Climate alarmism wasn’t mentioned in the LA Times story, yet, we all know that a good chunk of the reasoning to ban plastic bags is the aforementioned climahysteria
Enacting one of the nation’s most aggressive environmental measures, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban plastic grocery bags in unincorporated areas of the county.
The vote was 3-1, supported by Supervisors Gloria Molina, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Zev Yaroslavsky, and opposed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich. Supervisor Don Knabe was absent.
The ban, which will cover nearly 1.1 million residents countywide, is to the point: “No store shall provide to any customer a plastic carryout bag.†An exception would be made for plastic bags that are used to hold fruit, vegetables or raw meat in order to prevent contamination with other grocery items.
So, three people have hosed 1.1 million. And they magnanimously are allowing stores to once again use paper bags, but, they have to charge ten cents (which the store keeps, so, the law supposedly doesn’t violate Prop 26.)
I do agree that people do not recycle plastic bags enough, and they are a problem in landfills and on the seas, yet, they are used way more than the elitists think. We use them as garbage bags for small trash cans. We use them to clean up kitty litter and dog poo. We use them as lunch bags. Cleaning up the inside of our cars. And so many other things, so, they do get used multiple times. Perhaps instead of penalizing people, they could think of a way to incent people to recycle more, say, at the grocery store. Most people are not going to play with the reusable bags they have to purchase, for many reasons, including the cost (hey, doesn’t that harm the poor?). Not too mention the high lead levels.
As for paper
One hundred million new plastic grocery bags require the total energy equivalent of approximately 8300 barrels of oil for extraction of the raw materials, through manufacturing, transport, use and curbside collection of the bags. Of that, 30 percent is oil and 23 percent is natural gas actually used in the bag-the rest is fuel used along the way. That sounds like a lot until you consider that the same number of paper grocery bags use five times that much total energy. A paper grocery bag isn’t just made out of trees. Manufacturing 100 million paper bags with one-third post-consumer recycled content requires petroleum energy inputs equivalent to approximately 15,100 barrels of oil plus additional inputs from other energy sources including hydroelectric power, nuclear energy and wood waste.
Oops. But, it makes some people “feel good” to ban plastic.
