mesarezBy an edhat reader
I thought Santa Barbara passed an ordinance, banning the distribution of plastic bags by stores in Santa Barbara.
Can someone please explain why many stores still provide plastic bags at 10¢ each for customers to use? I thought the ordinance specifically states that only paper bags are to be offered for sale and that the money gained by the store on each 10¢ per bag charge is to be considered an incentive to the store for complying with the ban on providing the plastic bag option for groceries.
As the horror of our plastic use overtaking the ocean life begins to sink in with us all, perhaps it might be time to start stepping up and doing what we can to at least SLOW the plastic consumption down. I don’t know why the city of Santa Barbara is allowing this to continue in stores.
There doesn’t seem to be a problem writing tickets for parking violations, so why is there a problem enforcing with the ordinance on plastic bags?
Yup. They just now figured out the earth has been warming and cooling for the entire lifespan. Genius.
Don’t give them any more ideas.
KOHN1. Think about how much of our food and drink is wrapped/incased in plastic. Have you read about BPA (bisphenol-A)? Here’s a link:———– http://www.center4research.org/plastic-wrap-plastic-food-containers-safe/—————–We all need to wean ourselves off plastic.
For some facts about Glacier National Park, rather than hyped-up propaganda from the “alternative fact” sites like The Daily Caller and Wattsupwiththat, why not look reliable sources:
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https://www.nps.gov/glac/learn/nature/melting-glaciers.htm
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https://www.usgs.gov/centers/norock/science/retreat-glaciers-glacier-national-park?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects
Plastic bags are really useful for picking up dog poop; the store ones are of thinner plastic and probably disintegrate sooner than the ones one buys at pet stores. Or would all those opposed to plastic bags prefer the poop to be left on the streets?
And I didn’t realize that banning plastic bags was responsible for the larger than average snowfall over several winters….oh…thread jack agenda.
We simply buy a box of 1,000 t-shirt bags at Smart & Final for around $22. We use them for all sorts of things. Takes us about a year to go through them, then we just get another box.
There are forests around Mexico City dying because of so many plastic bags have flown into them. Here many end up in the ocean, on the beach, etc. What do you suppose people did before plastic? Somehow they managed to do well enough to get through life. Those plastic water bottles have ingredients that aren’t healthy. You can get reusable water bottles and reusable bags for groceries and everything else made from material.
Did you totally miss the part where they said the glaciers were going to melt and then they removed the sign because they were WRoNG? “Do not be fooled by short term data” is your motto…so they couldn’t even get the ten year predictions correct so we should just listen to the hundred year one instead? smh…
What’s a T shirt bag?
Long term trends don’t lie. Short term ones often do. That’s not a gamble I’m willing to take.
News Flash: The city gets 5 cents from each bag sale.
What a sham.
What do you bag banning fans think about all the plastic packaging in a grocery store? Do you want to ban that, too?
Banning has not worked. An enforced recycling program with incentives to users would help. City ‘should not’ be getting bag funds!
I wondered why they get 5 cents huh? per bag I wonder who’s pocket that goes into?
We’re gonna hit 5°C by 2100. For sure. A small city can’t even manage one single change (plastic bags) to help the enviro, and it’s the city that started the green movement. Ya, 5°C for sure. FYI – the overall global temp difference between the ice age and pre-industrial, was 4°C. This time…going the other way.
How about this recent news: “The National Park Service quietly removed a visitor center sign that claimed all the glaciers at Glacier National Park would disappear by 2020 due to global warming……..“Those signs were based on the observation prior to 2010 that glaciers were shrinking more quickly than a computer model predicted they would,” USGS said. “Subsequently, larger than average snowfall over several winters slowed down that retreat rate and the 2020 date used in the NPS display does not apply anymore.”
