The Nanny State Takes Over The Grocery Store Checkout
No more plastic bags at the supermarket. I use these bags, no, not to strangle the pigeons but to pick up doggie doo so my landlord's gardener won't have to and to store my bacon in the refrigerator.
Little Shiva, who designed my masthead, makes clothes and panda masks out of them. And other art.
But the government knows best!
Catherine Saillant writes in the LA Times:
For Los Angeles residents, the perfect holiday gift this year might have been a reusable grocery bag. On Wednesday, large grocery stores will be prohibited by law from providing free plastic bags.Shoppers will be required to bring their own bags when stocking up on food and goods, or pay 10 cents per paper bag provided by the grocery store. Smaller independent markets and liquor stores that sell groceries will become subject to the ban July 1.
...Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group and ban supporter, acknowledged that some shoppers who reuse plastic bags to dispose of animal waste will miss them. On its website, the group suggests using old newspapers to scoop up dog waste during walks, or to reuse bread bags or produce bags, which will still be available.
"You can also use the cereal bag from the cereal box,'' said Sarah Sikich, science and policy director for Heal the Bay, which has been pushing for a bag ban for seven years. "People get creative when they have to."
We don't eat cereal. (If Gregg even eyes a Corn Flake, I'll kill him.)
I predict an increase in dog poop everywhere.
For my tiny dog's Tootsie Roll-sized poopies, I can take a paper towel in my pocket if we go for a walk.
Great Danes? Not so much.
By the way, when certain cities, like West Hollywood, were early on the ban, check out the unintended consequences: Gregg changed grocery stores and started going to one that didn't charge for bags. He had to drive just a block out of his way, but he was happy to. He's so pissed off about this now -- plus he likes driving -- that he's contemplating going grocery shopping in the rather hilariously named "The Inland Empire."
Don't you just LOVE unintended consequences ??
Because to Nanny-Staters, you CAN change just one thing. . .
/boggle. . .
Keith Glass at January 2, 2014 7:18 AM
Canadians have been paying for grocery/shopping bags for quite some time.
When I forget reusable shopping bags I simply pay the 5 or 10 cents. Big whoop.
I really doubt this will increase dog poop droppings . Evil people who choose not to clean up after pets will continue in their selfish behaviour just as respectable people will continue to be respectable.
rex
rex rummery at January 2, 2014 7:53 AM
Amy, you're the writer, not me, but
"I use these bags, no, not to strangle the pigeons but to pick up doggie doo so my landlord's gardener won't have to and to store my bacon in the refrigerator."
Seems ripe for a rewrite.
I must admit, out where I live I visit Trader Joe's once a week or so, if only to get a paper bag with handles to use in the kitchen. I suspect Joe's knows that and lures in many customers this way.
jerry at January 2, 2014 8:02 AM
Evil people who choose not to clean up after pets will continue in their selfish behaviour just as respectable people will continue to be respectable.
My city started charging for bags in March, and I haven't noticed a difference in dog droppings around, either. My neighbor who didn't pick up his dog's messes before the ban still doesn't pick them up. On my walks, I usually see dog-walkers using those little green bio bags (which they were doing before the ban anyway, as a lot of apartment complexes in my area make those available to residents).
The one thing I HAVE noticed? On my hikes along the creek, I'm picking up far fewer water-logged plastic bags (although still a ton of beer cans). My theory: The bag ban has caused people to treat the bags they DO get from take-out or mall shopping like plastic gold (and hoard them for lining their garbage cans instead of chucking them out the window).
...now if I could just get beyond the squicks I get when I think about how people are probably not washing the re-usable bags they bring to the store. I saw some lady plunk a stained, wet one on the counter recently. After she left, the employee exchanged a look with me and reached for an antibacterial wipe. Just chuck those bags in the washing machine when you do a load of towels or sheets, people! Please! It's not that hard!
sofar at January 2, 2014 8:14 AM
We use those plastic bags for all kinds of things. Small trash can liners. Scooping the cat box. Preserving paint brushes and rollers. Lunch bags. Keeping small parts together. Bagging loose bulk ingredients, like chocolate chips or pasta. Separating stuff going to the dry cleaners.
Cousin Dave at January 2, 2014 8:27 AM
They banned plastic bags in Austin last year. I then appropriated a stack of them from the grocery in Round Rock (the next city over) and proudly use them in Austin.
