Comments on: Life in an increasingly fascist city — what San Francisco’s plastic bag ban means

By: Ron19

Ron19 — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 20:42:41 +0000

Just the two of us, we usually wind up with about 10 grocery bags a week. That would be about a washerload of the cloth bags I have seen people bringing on thier own.

By: Ymarsakar

Ymarsakar — Thu, 04 Oct 2012 19:44:55 +0000

They will bring you Hell on Earth and call it good, for that was all they had intended.

By: Old Buckeye

Old Buckeye — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:33:41 +0000

Next thing you know, the government will have to be purchasing reusable bags for everyone who can’t afford to buy them….

By: Libby

Libby — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 10:14:08 +0000

What will pet owners use to dispose of their dog’s droppings now that plastic bags have been banned?

By: Mike Devx

Mike Devx — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:32:45 +0000

live free or die

By: Earl

Earl — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 03:01:16 +0000

Plastic bags ARE recycled….into faux-wood deck boards, at the very least. Every store I shop in here in Chico has a big container out front to collect used plastic bags.

I’m pretty sure that paper bags aren’t made of virgin wood pulp, so their recyclability is doubtful.

I have a bunch of re-usable bags in the car, and try hard to remember to take them in whenever I shop. I’m a failure at that, though – I often forget.

I’ve got cloth bags and plastic-surfaced ones….I like the latter best because they’re so much easier to clean – wipe with Clorox wipes.

I figure that the dumb-a**es who can’t be bothered to deal properly with single-use plastic bags are the very ones who don’t bother to wash their re-usable bags, so the salmonella “problem” may simply be Charles Darwin’s hypothesis at work!

By: Michael Adams

Michael Adams — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 00:48:48 +0000

I like the cloth bags well enough, and separate the meat from the vegetable, so salmonella is not such a problem. However, I am outvoted in my house, two to one, by the women, who want the plastic bags to hold the cat poop.

As for the issue raised by Chuck, the water and energy used to wash a bag is as naught beside the water used to make paper. Anyone who has lived in the South, or in other places where paper mills are near by, knows about the water and the pollution involved in paper making.

However, Austin (AKA Berkley on the Colorado) has a new bag ban to take effect next March. Bag usage was down, as stores reminded folks to bring their own and save the…something or other. The stores sell reusable bags, pretty cheaply, too. Education seems always preferable to coercion, and the former builds community, while the latter destroys it. Ach! Whatta you gonna do?

By: Charles Martel

Charles Martel — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 22:10:16 +0000

I agree with others here who say that banning the bags isn’t going to end the world. Besides helping with the litter problem, I’m with jj on the issue of removing a threat to wildlife.

My real concern is that this is the first of a two-fer, where paper bags will be banned to save our precious forests (I can’t think of any other reason for doing so). The push is on by the busybodies to make us all bring our own bags—preferably made by Quechua women in the Andes out of fair-trade hemp. As Old Buckeye points out above, the perpetual bane of the Enlightened Ones, unintended consequences in the form of bacterial build-ups in cloth bags, is rearing its who-knew-that-reality-can-be-such-a-bitch? face.

The backfire will come from all the extra use of hot water and detergents to keep the damned things clean. To reinforce proper behavior and save resources, though, there will probably be ordinances banning anything but cold-water washes and mandating the use of detergents that do not excessively suds up.

Me? I’ll be dusting off my old Radio Flyer and using cardboard inserts from wine cases to compartmentalize what I roll home from the grocery store.

By: merighen

merighen — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:13:30 +0000

JJ and Charles: thanks for your thoughtful comments. I personally can do without plastic bags, particularly since they don't degrade for several generations and can't be recycled in the way that paper bags (for instance) can. Dog feces left behind and dogs off leash in areas where leashes are required strike me also as being part of the same "not my responsibility" mentality. I live east of the Caldecott, and highways, intersections near service areas (fast food and convenience stores) are true eyesores. And unfortunately litter attracts more litter; a little litter inspires a garbage dump over time. This spring, Contra Costa voters were asked to tax themselves to fund government agency efforts to reduce the amount of litter flowing to the Bay. The tax was defeated... it was not because the majority prefer to dump plastic bags and other junk into the Bay, but because the process was so flawed. If any of you are interested, more info is available at http://fixpacifica.blogspot.com/2012/04/crafty-contra-costa-clean-water.html .

By: Old Buckeye

Old Buckeye — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 21:00:18 +0000

Might just be a boondoggle to help the medical community OR a plan to kill more of us off quicker. Did you hear or read that using non-disposable bags has been linked to more outbreaks of salmonella and other food-borne disease because the reusable bags aren’t often washed, so they harbor the germs from food carried in them?