Plastic bag ban has suprisingly lots of opponents. (coupons, home)

[Gentoo]

Good for Seattle to follow SF and LA. For those that "reuse" those bags are still eventually thrown away.

[Seattle2012]

ONly 13% recycle plastic bags, MOST of them end up in landfields, most ppl are not reusing them, just b/c few ppl here say they use it, it does not mean most do. I grew up in Europe and those bags were charge always, it was not until I moved to US that I saw ppl getting those for free. Bad idea, make you think it is OK to waste. And BTW lost of ppl do not remember to bring canvas bags, let alone plastic bags to recycle in store. People are busy. ONly super green people do that.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by Seattle2012

ONly 13% recycle plastic bags, MOST of them end up in landfields, most ppl are not reusing them, just b/c few ppl here say they use it, it does not mean most do. I grew up in Europe and those bags were charge always, it was not until I moved to US that I saw ppl getting those for free. Bad idea, make you think it is OK to waste. And BTW lost of ppl do not remember to bring canvas bags, let alone plastic bags to recycle in store. People are busy. ONly super green people do that.

I just looked up that "13%" reference... because I had a hard time believing only 13% of the Seattle population are recycling plastic bags.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/us...for-paper.html

What this links actually says is that 13% of the 292 million plastic bags distributed in the city are recycled. Which is still what... almost 40 million bags? (Someone can check my math, admittedly I suck at it.) In Seattle alone, almost 40 million bags are being recycled... Sounds good to me, given that we don't really have that many environmentally-friendly options as what to do with these bags-- it tells me that Seattleites are trying. It doesn't say anything about what's happening with the rest of the bags, whether it's just being tossed out, littered, reused or whatever.

[evergraystate]

In other news 254 million bags become TRASH every year in the city of Seattle.

[Beenhere4ever]

Originally Posted by Inkpoe

Nobody recycles plastic bags? Really? Every time I go to Fred Meyer's, Safeway, they have a bin which people can recycle plastic bags and I see people putting the effort for that.

Granted, more people could be doing it. Perhaps it'll force some to rethink their choices. But if they choose not care about it and pay the 5 cents... oh well. That money is going somewhere and the Seattle gov't will gladly take it.

It takes effect July 1, 2012: Seattle Public Utilities -- Plastic Bag Ban

Given the huge patch of plastic in the central Pacific, I think there's a real doubt that those bins at the stores lead to real recycling. Some do, but it could be that there just isn't a big enough manufacturing demand for that kind of plastic. At any rate: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. I think the Reduce thing is the safest. Drive down the market for manufacture of the bags and the other phases can be eliminated.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by Beenhere4ever

Given the huge patch of plastic in the central Pacific, I think there's a real doubt that those bins at the stores lead to real recycling. Some do, but it could be that there just isn't a big enough manufacturing demand for that kind of plastic. At any rate: Reduce, Recycle, Reuse. I think the Reduce thing is the safest. Drive down the market for manufacture of the bags and the other phases can be eliminated.

The issue wasn't really whether its "real recycling" or the fact that there's not really many environmentally friendly options with these plastic bags (which I've acknowledged in a later post and am sure others know)... We all know the issues with plastic bags and all. I wasn't addressing whether its right/wrong to ban the bags or to charge people 5 cents and all those kind of "moral" implications. As it is, it doesn't affect me because I live out of Seattle Proper-- yet I do recycle/reuse.

What I was addressing: The OP is making a claim that "no one is recycling plastic bags" and that no one is re-using these bags which is unsubstantiated.

[Ultrarunner]

Kind of ironic the Green movement had a hand in bringing plastic bags to grocery stores first place...

My high school had a Save A Tree project where each student pledged to educate family about switching to plastic to save trees... we even met with the local Safeway store manager and asked him to consider giving customers the option of paper or plastic.

As for the European way of life... having lived and worked in Europe... I would not say it is superior... only different.

Never ran into pay toilets till I lived in Europe... using the logic of this thread... we should all have to pay to use the toilet to prevent people from going too much...

[la_fuerza]

I totally support the plastic bag ban. It's long overdue.

My wife and I haven't used plastic bags for quite some time. We have several canvas bags in the trunk of our car.

[xcalgal]

At one point, I had three large dogs and i walked them everyday, so I was wondering how green it was to buy bags (which were never big enough) just for the purpose of my walks.

However, I am on board now with banning the bags because I just use vegetable section bags. They have no holes like the used white ones, they store easily, and they are big enough.

[eskercurve]

I just read an article which describes the real reason why plastic bags are being banned.

Big corporations that deal with trash have to clear out the plastic bags from the machines that crush and process it prior to going to the landfill. Apparently it gums up the machines real good after a while. http://www.portlandtribune.com/opini...70941806884800

Also see this: http://www.noozhawk.com/local_news/a..._plastic_bags/

And this: http://www.businessinsider.com/paper...ronment-2012-6

Once I read that article, it made me 100% opposed to this push. If you follow the money, Waste Management corp. and Weyerhauser are behind this push. Let's see, a corporation that deals with waste management trying to reduce its costs in less machines needing to be serviced while increasing business for paper mills and corporations. Big corporations win!

Not only that, but paper bag consumption will rise manyfold if San Francisco's model is followed. Paper bags contain a lot more chemicals and nasty things. Little do people know that today's plastic bags are biodegradable.

Biodegradable? But don't they last 1000000 years? Hogwash. A high school student proved some years ago that that was baloney by going to the landfill and showing that bacterium and other critters learned howt o break down the plastic. And today's bags are more environmentally friendly and easier to break down by using less petrochemicals.

Then again, the Greens will always love something that sounds environmentally friendly and don't bother scratching beneath the surface like a 2nd grader does normally for their writing essays. Doesn't matter to them if the cure is worse than the disease, IT'S GREEN!

Idiots. I challenge anyone here who supports a plastic bag ban to dispute any of these facts. Should be entertaining.