Promethius at January 2, 2014 8:28 AM
And yeah, I've wondered where that "Inland Empire" thing came from...
Cousin Dave at January 2, 2014 8:28 AM
An interesting article from the L.A. Times about the history of the term "Inland Empire," and its etymology:
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/nov/27/local/me-inlandempire27
Kevin at January 2, 2014 9:25 AM
I also live in Austin. For poop-scooping we now use the plastic bags that we get in the produce aisle. I guess this only works if you buy lots of veggies, as we do.
Astra at January 2, 2014 9:27 AM
I live in Austin, too, and I try to avoid shopping at places that won't give you bags (because they CAN still give you the paper bags with handles), or the ones that try to charge you. My kid's school is BEGGING for plastic bags. We shop at the HEB in Westlake, which isn't subject to the ban, so they still give us the bags. Most of the larger grocery stores will still give you the ones with handles. I went to the Micheals in Rollingwood once and they won't give you anything to carry your stuff out in, so I don't shop there any more. That's crap customer service.
Really, though, I'm just sick of the liberal we-know-what's good for you bullshit that comes with living here. We sold our house in cental Austin a year ago, and now we're looking to move west or southwest- Dripping Springs or Lake Travis. We're just... done.
ahw at January 2, 2014 9:29 AM
Just because you use plastic bags to scoop up dog poop, it does not mean that others will do it too. When I was in NJ, the local shoprite used to have a 2c off your purchase if you brought your own bag. Which is just another way of charging for plastic bags. But it was totally ineffective. Apparently, so few people were bringing their own bags that each time I brought my own bag, I would have to remind the cashier to apply the 2c off and it was pretty embarassing to do that over 2c.
And in the first apartment I stayed in which was occupied by a couple of other guys, they used to stuff these shoprite plastic bags in the garbage bin. And they used to buy those big black plastic bags for the garbage bin rather than reuse those shoprite ones.
Then when I moved to my own apartment, I started using the plastic bags for disposing off the garbage. So just because you do it, it does not mean that everyone does it.
The fact is the vast majority of people are idiots and need a little bit of prodding to get them to do sensible stuff. I am sure you can understand that especially when those idiots have their stationary cars outside your house with their speakers at full blast or the other nuts who you mentioned peeing near your house.
Redrajesh at January 2, 2014 9:47 AM
If the vast majority of people are idiots and must be prodded, who's to do the prodding? Who's to make the rules?
What makes you think the bureaucracy enforcing the rules will be staffed with the non-idiots?
And why do you assume that the things the bureaucracy demands (e.g., re-usable grocery bags, compact fluorescent light bulbs, zero-tolerance policies for first-graders) are the "sensible stuff?"
Conan the Grammarian at January 2, 2014 10:21 AM
This is the bureaucracy charged with enforcing the "sensible stuff" the superior people have determined we idiots need to be "prodded" to do.
http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2014/01/02/us_customs_staf.html#comments
Conan the Grammarian at January 2, 2014 10:25 AM
at 'ahw' - housing market here in San Angelo is good but (I believe) the job market is not.
Bob in Texas at January 2, 2014 10:28 AM
Multnomah County has a plastic bag ban too and I can say I have noticed a lot more dog poop since the ban went into effect, but that could also be more lazy assholes in the area than before. I live in Clackamas County so it's not an issue for me, but we reuse the plastic bags for the bathroom wastebaskets and also to tie up poopy diapers in. I noticed the Taco Bell and the Subway up the street from my work are no longer using plastic bags either but the ones by my house still do.
BunnyGirl at January 2, 2014 10:28 AM
Our local ShopRite takes 5 cents off your final tally for every reusable bag you bring. But they don't charge you for plastic bags. In fact, sometimes when I'm bagging my groceries, I'll use a plastic one to wrap meat in, and stick it in my reusable bag. Sometimes the cashier does it too, and she always puts my eggs in a plastic bag. I reuse them at home, for the bathroom and bedroom wastebaskets, too.
Flynne at January 2, 2014 11:35 AM
These miserable dweebs want to make all our lives miserable. I use plastic bags from my grocery stores to scoop up stuff out of the cat's litter pan. I will be totally pissed if a bag ban comes along, but since I live in Maryland, a state that even Californians can laugh at, I doubt I'll be able to stop it from happening.
