Facetious
Moderated
articleL.A. County passes sweeping ban on plastic bags
The ordinance, which by 2012 will cover 1,000 stores in unincorporated areas, also will require supermarkets and pharmacies to levy a 10-cent surcharge per paper bag. Proponents see it as a model for California.
November 17, 2010|By Rong-Gong Lin II, Los Angeles Times
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to ban plastic grocery bags in areas of the county under its jurisdiction, endorsing a broadly worded measure that proponents hope could become a model for California.
The ban, which goes beyond ordinances adopted in Malibu and San Francisco, most directly affects 1.1 million people who live outside the county's incorporated cities. But anyone shopping at stores in such areas would encounter the new rules.
Opponents suggested they might go to court to try to block the ban before the first phase takes effect in July, when 67 large supermarkets and pharmacies must stop providing disposable plastic bags. By January 2012, the ban will cover 1,000 stores throughout the county. The ordinance also seeks to keep shoppers from turning to paper bags as an alternative by requiring stores to levy a 10-cent surcharge per paper bag.
The goal, officials say, is to get people to adopt reusable bags made of cloth or durable plastic that can be wiped clean. An exception is being made for produce bags that keep raw vegetables and meats from being contaminated by other groceries.
"Plastic bags are a pollutant. They pollute the urban landscape. They are what we call in our county urban tumbleweed," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.
He expressed particular concern about bags entering the ocean via the county's storm drain system, where he said "they end up threatening rare, valuable, marine life in our oceans and degrading one of this country's great environmental and economic resources: the Pacific Coast."
..So the strong arm of government has now made it law: Retailers must charge a dime for each paper bag that goes out the front door of their businesses. My suggestion is for the retailers to get together with the manufacturers of plastic bags, and produce a plastic shopping bag that's the same (or near the same) size as a tall kitchen garbage bag, that way, the customer will actually have a use for the bag instead of just tossing it in the garbage can like we've all done hundreds, if not thousands of times.
..On the dime per bag issue... The stores can go ahead and charge me a dime per plastic bag in order to recover the cost of those... everybody wins, the bag manufacturers won't have to lay off employees (which is certain to happen under this new law) and the consumer ends up buying their kitchen trash can liners individually at a dime a pop. Done!
..Oh, and great! the gumment is trying to encourage everybody to bring all of their germs from home onto your grocery bag up counter via reusable cloth bags. Do you really think that everybody is going to launder those disgusting things with any regularity?
Geniuses, aren't they?
Next step is prolly to ban all plastic bags... I can just see the maggots flowing out of everybody's garbage can a day or two before pick up day. retards! /rant