Opinion: Will California ban plastic bags?
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
When Capitol insiders talk about a “bag bill,” it refers to something for which an interest group is willing to spend big money – legally, it’s presumed – to see done.
Senate Bill 270, one might say, is a double bag bill.
Dan Walters
It would phase out, beginning in 2015, the single-use plastic bags that grocery stores commonly use to send purchases home. It also involves big money and big interest groups.
Banning plastic bags is a burning cause for some environmentalists, contending that they squander energy, add to solid-waste-disposal problems, and often pollute waterways and the ocean, where they pose dangers to wildlife.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Los Angeles, the author of SB270, says the billions of bags used annually in California “cost state and local governments at least $25 million,” and dozens of the state’s more liberal cities have already banned them.
Previous efforts to enact a statewide ban failed, but this year the powerful grocery industry signed on, saying that a statewide policy makes more sense than a patchwork and enticed by new authority for grocers to charge 10 cents (or more) for every bag – paper or reusable plastic – they provide.
What a stupid question ,Will California ban bags,? They already have, Charging for bags is stupid,It took a loaf of bread off my table for buying bags ,It stopped me from picking up poop ,and why should I have to pay every time to go into a store ? The price of food is out of this world,,I am a senior and why take money away from the people that have a low income to live on pay for bags? ,Next thing you will see ,they will charge you for walking into a store, I think its wrong for taking money from people that live on a budget ,Just my thoughts,I can only say this ,ITS MONEY THAT IS THE ROOT OF EVIL,Always taking away from the people who try to get ahead ,there is always someones hands out to grab ,
Simply hanging reusable bags on a hook by the door, taking them with me to the car. It’s a habit now. When family and their pups stay with us, I have biodegradable poop bags handy – which are inexpensive. (I accept that there is a cost to owning or babysitting a pup). The transition to reusable bags has been easy. Single-use plastic bags, plastic utensils, paper plates, plastic water bottles, even plastic food containers…While it’s difficult to avoid them completely, it’s really not that difficult to make the choice to use non-disposables whenever possible. All I need to do to make that choice is to imagine the water, chemicals, energy, etc required to make a single-use item.
I hope California bans the plastic bags because I am getting old picking them up.
I reciently bought several cloth bags at a yard sale for .25. I always have them in my car. Ive been doing it for as long as ive been getting groceries and im 55 years old. Its the right thing to do. Just yesterday blowing down the road was 2 walmart bags, thrown or blowing out of a car, garbage to make our highways less beautiful. Plastic bags are unnecessary if there are alternatives, and there are many alternatives. I look forward to the ban. Most people are too lazy to think outside the box (bag). and if all they want to use them for is picking up their dogs poop, well whaaaa…dig a hole and bury it…..
It is a bit of an inconvenience to always remember your reusable bags – but the end result is a good one for the environment.
I just got home from a week at the ocean and spent a few minutes each day cleaning up trash at each beach I visited. People are pigs and will toss food wrappers and the plastic bags right to the sand after eating the contents. It’s conscious neglect and it has to be stopped.
Banning plastic bags is only the first step to cleaning up our beaches and water ways