plastic bag ban has negative effects on local economy (Houston: tax, live)

[OpenD]

Moderator cut: orphaned

Here's what I see... we did just fine without disposable plastic bags in the past, and we can live without them going forward. The use of disposable plastic bags not only depletes our ever-shrinking supply of fossil fuels, it unarguably consigns a huge amount of unrecoverable plastic to landfills. And they contribute to all kinds of visual pollution, blowing in the wind to snag in trees, festooning barbed wired fences, and choking waterways.

Is there some secondary utility to these bags? Sure, but not at all in proportion to the problems created by them in the first place. In truth the majority of them just wind up in the trash. The three reusable bags I use eliminate 6-8 disposable bags from the waste stream each week, after week, after week.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by OpenD

The use of disposable plastic bags not only depletes our ever-shrinking supply of fossil fuels...

False. According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012, last year marked another year in a continuing string of increasing proven world oil reserves. Proven reserves totaled 1652 thousand million barrels, compared to 1257 thousand million barrels just as recently as 2000, and 683 thousand million barrels when they began keeping records in 1980.

I am really happy that you use reusable bags. I do as well (except this e coli thing has me rethinking...) most of the time. But sometimes, I forget to put them back in the car, and sometime the car is in the shop and I'm driving a loaner, and all sorts of other reasons. Kinda like the Portlandia fella. . We also recycle all of our bags.

But it is the preachy, moralistic tone that is the complete turn off - again, like the Portlandia clip. On those occasional instances when I do forget, I shouldn't have to pay $2 or $3 just so others feel like they are doing their part to protect mother Gaia. Education as to the hazard? Great. Working with the stores to give a discount, like WF? Great. But don't tell me what I have to do while the COA wraps themselves in their self-righteousness and piety.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by owlman

Unless your dog is dropping a big enough doo that you need a full sized grocery bag every time, you can get by with smaller bags = less plastic in the landfill. Plus, you can buy biodegradable pet waste bags.

Why would anybody want to buy pet waste bags when Walmart, Target, HEB, Albertsons, Lowes and nearly everybody else all provide perfect free ones in most places? Line a 5-gallon bucket with one, pick up the dog poop in the yard, tie closed and throw away!

While I don't like seeing bans on plastic bags, I don't like the trash they generate, either, but it's annoying to have to buy something else because of a ban!! Big brother at work again!

[HappyTexan]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Here's what I see... we did just fine without disposable plastic bags in the past, and we can live without them going forward. The use of disposable plastic bags not only depletes our ever-shrinking supply of fossil fuels, it unarguably consigns a huge amount of unrecoverable plastic to landfills. And they contribute to all kinds of visual pollution, blowing in the wind to snag in trees, festooning barbed wired fences, and choking waterways.

Is there some secondary utility to these bags? Sure, but not at all in proportion to the problems created by them in the first place. In truth the majority of them just wind up in the trash. The three reusable bags I use eliminate 6-8 disposable bags from the waste stream each week, after week, after week.

True but every store had paper bags..they gave you something to put all your purchases in.
Now you have to remember to bring them and remember to clean them.

Are all the stores in Austin mandated to provide purchasable bags in their premises as part of this new law ?

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by scm53

False. According to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy 2012, last year marked another year in a continuing string of increasing proven world oil reserves. Proven reserves totaled 1652 thousand million barrels, compared to 1257 thousand million barrels just as recently as 2000, and 683 thousand million barrels when they began keeping records in 1980.

I stand by my original quote. The total supply of fossil fuels is ever shrinking, even if we are currently identifying more of it, because there's no more being made. It IS a finite reserve, even if it seems vast to us now.

[verybadgnome]

Originally Posted by OpenD

I stand by my original quote. The total supply of fossil fuels is ever shrinking, even if we are currently identifying more of it, because there's no more being made. It IS a finite reserve, even if it seems vast to us now.

And to exacerbate the supply part of the equation demand is forecast to go up worldwide, even if the U.S. itself stays at the same level. Plus a lot of what we are finding now is low-grade meaning it takes more energy to refine it.

[G Grasshopper]

I do agree that plastic bag bans are the wave of the future, and a good wave. But I agree that many of the reusable bags now being used are not good. I haven't tried to wash the plastic-like bags. I guess I should give that a try to see what happens. The canvas bags that you could wash are much better, more durable and can be kept in a more sanitary condition. I even use net produce bags, which I can also wash. I have had my canvas bags for at least 20 years at this point, and they are still just as strong as they used to be, although a little faded.

[Komeht]

Originally Posted by OpenD

OK, y'all have completely lost the topic...

Here's what I see... we did just fine without disposable plastic bags in the past, and we can live without them going forward. The use of disposable plastic bags not only depletes our ever-shrinking supply of fossil fuels, it unarguably consigns a huge amount of unrecoverable plastic to landfills. And they contribute to all kinds of visual pollution, blowing in the wind to snag in trees, festooning barbed wired fences, and choking waterways.

Is there some secondary utility to these bags? Sure, but not at all in proportion to the problems created by them in the first place. In truth the majority of them just wind up in the trash. The three reusable bags I use eliminate 6-8 disposable bags from the waste stream each week, after week, after week.

The problem with your assumptions is this results in a decreased use (however negligible) of plastic bags. Mot does not. It simply sifts where I get my plastic liners from.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Komeht

The problem with your assumptions is this results in a decreased use (however negligible) of plastic bags. Mot does not. It simply sifts where I get my plastic liners from.

It still reduces the overall usage by the average consumer. One trash can liner serves me well for the garbage from 6-8 plastic grocery bags worth of food.

[scm53]

Originally Posted by OpenD

I stand by my original quote. The total supply of fossil fuels is ever shrinking, even if we are currently identifying more of it, because there's no more being made. It IS a finite reserve, even if it seems vast to us now.

There are literally thousands of uses of petroleum, and plastic shopping bags are but one. The application of the resource against the use is something markets should allocate - not a moralistic sense of right and wrong. Credit cards are made of petroleum, and wind up in landfills in even higher percentages than bags. Next to ban? Linoleum flooring? Ban? Vinyl siding? None of those things get recycled and are made of petroleum. If you have a serious concern about frittering away a resource we annually find more of than we consume, you got a long list to go down before you get to plastic bags.