JoB
JT…
i didn’t try to shut you down.. i said that the reasons given on this blog mostly come down to simply not wanting to be told what to do.
The city council passed a policy.
The plastic industry and the grocery council decided to spend big bucks to sway public opinion and pay signature gatherers to gain enough signatures to force a public vote.. which the public.. not the plastic industry and the grocery council will pay for.
The public will also pay for the cost of an education program while the plastic industry and the grocers council outbids them industry funded studies and misleading ads.
If it does not pass, the public, not the plastic industry or the grocery council, will absorb the cost of collection and recycling of plastic bags.
Regardless of how it turns out, this vote is going to cost a lot of public money that could have been used for public services…
and just what will we get for that money?
Any of the alternatives so far suggested could have been implemented by local grocers at any time…
yet until the fee was proposed, you couldn’t even easily use your own bag at automatic checkout stands and were as often harassed by grocery clerks as applauded for bringing your own bags.
Stores could have instituted collection sites for used plastic bags as they do in Oregon. They could have changed to biodegradable bags.
If you are waiting for them to do so, you will wait a long time. The plastic collection sites didn’t appear in Oregon stores by magic, but by public policy.
it will take public policy or a voted law to create change.
mickeymouse,
yes, the city government offices could do more..
as could we all.
biodegradable plastic bags are available to line our waste cans and pick up our dog poo.. and although most of what is currently available takes a very long time to compost, they will eventually do so… as our current plastic won’t.
every time someone picks up their animal’s waste, they create a plastic wrapped turd for our landfills that will still exist for centuries… same with your carefully bagged trash if those bags aren’t emptied.
And although the plastic won’t break down, it appears that it will leach chemicals into our ground water… chemicals thought to contribute to many metabolic disorders that are becoming far more prevalent.
as long as cheaper plastic alternatives are available , people will choose them over biodegradable bags..
and the cost of biodegradable bags won’t come down until the demand goes up.
so tell me, how do you make that happen without policies or laws?
It easier to criticize than it is to come up with viable solutions.