I love the environment and think we can all do and should do more to conserve and take care of our beautiful home. In many cases, there are numerous conservation ideas that are not only good for the earth, but also good for your wallet. Things like driving a more fuel efficient car, using those CFL light bulbs, etc. Recently, the San Diego City Council decided they needed to desperately work on the most pressing issue at hand. No, not the city budget deficit, the unfunded pension problems, crime, fire hazards, or anything else one might argue is pressing for San Diego. Instead they have taken up discussing a possible city-wide ban on plastic bags at retail and grocery stores. Talk about a waste of government. Many people are already voluntarily switching to the reusable bags, why is it necessary to decree them illegal? I think most people, myself included, use the bags they get from the stores as trash bags. I know it’s not environmentally good to put your trash in the dumpster without it being in a bag. Accordingly, instead of using my trash bags, I will have to buy plastic bags from the store. Thus, the number of bags in the trash will remain the same, but my level of annoyance will increase. Who are these idiots we elect?
Last 3 posts by Jason
- Reply To All - March 16th, 2010
- You Can't Make This Stuff Up - February 19th, 2010
- Washington Gridlock - February 11th, 2010
“Thus, the number of bags in the trash will remain the same, but my level of annoyance will increase.” Ha. So true. The fire situation and lack of fire departments is terrible in San Diego. That should get the attention of your government.
In all fairness, I’m sure they are also working on other things, but I don’t understand why they see this as a good use of government’s time and the taxpayer’s money.
illegal? yes this will solve all of our environmental problems. (We reuse them to bag dirty diapers. I think that helps the environment more) Waste of time in my opinion.
I think its called “Misdirection” and Houdini would be proud. Rather than tackle tough, long-term issues, politicians want to be able to point to their “contribution” during the next election. That way, if someone asks what how they handled an issue they would rather avoid, they can say, “We weren’t able to solve everything, but look what we were able to accomplish… plastic bag prohibition.”
A month or so ago I received an email from my Texas Senators explaining why they voted for the 2nd bailout bill. The letter sought to employ similar techniques. To quote: “I was not willing to support the Administration’s initial proposal….While there are provisions in the [2nd] bill that I do not favor and would not have drafted….The bill passed by the Senate included an important package of tax policy provisions. One of these provisions is an extension of the state and local sales tax deduction, which is a matter of fairness for states like Texas. The average Texan will save $520 when they file their federal income tax forms next year. We also shielded low and middle-income taxpayers from higher taxes associated with the flawed alternative minimum tax (AMT) and included tax incentives to spur energy production and innovation including the wind energy production tax credit and the research and development tax credit.”
Hope that wasn’t too long, but basically, ignore the $700B elephant and come look at the Texas Bluebells!
wow. Great post. I noticed this sort of thing at Ikea a few months ago. First they charged you 5 cents for a plastic bag and now…they don’t even offer them. What tha?
You go to their store, buy a bunch of dishes and random stuff and if you forgot to bring a bag, you’re screwed? Weird. Makes me hate them. And yet, I continue to shop there.
We all need to start figuring out carbon footprint, a reusable bag that actually lasted would be the best, aka, lowest carbon footprint.
During the latest recruiting round on campus, the swag of choice among the companies was the reusable grocery bag. I got one from Apple, Protiviti, and Grant Thorton. (Just what they wanted…people to mention their name.) I’m looking forward to the next round so I can score some more bags. Once we have ten of them, we could probably skip plastics at the grocery store.
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