brush the other day where the bristles were wrapped in plastic. Like WTF! Or I also saw a pre-peeled orange wrapped in plastic. The orange literally comes wrapped on the tree.
That said I wouldn't jump straight to glass. Milk cartons are recyclable, and the milk I buy is in cartons made from... milk cartons. The snake eats its own tail here :-) Ban the
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Not to mention the weight of glass compared to paper or plastic, which increases the fuel consumption to move the goods around.
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Reusable bags are terrible for meat (Score:2, Insightful)
You can't put cuts of meat in them. They become contaminated. Personally I like the paper bags with handles, and I wish we could go back to those everywhere.
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You can't put a cut of meat into a paper bag with handles, either. It will soak and break out, and also who knows how clean that paper is or isn't? But you can wrap a piece of meat in waxed paper or more commonly these days cling wrap, and then put it in any kind of bag.
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I'm happy with butcher paper unless I'm freezing something. Then I want it wrapped tight. For a steak I go to my nearest great local butcher (in Ferndale) and get a local steak wrapped in paper. For a pork butt it's Hormel at Winco for $1-1.50 on sale and it was delivered to them wrapped in the same plastic I'll freeze it in after buying six of them. It's great to have a chest freezer... And keeping it packed keeps it more thermally stable. Now I only have to fear power outage :)
Re: Reusable bags are terrible for meat (Score:2)
The problem with butcher paper is the customer can't see the meat. So they stack portions in a refrigerator that customers can select. And if you have an employee there wrapping on demand like a traditional butcher counter that makes the labor cost higher. There's disadvantages pretty much any way you go about it.
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That's why I go to the butcher for the steaks. The steaks aren't any more expensive, they're much higher quality, and they are cut to my desired thickness. When I lived in Lake county I used to go to Lakeview market, now it's Ferndale meat co.
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Unless they are laminated, I suspect laundering them gets them clean enough for everything except chewing on.
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I carry meat all the time in reusable bags. The butcher wraps it in waxed paper, and when I'm done I chuck the bag in the hot wash with a bunch of other things I want hot washed.
I do love hearing from plastic bag fans how my day to day life is impossible. I can assure you that out is not impossible.
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Super markets here normally put meat on a flat (with edges up) styrofoam base and then Saran Wrap the whole thing. This is off the shelf in the refrigerated section.
Left perfectly flat you probably won't have too much leakage but pretty much you have to assume it's going to leak at least a little so you put the meat separately in its own plastic bag for transport,
If you buy directly from the butcher counter, yes, it is paper wrapped but that's not how most meat is sold. But even then, a fresh cut still ha
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I buy almost all my meat from the butcher wrapped in butcher paper because the butcher is closer than the supermarket and has a much better range. Plugs the butcher knows me now and will cut me a deal on various bits and bobs.
I certainly don't just buy dry steaks or anything. Gotta get my hearts, livers and kidneys somewhere.
I use cloth bags.
It's fine.
Happened in New Jersey a few years ago (Score:3)
This happened in New Jersey a few years ago. Despite the warning, despite the advertising, on the day of introduction it was chaos. A week later, still chaos but getting less.
A month later, it was normal.
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It is NOT normal in New Jersey. Shopping baskets have disappeared as a result, so if you want to shop but don't want to take a cart, you either have to hold the items in your hands or shop into a bag you brought.
The stores don't want you shopping into a bag you brought because of the potential for shoplifting, so they put up signs against it and doing it risks being accosted by Loss Prevention. If you get to the checkout (perhaps with a cart) and realize you've forgotten your bags, you're screwed. Maybe
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Shopping baskets have disappeared as a result
I mean you're talking about New Jersey. Things are going to disappear. It's just a part of the experience. New Jersey is the only place I've ever been where every bad thing I ever heard about it was true. I remember driving in from Pennsylvania once and there was a warning sign right before you left warning that you were about to pass the last exit in Pennsylvania. After crossing a state border on an interstate, there's typically a rest stop funded with federal funds. Not in New Jersey. There was just a par
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Baskets were generally available before the bag ban and not after, so it's not just a New Jersey thing. What happened most likely is people would get to the checkout, not have bags, and just take the basket to the car. And some people would not dump their stuff into the car but just take the basket. And so the stores saw increased costs from replacing the baskets so they pulled them all instead; after all, the point of the stores supporting the bag ban was to reduce their costs, not increase it.
