The Observation Deck

Legislation to ban most plastic grocery bags looks like it is going to go through in San Francisco.

The city's Department of the Environment said San Francisco uses 181 million plastic grocery bags annually. Plans dating back a decade to encourage recycling of the bags have largely failed, with shoppers returning just one percent of bags, said department spokesman Mark Westland.

Mirkarimi [the city legislator who championed the new law] said the ban would save 450,000 gallons of oil a year and remove the need to send 1,400 tons of debris now sent annually to landfills.

Granted Lakewood doesn't have the population that SF does, but that's no reason to wait around for the county, state, or fed to address this issue on our behalf.

My wife and I own 7 canvas grocery bags, we bought them one or two at a time for $2.99 at Trader Joe's (I think Giant Eagle has smaller ones for $.99), we didn't even notice the added cost, and now we use them everywhere...the library, West Side Market, Target...

I emailed my councilman and the at large members of council, as well as the Cuyahoga County Commissioners, requesting them to take action on this matter, please consider doing the same.

Respectfully disagree.

I'm all for environmental responsibilty, and I think reusable bags should definitely be encouraged. Much like compact fluorescent bulbs, I expect recyclable bags to become mainstream in the next year or two.

However, our city has enough issues on the plate without worrying about additional regulation of local business.

Just providing the opportunity to recycle is not enough.

In addition, paper bags have their flaws too:

Paper bags generate 70 percent more air pollution and 50 times more water pollutants than plastic bags.

It takes 91 percent less energy to recycle a pound of plastic than it takes to recycle a pound of paper.

Paper bags take up more landfill space (2,000 plastic bags weight just 30 pounds, whereas 2,000 paper bags weight 280 pounds).

Paper bags in landfills don't break down much faster than plastic bags (because they're not exposed to water, light, oxygen and other elements that they need to biodegrade).

The only really acceptable solution is reusable bags, but many people are going to have to be nudged into using them...banning plastics is a good start, but honestly places like Whole Foods offering a $.05 credit for using your own bag isn't going to be enough to make most people switch...and this is an issue of society.

I don't think council has that much going on that they can't committee a couple hours to research and a town meeting or two.

My bad...I said "recyclable", I meant to say "reusable" (as in canvas).

I should have been more precise in my wording, however, my point still stands.

Most people I know do not throw their plastic grocery bags away. They use them for small wastebaskets or countless other things.

This reminds me of when I was in school. Some do gooder environazi types encouraged the library to put a recycling bin beside the copy machine. They were in other places, too. Okay so far. Someone would empty the bins when full and take to a recycling dump. Still sounds okay.

What students would do, though, was occasionally take paper out of the recycling bin (which was wide open--it was not for confidential stuff) and reuse the other side for scratch paper or whatever. This infruriated one of the head honcho environazis, and they put a nasty note on it that said it was for recycling paper and in huge letters stated D O N O T T A K E ! ! !

A student with some common sense wrote a little note on the sign, and said ummm if I am taking paper out of the bin that has already been used once, and I use it again, what is that called???? RECYCLING???? DUH

Now before the Noah Websters come out of the grave and say that is reusing not recycling, I believe the student was using the 4th definition shown in this link:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rls= ... n&ct=title

Doug

Great post Doug. I know we use those blue bags for all sorts of things. We put our recycling in them. I use them as trash bags in the car. Use them for walks with the doggies. We line our many waste baskets with them. In the past, thank goodness no longer, we would use them for soiled diapers. Oh please don't judge me on disposable diapers. I used cloth in the beginning but once I had four in diapers isn't wasn't doable. I also use them at Aldi's. I am sure there are a bunch of other uses for the bags, I just don't think banning them is a good idea.

I don't think council has that much going on that they can't committee a couple hours to research and a town meeting or two.

I have to respectfully disagree with that statement.

Aldi, soon to be Lakewood's newest grocery, doesn't use the traditional plastic bags.

Folks either purchase reusable plastic bags from the store or bring bags from home.

I have used Heinen's reusable bags for years. They're the perfect rectangular size and fit snuggly in my bicycle baskets.

Mike Deneen wrote:Aldi, soon to be Lakewood's newest grocery, doesn't use the traditional plastic bags.

Folks either purchase reusable plastic bags from the store or bring bags from home.

Factoid: The CEO of Aldi USA is the owner of Trader Joe's.

Danielle Masters wrote:I just don't think banning them is a good idea.

Probably not. I like Doug's post too. They're always good - environazi that's a good one.

If they do away with plastic poop bags, er, grocery bags, I'd be in big trouble. We walk our Golden Retrievers 2 -3 times a day rain or shine. We NEED those bags...

You'd probably find something wrong with any solution whether it's plastic, paper, cloth or whatever kind of bag. We keep and reuse boxes for use at Costco. I probably shouldn't though because driving to Costco with an empty cardboard box in the trunk is adding something like 1/8 of a pound to the car. The end result being reduced fuel economy which is causing me to spew more carbons and I'm sure is somehow supporting a terrorist someplace. I thought about getting a couple of those cloth reusable bag thingy's like were mentioned then somebody told me it was made by a 6 year old in some sweat shop someplace in Cambodia or something and I was somehow supporting Martha's sweat shop operations. I just can't win when I try to do right. Just kidding - all tongue in cheek .

I kinda like the plastic bags. I just don't like seeing them in the curb and up in the trees. Besides, my councilman doesn't return calls, I doubt he'd be too concerned about my concern over plastic grocery bags.


Joe

I'm confused. Please help me.

I thought the blue plastic bags were recyclable. Don't they have to be for them to be used for us to place our plastic and other recyclables on the curb?

So, why ban recyclable blue plastic bags. Why not just ban the non-recyclable plastic bags (I know Marc's uses some weird brown plastic bags on occasion.)

We have about five of the canvass bags.

Isn't the solution canvass bags and/or blue recyclable plastic bags?