The bag ban is working fairly well, if you just take a look around. Remember how we used to see so many single-use plastic bags skipping their way down the sidewalk, hanging out on the beaches, lurking in bushes like evil reminders of our selfish ways? Things *are* cleaner out there. And as someone who does a lot of food shopping around town, I have noticed a great many more people using their own bags and even walking out hugging items, bagless, rather than pay for a plastic or paper bag. After seeing this posting, however, I am going to start questioning store managers about policy. That should rattle some cages.
RHS Be sure to let everyone know when you invent a new kind of plastic.
I spent over 10,000 hours diving the coast and the channel islands and literally never saw plastic bags under water. I don’t mind bringing my own bags to the store, but I don’t tell myself I am saving the ocean … or the forest …
Few people on earth are more idiotic than a science denier… I wonder what happened to these people? We’re they not hugged enough as kids? Are they just incredibly stupid or are they truly just the world’s biggest a – holes??? There is literally no downside to taking better care of the earth and the environment. None. Unless of course you only care about yourself and a little more money… If that is the case, then you should move to Vegas, smoke cigarettes, proclaim that you’re a “stable-genius” while pressing slot machine buttons and bitching about how the “libs” took your liberty all day, everyday…
Just because you don’t see a problem, does not mean there is no problem.
Anyone who knows anything about sea life knows plastic + ocean = a really bad combo. Anyone who knows anything about trash knows that 9% of plastic is recycled, meaning 91% is not recycled. And, recycled isn’t correct – down-cycled is the true term. Plastic degraded in its use, and even “re” cycled will eventually become unusable.
Scientific trajectories. If we stop all emission right now, 2°C. If we stay the path, biz as usual, between 4°c to 6°C.
What is the hostility to the idea that this product, almost always used but one time and then discarded at best into landfill forever, shouldn’t be controlled. Producers of plastics should a fee/tax/assessment to support research and technology that will deal with the social problem their product created. “Paying one’s own way” seems a fair motto. Solutions may include environmentally safe incineration or a new kind of plastic that can be returned to its constituent parts or ? Why don’t we find out. PS Every day I pick up discarded plastic from the gutters and sidewalks in my relatively affluent neighborhood. Don’t pretend to claim that there is no escaped plastic out there.
SBO: No sense in getting worked up over those who disagree with you because it simply is not worth it. By bitching/moaning about “them” only empowers them more…..basically, you are encouraging the deniers. It’s like telling your teen-age daughter to stop seeing that “bad boy” who’s a no good POS….she gonna want to see the guy even more. So, stop the insanity, and do some volunteer work to help our community. Remember, those who fail to stand up for what they believe in will only fail themselves. Good luck my friend.
What selfishness. Your momentary convenience is more valuable that society’s health, especially when it is cheap.
And just how are the vegetable-encasing flimsy plastic bags so different from the 10cent carry-out bags? If you place the vegetables and fruit directly into the cart you risk contamination from chicken blood, infant feces, who knows what all… so we pick up the food, bag it, and then feel virtuous about the bags we bring with us to bag them all into. I’m with Factotum: “Prohibition at the sales point is just one more intrusion of the nanny state, subverting the learned concept of personal responsibility. Guard against this. ”
Reading through this thread it astounds me how many people continue to latch onto single-use plastic bags as if their very lives depended on having plastic bags. Go on eBay and buy yourselves some reusable cloth or polyester bags and get on with your lives. What’s the big deal? Is it the “inconvenience” of having to remember to take your own bags into the stores? The fact that “someone” is denying you your beloved plastic bags? ***Every little bit helps.*** We here in the USA can do our part by refusing to contribute to even more non-biodegradable refuse. It’s a pity and a shame that people need to be told to do the right thing. If it takes a ban to help clean up even a tiny bit of the plastics going into our oceans and wilderness, then so be it.
Using a plastic bag is not the problem; it is the irresponsible disposal of the bag that is the problem. People at this point should be policing themselves, which they actually do fairly well in this state, Prohibition at the sales point is just one more intrusion of the nanny state, subverting the learned concept of personal responsibility. Guard against this. Banning plastic bags in Santa Barbara is not going to clean up Manila Bay in the Philippines.