These ninnies really put the MENTAL in environmental.
mpetrie98 at January 2, 2014 12:02 PM
And why do you assume that the things the bureaucracy demands (e.g., re-usable grocery bags, compact fluorescent light bulbs, zero-tolerance policies for first-graders) are the "sensible stuff?"
In other words, Redrajesh, And why do you assume that the things the bureaucracy demands (e.g., fabric petri dishes, mercury health hazards, child abuse) are the "sensible stuff?"
mpetrie98 at January 2, 2014 12:08 PM
It was just a few years ago that the ecodweebs were demanding we use plastic bags to save the world by not killing trees for paper bage.
I wonder how they'll save the world next year.
Jay at January 2, 2014 1:32 PM
All the dog owners I know use dedicated poop-bags in a holder on the dog's leash...
(It's still none of the government's damn business.)
Sigivald at January 2, 2014 1:57 PM
I use plastic bags in my son's diaper pail. Since they're free and abundant, it's no problem to take out the whole thing if there's just one really ripe diaper.
Sosij at January 2, 2014 2:36 PM
Non plastic bags are killing the Earth
April 2013 - Right Wing News
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[edited] Plastic bags generate around half of the greenhouse emissions caused by manufacturing and recycling brown paper bags. Plastic bags generate about 80% less waste overall than paper bags, less space in landfills, 70% less energy to manufacture than paper and reusable bags, 1/7th of the truck fleet to move around (thus saving on fossil fuels), and have a smaller carbon footprint than any of their reusable alternatives.
Plastic bags are the one thing Americans really like recycling. 9 out of the last 10 years, recycling rates for plastic bags has grown exponentially – even jumping up by 24% just last year.
Reusable cotton bags are not recyclable themselves, so ”to ensure that they have lower global warming potential” than a single use of a plastic bag, they have to be reused 131 times. Assuming one trip to the grocer a week, it would take 7.5 years of using same reusable bag before it better performed than a plastic bag used only three times. Hope that we are good at manufacturing them, or that China is, which presents another set of problems.
=== ===
Andrew_M_Garland at January 2, 2014 4:05 PM
Reusable Shopping Bags: Safe?
Jne 2010 - Food Safety News
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According to a joint food safety research report issued by researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University, reusable grocery bags can serve as a breeding ground for dangerous foodborne bacteria and pose a serious risk to public health.
The researchers randomly tested reusable grocery bags carried by shoppers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tucson. Researchers also found consumers were almost completely unaware of the need to regularly wash their bags.
“Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from coliform bacteria including E. coli, which were detected in half the bags sampled,” said Charles Gerba, Ph.D., a University of Arizona environmental microbiology professor and co-author of the study. “Furthermore, consumers are alarmingly unaware of these risks and the critical need to sanitize their bags after every use.”
Gerber said the bacteria levels found in reusable bags were significant enough to cause a wide range of serious health problems and even lead to death. This is a particular danger for young children who are especially vulnerable to foodborne illnesses.
=== ===
EasyOpinions.blogspot com
Andrew_M_Garland at January 2, 2014 4:12 PM
I had to google Inland Empire too. A region in Washington State and Idaho. Apparently more properly called Inland Northwest http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inland_Northwest_(United_States) That is one of heck of a drive.
Yes, I saw that it was also an area in CA.
The Former Banker at January 2, 2014 9:33 PM
I don't how I /can/ wash those reusable canvas bags. Maybe the cloth ones.
When I bring home meat in one, I first wrap the meat in a grocery store plastic bag because I've heard that's the only safe way if I'm going to reuse the outer bag. (Honestly, though, I don't follow all the "rules" for raw chicken, and I don't know anyone who does. You'd practically need a kosher kitchen with separate sinks or else a lab environment.)
I also go to Trader Joe's especially for the paper bags with handles. That's what we recycle our paper in.
Insufficient Poison at January 3, 2014 7:13 AM
My daughter lives in Culver City, but shops in Pasadena on Sundays because the traffic is less, and she can go to a Target, Trader Joe's, and several other places she likes to frequent within a few blocks, so yeah heading out to "Rivertucky" isn't that onerous.
Probably a comfort factor there, too , as she lived in Pasadena (and attended UCR) and really liked it but when she got a job in Santa Monica the daily commute became unbearable. I tease her about being the "terror of Colorado Boulevard" but Beach Boys is waay before her time.
mister brickhouse at January 5, 2014 7:59 PM
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