California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
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Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#2Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#3> The problem, it turns out, was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to provide thicker, heavier-weight plastic bags to customers for the price of a dime.
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#4Bag bans are one of the most perfect examples of how American environmentalists focus on all the wrong things and miss the forrest for the trees. The plastic bag in the grocery store contains multiple products packaged in 100x more volume of plastic than the plastic bag. It also contains a bunch of single serving aluminum cans. Banning plastic bags moves the needle the least and greatly annoys customers. It would be far better to promote banning of single serving aluminum cans for drinks and plastic/styrofoam packaging for goods within the store.
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#5In the UK we brought in a similar law and the shops were allowed to charge (if I remember correctly) 5p for the thin bags that were previously used or 10p for a stronger one. It wasn't long before they mostly phased out the thin bags and started raising the cost of the stronger bags, I think they're maybe around 50p now. They've also mostly moved back to bag-less delivery (if you get delivery). Anecdotally looking around the shop when I visit, most people are using the much stronger "bag for life" bags which costs (again I'm half guessing) a few pounds and are reused from one shopping trip to the next.
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#6Bag bans are one of the most perfect examples of how American environmentalists focus on all the wrong things and miss the forrest for the trees. The plastic bag in the grocery store contains multiple products packaged in 100x more volume of plastic than the plastic bag. It also contains a bunch of single serving aluminum cans. Banning plastic bags moves the needle the least and greatly annoys customers. It would be…
This is where fun protests like https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-43559636 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWz_p445Oh0 help. I've noticed a more concerted effort by supermarkets to reduce plastic in their packaging (it's still a lot though) and to provide "soft plastic" recycling (at their expense).
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#7https://web.archive.org/web/20240219042015/https://www.latim...
This still gives me a paywall
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#8Oregon did similar. Before their law almost everyone in the Portland metro used nice easy to curbside recycle paper bags. Then they all switched to plastic. If you’re going to force recycling make it easy. Those plastic bags are not and still can’t be curb side recycled and will end up in the landfill as that study found.
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#9In the UK we brought in a similar law and the shops were allowed to charge (if I remember correctly) 5p for the thin bags that were previously used or 10p for a stronger one. It wasn't long before they mostly phased out the thin bags and started raising the cost of the stronger bags, I think they're maybe around 50p now. They've also mostly moved back to bag-less delivery (if you get delivery). Anecdotally looking ar…
Yeah that's about it. They slowly made them prohibitively more expensive. I've actually had the same shopping bag for 27 years and have gone from being seen as a hippy weirdo to never being questioned. It was just normalised that you got bags free before. That should have never been the case in the first place!
Re: California's war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired
#10In the UK we brought in a similar law and the shops were allowed to charge (if I remember correctly) 5p for the thin bags that were previously used or 10p for a stronger one. It wasn't long before they mostly phased out the thin bags and started raising the cost of the stronger bags, I think they're maybe around 50p now. They've also mostly moved back to bag-less delivery (if you get delivery). Anecdotally looking ar…
It is better for shops to just sell jute or cloth bags at retail price for carrying goods instead of allowing users to buy any type of plastic bag. This is how it is done in India in places where plastic is banned. Of course, customers can bring their own carry bags and avoid buying bags.