Should Indiana bag disposable grocery bags?

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Permalink Reply by Deborah Martin on June 12, 2009 at 1:52pm

If you're a dog walker, plastic is always a good choice! It's difficult getting dog waste out of a reusable fiber bag.
Seriously, I've always gotten more additional uses from paper grocery bags than the plastic ones (at least until our dog came along). But the reusable fiber bags are sturdier and seem more practical than ever before. I'm just against banning things as a knee-jerk reaction to a problem. Sometimes banning causes other problems that can't be divined at the onset of discussion. People's attitudes can never be legislated no matter how hard people try. People find loop holes or underground ways of doing what they want to do, thus causing other problems. Banning is draconian and sets itself up to resistance. I'd rather see more encouragement to use reusuable ware, whether they be bags or bottles or whatever, by appealing to people's need to know what's in it for them. People, by and large, never see what happens to their garbage once it's out of their site. Many people are not aware whether recycling various materials, such as plastic, actually ends up not helping the environment or not. Since many people are concerned with how they spend their money, letting them know just how much they could save by reusing things might appeal to them.

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Permalink Reply by Bill Bean on June 12, 2009 at 2:45pm

Keep the bags. Has to be a better solution than simply banning. Do the hard work of persuading people of the better option rather than banning what is considered to be the "bad" option. Provide incentives for people to use the preferred option.

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Permalink Reply by Sara McCrcken on June 12, 2009 at 2:57pm

I would like free bags to be banned. They could still sell you their 99 cent reuseable ones for when you forget them .
If this doesn't fly, how about faster shopping lanes for those who don't need a bag.. I found this in the UK when I visited last year.
After much moaning, we would soon get used to bringing a bag if we don't want to waste a dollar.

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Permalink Reply by Steve Stuck on June 12, 2009 at 3:36pm

This is great reading everyone say people need to be discouraged of using a product by raising the price of it through taxation.

The "environmental morale police" are always fun to watch impose their lifestyle on others.

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Permalink Reply by Tino Marquez Jr. on June 12, 2009 at 3:56pm

I was wondering when Steve would chime in. While I tend to agree with your posts, I'm torn on this one. I'm one of those "green" conservatives. I recycle , and yes it is a pain in the butt most times, but I do it. We reuse the plastic bags in our home all the time from everything to transporting extra gym clothes to the office, food to the office, to dog duty. This is my CHOICE. While it is nice to think that wow, we can save the earth by eliminating this threat, or we are eliminating that threat, at the end of the day, we are eliminating jobs and industries that other countries like China , etc will not eliminate and the earth will continue to get polluted.

While I'm for the elimination of plastic bags, where does it end? Why not eliminate diapers, plastic bottles, etc through taxation?

I just had a guy stop me on the street holding a clipboard asking if I had a minute for the earth, I should have asked him he had a minute for God. Anyway, I think some of you will infer what I mean by that.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 12, 2009 at 6:52pm

I think the question is perhaps mis-stated. What's "disposable?"

Do you mean bags that get thrown away and end up in landfills and don't bio-degrade?

I am working on a little project at home to not throw ANYTHING away for a year. I'm really in the planning stages.

Follow my progress (or lack thereof) HERE.

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Shields on June 12, 2009 at 9:18pm

I read through all four pages of comments, because I thought for sure someone else would have seen this recent story about how re-usable grocery bags carry germs and could contribute to food poisoning.

http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/green/Reusable-Grocery-Bags-May-Pois...

Does this change anybody's tune?

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Permalink Reply by Sara McCrcken on June 13, 2009 at 12:52pm

sounds like it was sponsored by the plastic industry. By "hippy foods" does the author mean vegetables ?organic food? You cannot and should not eliminate all bacteria from your environment....overzealous germophobes create children with allergies.

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Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 14, 2009 at 7:35am

Follow the links, and follow the sources:

"The study was funded by the Environment and Plastics Industry Council (EPIC), an industry initiative to promote responsible use and recovery of plastic resources. EPIC is a committee of the Canadian Plastics Industry Association."

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Permalink Reply by john blue on June 12, 2009 at 11:53pm

Ban is such a controversy filled word. Book banning comes to mind. I don't think banning plastic bags is in the same league as banning books. Also, people don't respond well to "banning".

Logic definitely does not work well. Look behaviors around eating. It is generally known that eating habits effect health. Eat bad food long enough and your health will get worse. Eat and exercise and you'll tend to be better off than those that don't. But explaining this logic and expecting people to change their behavior usually is not successful on a large scale or long term. Saying bags are bad for the environment, etc etc etc glazes the eyes and turns off the brain.

(Dis) Incentives work a bit better. More costs to do something different sometimes work. Or rewards for doing something different. Either way, money talks.

Paper or plastic or reusable? Get off the plastic ban-wagon and work toward something cool to increase reusable bag use:)

Check out some of the notes at http://bit.ly/18tH0K

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Permalink Reply by Joe Shoemaker on June 13, 2009 at 8:54am

Excerpt from THIS ARTICLE:

"Truth is, no one knows how long it will take for plastic to biodegrade, or return to its carbon and hydrogen elements. We only invented the stuff 144 years ago, and science's best guess is that its natural disappearance will take several more centuries. Meanwhile, every year, we churn out about 60 billion tons of it, much of which becomes disposable products meant only for a single use. Set aside the question of why we're creating ketchup bottles and six-pack rings that last for half a millennium, and consider the implications of it: Plastic never really goes away."

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Permalink Reply by Jeff Bowe on June 13, 2009 at 12:55pm

Joe,

Even I, one of those rather conservative pro-business get gov't out of my lifers, am shocked by that article. There's hope when more of us see that. Strange, I don't recall seeing that on the news for the past 10 years. Must not sell ad space.

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