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/p... [forbes.com]
Four years on, however, there is evidence that New Jersey’s bag prohibition not only failed to curb plastic usage, it backfired. According to a new study released on January 9 by the Freedonia Group, 53 million pounds worth of plastic shopping bags were used in New Jersey prior to implementation of the state’s bag ban, a figure that has risen to 151 million pounds since the prohibition was instituted.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news... [msn.com]
Plastic consumption in New Jer
But (Score:2)
What are they supposed to use instead?
Cut trees for paper bags or force recycling? (Score:2)
It would be interesting to see the math on whether this is a plus or minus environmentally.
Why not force recycling say you only get a one new plastic bag per old plastic bag that you return?
As implied in the article, the problem isn't plastic bags per se, it's that people aren't re-using or re-cycling them. So why not address re-use and re-cycling?
Re:Cut trees for paper bags or force recycling? (Score:4, Insightful)
Recycling is expensive and energy-intensive compared to reuse. And a lot of supposedly-recycled material actually isn't, because it doesn't make economic sense.
What is the replacement? (Score:2)
Reusable bags, and paper bags, aren't a good idea for meat that may leak juices. They aren't great for small produce items or packaged salads.
Sure, ban plastic if you want to, but what other options are there?
Re: What is the replacement? (Score:2)
Let them eat cake.
The people doing the banning have their groceries delivered to their door by the help. They don't give a fuck.
Re: What is the replacement? (Score:2)
I have an insulated bag and I ask the bagger to put the meat into that. I can turn it inside out and wipe it down with my household cleaner. Takes like 20 seconds.
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And you're sure that when you clean this insulated bag in 20 seconds, that you got all the e. coli that may be lurking in the crevice's and seams and stitching where the panels of the bag are held together?
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If you only use that bag for meat, then you just cook your meat properly and you're OK. A good proportion of raw meat is contaminated anyway, so regardless of how you transport it, you have to follow safe food preparation measures.
Of course, if you sometimes use the bag for other things like vegetables that you don't cook, then it's a problem.
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There are two issues with your approach.
First, the risk of accidental cross-contamination is not zero, even if you are careful.
Second, harmful bacteria can produce toxins that are not neutralized by cooking, even if the bacteria themselves are killed.
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Yes, it's perfectly sterile from nonsporeforming bacteria, such as E. Coli, after wiping it down with a strong surfactant or soap, which is abundant in the cleaner I use, and letting it air dry. Mold spores are more difficult to eliminate but not the issue here.
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I suggest you use a black light and inspect your bag. You might be surprised at how much meat juice is left behind by your cleaning process.
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Looks clean. I'd have to apply Luminol to be sure. But I'm interested in minimizing the risk of cross contamination, and not in finding the killer of my chuck roast.
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A few bouts of diarrhea might be a valuable lesson for the youth of today. But more seriously, doctors and nurses do instruct expectant mothers on the importance of avoiding food borne illness. Unfortunately, a lot of young women are not able to get appropriate care early in their pregnancy. My concept of what it means to live in a modern civilization is to have very low child mortality rates. Anytime we overlook opportunities to reduce infant mortality is by my own definition a failure to achieve advanced
Re:What is the replacement? (Score:4, Informative)
This is California. They'll just ban meat.
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I use cloth bags.
If I think it needs cleaning, it goes on the washing machine at 90 degrees with a bunch of other stuff that needs cleaning.
This is not rocket surgery.
How on earth are people making such a meal of this?
