Reusable Bag Glut Creates New Environmental Issue; Solve One Problem, Create Another (paper, compost)
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The biggest issue it caused is that many grocery bags were once made by recycling the waste byproducts of making of natural gas, now that grocery bags are severely limited in a growing number of major consumer cities and states those waste products have no place to go and need to be dumped or burned in masses, creating a new environmental crisis. Thats explains the sudden war against natural gas these days in places that once had a strong pro natural gas policy for many years i.e Northeast and California.
The other issue is more heavy dependence on bin liners that contains much more plastic film the grocery bags and often cannot stay tied when its dumped into garbage trucks which result in massive spillage of other plastic wrapping in garbage as well as the bin liner itself resulting in a lot of garbage flying out of garbage trucks and ending up everywhere.
According to Google street view many area that were almost garbage free before such ordinances took effect ended up having piles of garbage in the years after those feel good bans were passed.
California pushes this re-usable bag thing and makes you pay 10 cents for bags if you don't bring your own. And you see way more trash along the roads there than in states where there is no such bag laws.
True and way more in the same exact areas than before such bans are passed. Ie freeway shoulders, Google street views proves it. In every single location since it passed. I can find numorous examples in the SF Bay Area of such happening and then the rest of the state.
True and way more in the same exact areas than before such bans are passed. Ie freeway shoulders, Google street views proves it. In every single location since it passed. I can find numorous examples in the SF Bay Area of such happening and then the rest of the state.
Politicians always want a feather in their cap, i.e. "I did something about...." Even if they accomplished precious little and made ordinary people's lives more difficult and expensive.
Politicians always want a feather in their cap, i.e. "I did something about...." Even if they accomplished precious little and made ordinary people's lives more difficult and expensive.
^^^Corporate executives are the exact same way. As a lifelong employee, there are countless times I have had to deal with implementation of bad policies because some new executive had to make a name for themselves by changing a policy just for sake of saying they did something.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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Here the stores use either plastic or paper bags, but we have to pay 8 cents for them. We have some reusable but often forget to bring them in, and it's worth 8 cents to not have to go back to the car. We rarely need more than 1 or two, since most of our foods come from Costco, and there we just load from the cart to the car., no bags or boxes.
Politicians always want a feather in their cap, i.e. "I did something about...." Even if they accomplished precious little and made ordinary people's lives more difficult and expensive.
And its seriously much worse in the same locations google street view take pictures in the past. San Jose wasn't nearly the dump as it is 2013 and beyond as opposed to 2010-2011. They pioneered the toughest most far-reaching bans on all retail bags in 2012. Photos taken before showed just grass but later showed it covered by trash almost like a landfill. Other cities that followed suit also the same. The real reason was less bags to contain trash or use of bin liners and paper increased and those things fall apart in the garbage truck and spill its content from the loading opening, I also seen bin liners flying out of garbage trucks in the past. Hows that good for the environment?
They made things far worse not better at all, but looking green is more important than being green. But SJ keeps preach gospel or false gospel they reduced 89% of something and thus others should follow suit. Completely bogus baseless figures.
Corporations these days are also embracing it for seemingly good PR to these groups and an opportunity to not only save on overhead costs while quieting customer complaints but profiting off it. Ie WalMart in some areas are taking away the 8-10 cent bags completely and not selling paper either and going Ikea in selling much more expensive bags. Some fitness centers are ending towel service, shutting down some facilities of the gym early, and or ending 24 hour operations. All in the name of going green but people still pay just as much. Don't even get me started on Walt Disney Co.
Another thing is bags are made from recycling waste byproducts of manufacturing of natural gas now they are abruptly banned. Now they have to ban natural gas as those waste byproducts have to be burned in masses now or otherwise disposed into the environment.
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