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Thread: New York City’s Plastic Bag Nags

  1. #1

    New York City’s Plastic Bag Nags

    New York’s City council voted this week to force retailers to charge a fee of at least 5 cents for each plastic bag. “The fee is irritating, which his precisely why it works,” Councilwoman Margaret Chin, the legislation’s main sponsor, told the New York Times. “We don’t want to pay it, so we’ll bring [reusable] bags instead. So the fact that it’s irritating irritates a lot of people.”

    It’s bad enough that New York’s council has deliberately set out to annoy and frustrate its constituents. Even worse, this pesky rule is may actually do even more damage to the environment—and it comes with some serious health risks for consumers.

    Plastic bag litter is actually much less of a problem than New York’s City Council realizes. One comprehensive study found that plastic bags account for just 0.6 percent of all litter. And New Yorkers already often end up reusing their bags, lining bathroom trash cans or cleaning up after dogs on the street.

    The environmental argument against plastic bags isn’t strong, either. Reusable bags are much more carbon-intensive to create, so consumers have to use them a whole lot of times before they become greener than the alternative.

    The United Kingdom studied this in depth, factoring in everything from the extraction of raw materials to a reusable bag’s manufacture, distribution and disposal. It concluded that the basic plastic bag is actually 200 times greener than cotton reusable bags.

    A consumer would have to use a cotton bag no fewer than 131 times before it becomes greener than flimsy plastic; polypropylene is a bit better, but still requires at least 11 uses before breaking even.

    But a recent Clemson study found that consumers forgot their reusable bags about 40 percent of the time. And on average, those reusable polypropylene bags ended up getting only about 3.1 uses before shoppers tossed them.

    In addition to the bag ban’s nebulous environmental benefits, there’s also a major ick factor.

    A whopping 97 percent of consumers don’t regularly wash their bags, according to a report from the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University. Their researchers swabbed 84 bags for bacteria, and the findings were outright nasty: coliform bacteria in half, E. coli in 12 percent.

    When San Francisco banned plastic bags, the number of E. coli infections spiked. Even worse, the number of foodborne-illness deaths rose a whopping 46 percent in the three months after the bag ban began.

    ...
    http://heatst.com/politics/new-york-...ampaign=buffer
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.



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  3. #2
    We bought a bunch of large denim bags from the craft store about 8 years ago and use them whenever we shop.
    When I believe something is the morally right thing to do, I do it; I don't insist others do it... I lead.

    'We endorse the idea of voluntarism; self-responsibility: Family, friends, and churches to solve problems, rather than saying that some monolithic government is going to make you take care of yourself and be a better person. It's a preposterous notion: It never worked, it never will. The government can't make you a better person; it can't make you follow good habits.' - Ron Paul 1988

    Awareness is the Root of Liberation Revolution is Action upon Revelation

    'Resistance and Disobedience in Economic Activity is the Most Moral Human Action Possible' - SEK3

    Flectere si nequeo superos, Acheronta movebo.

    ...the familiar ritual of institutional self-absolution...
    ...for protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment...


  4. #3
    And of course those bags go on filthy buses and in rat-infested subways.
    #NashvilleStrong

    “I’m a doctor. That’s a baby.”~~~Dr. Manny Sethi

  5. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by presence View Post
    We bought a bunch of large denim bags from the craft store about 8 years ago and use them whenever we shop.
    When I believe something is the morally right thing to do, I do it; I don't insist others do it... I lead.
    I use mine, too. Mainly because those crappy little bags at the grocery stores suck but I never wash them.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ron Paul View Post
    The intellectual battle for liberty can appear to be a lonely one at times. However, the numbers are not as important as the principles that we hold. Leonard Read always taught that "it's not a numbers game, but an ideological game." That's why it's important to continue to provide a principled philosophy as to what the role of government ought to be, despite the numbers that stare us in the face.
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    This intellectually stimulating conversation is the reason I keep coming here.

  6. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by euphemia View Post
    And of course those bags go on filthy buses and in rat-infested subways.
    Damn, you're just a ray of sunshine aren't you?
    "The Patriarch"

  7. #6
    I much prefer paper bags, I fail to see why we need the plastic bags in the first place other than to appease a bunch of tree huggers. Paper bags don't make plastic islands in the ocean nor do they strangle sea creatures. $#@! a bunch of saving pulp lumber, it's not like they're cutting down old growth to make paper out of. The human race, how long before we go extinct from stupidity?
    "The Patriarch"

  8. #7
    Paper for me .

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Origanalist View Post
    The human race, how long before we go extinct from stupidity?
    Cue in 4... 3... 2...
    freedomisobvious.blogspot.com

    There is only one correct way: freedom. All other solutions are non-solutions.

    It appears that artificial intelligence is at least slightly superior to natural stupidity.

    Our words make us the ghosts that we are.

    Convincing the world he didn't exist was the Devil's second greatest trick; the first was convincing us that God didn't exist.



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  11. #9
    NJ is trying to do this too. $0.05 cents to the government for every bag in a supermarket.



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