A huge impact here (Score:2, Troll)
It really doesn't take that much extra effort.
I used to live in Brookline Massachusetts (Score:2)
when they did one of The First In In The Nation bag bans.
First they banned checkout bags.
Then they banned PET produce bags too because petrochemicals bad. They replaced them with some kind of trashy compostable film bags that ripped at the slightest poke, were harder to open, and felt like a used condom.
Because green. Nevermind that most of the world's plastic waste comes from countries without any regs where they just dump their trash in rivers, not here where we dispose of it more cleanly. Doesn't matter.
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Government Think (Score:3)
"It shows that the plastic bag ban that we passed in this state in 2014 did not reduce the overall use of plastic. It actually resulted in a substantial increase in plastic,"
They tried banning plastic bags, and the problem got worse. So their solution is even more of the same.
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"It shows that the plastic bag ban that we passed in this state in 2014 did not reduce the overall use of plastic. It actually resulted in a substantial increase in plastic,"
They tried banning plastic bags, and the problem got worse. So their solution is even more of the same.
This. I said exactly what was going to happen way back when they first passed this law, but nobody listened. This outcome was entirely expected and obvious, though to be fair, it was even worse than I expected, because the use of plastic bags was further increased by the rapid increase in people getting food delivered, which is entirely incompatible with reusable bags.
And of course, because people now have these big, thick bags instead of disposable thin bags, that small increase in the number of bags mea
Nice start, but (Score:3)
Just about every item in the store is packaged in plastic
Bags (Score:2, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3)
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Costco too.
This person is stupid (Score:2)
"Democratic state Sen. Catherine Blakespear said people are not reusing or recycling those bags"
Are you actually watching us? I see people reusing the bags at the grocery store all the time, because THEY GET CHARGED FOR THEM. I reuse the bags because they're GREAT for holding used cat litter and don't fucking break like regular trash bags, they also work for carrying lots of rocks that I mine in the desert.
"She points to a state study that found the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew fr
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"She points to a state study that found the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds per year in 2004 to 11 pounds per year in 2021"
Right around the time those THICKER, HEAVIER BAGS were introduced. HOWEVER - these newer thicker bags are 8-10x the weight of the original thinner ones, so for her logic were to actually hold weight we'd need to go from 8 pounds per year per person to 64-80 pounds of plastic bag per person per year.
But in spite of some reuse, the net amount of plastic is still higher than it was before, which means the law was an abject failure.
One big cause is the increased use of delivery and pickup for grocery shopping. During the pandemic, more than 22% of all grocery shopping [sciencedirect.com] was done either by delivery or pickup. And although that probably has gone done some since then, I'm sure it's still way higher than before.
Reusable cloth bags really aren't feasible for delivery, so they're delivering food in those thick
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Hey sig stalker! Still waiting for you to let me in on who Jessica price is.
With your weirdly obsessive dig out of the way. Yeah you know I think the tradeoff between the millions of normal people using less plastic at the cost of a desert rock farmer using more is worth it.
There's really not many people who regularly carry home desert rocks.
Single use (Score:2)
Paper, please.
everything (Score:2)
Everything not prohibited must be compulsory.
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>biodegradable plastic bags
That weren't actually biodegradable, they'd just decay into the tiny bits of plastic we're finding everywhere we look these days.
Re: Cloth bags (Score:3)
My cloth bags we're shedding dusty micro plastic everywhere so I had to throw them away. It's happened multiple times and I find it less convenient than paying for plastic or paper bags each time.
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Get real, made from natural fiber, untreated or waterproofed bags. With no advertisements printed on them.
I have a few military surplus canvas bags. They have nice shoulder straps for easy carrying. Also some stenciling on the side which says "Magazine 10 count 5.56 CAL" so the liberals in line at the grocery store can shit themselves.
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As a dyed in the wool liberal, I can assure you that no one cares. It's turns out that you're only the main character of your own story.