Yeah! Best news I have heard all day!

Yes…Jo B one would wonder. Then again, maybe the sea life have actually put them to good use 20,000 leagues under the sea.

Or maybe…just maybe…they thought government shouldn’t be regulating plastic bag usage.

Deep thoughts by Jack Handy.

JoB, I thought about you yesterday because while driving east on Genessee, I counted three bags blowing in the street. It struck me because I don’t usually see them, but thought about you picking them up on walks. Then I came upon what I’m sure was the culprit. I didn’t think to check if it was a recycling or garbage truck (our neighborhood had both pick-ups yesterday), but the crew was working their way down the street. Bag tax or no, and I know they are always in a hurry, I hope they are employing best pracices for keeping control of the bags that aren’t simply discarded on the side of the road.

GenHillOne…

i am stopping to pick them up when i am out and about in the car…

I never saw them much until i decided to stop and pick them up.. now i see more than i can safely stop to pick up.

the garbage company has already told us that loose plastic bags in the trash or recycling are a big problem.. they jam the machines and apparently they float away easily too…

All anyone has to do to stop that is stuff plastic bags inside one plastic bag and tie the top.

if people were willing to make that kind of effort..

we wouldn’t need a bag tax.

GenHillOne…

i probably have more time when i am out doing errands than you:)

i don’t know why i decided one day that i would just start stopping to pick them up. maybe it was when beachdrivegirl told me they weren’t a litter problem here and i decided to show her.. yup, i can be that petty.

it’s a habit now… and i think it got to be one before i told her how many i was finding. So i really should thank her.

the real hero is the person who walks along the hiway and picks them up… they pick up far more in one walk than i do in a couple of weeks… even though we have work details out cleaning the hiways.

The principal of the matter for me is that I did not get to vote on this. And it is not solving any issue at all. Why are they taxing paper bags? why are they not taxing bags used at a department store? And what about the plastic produce bag that i pick up??? This is not a real solution.

FT, thank you for explaining representative democracy. I have never lived in a place where people could be so easily stirred up by being told, “YOU didn’t get to VOTE on it.” Face it people, once again, you’ve been conned by an industry into a position that will only help them. When will we learn?

I blame that horse’s you know what Tim Eyman for the current “we get to vote on everything” thinking.

Thanks, FullTilt – I agree with you on this one. I’ve been keeping track of my own bag consumption. I haven’t taken a bag of any kind from any store for at least 3 months now, and even before that for the past year I’ve probably taken less than a dozen bags from a store. It’s really not that hard. I was out at the North Bend outlets this weekend and people were surprised that we had our own bags and kept remarking on it as we pulled them out. They’re not just for groceries.

Thank you JT! You have hit everything right on… i think sometimes people just like an “idea” b/c it makes them feel important… and they dont think about better ideas out there.

I don’t think its a victory for plastic bags, as much as it is for individual freedoms, taxation with representation. I don’t see what harm a vote could be, if this really is the will of the people.

It also hopefully would open up a broader discussion of whether this fixes any of the problems we face with packaging and waste, and what actual solutions might exist to deal with them.

Dianne,

i think it’s a great idea to recycle everything..

and i think the idea of a recycling tax on dumping recyclable construction waste is a great idea… because it is obvious that the cash benefits of gleaning by those who are wiling to remove recyclable construction materials have not outweighed the hassle yet.

Beachdrivegirl..

no, a 20 cent fee for plastic bags won’t solve the recycling problem with plastic and paper bags… but it sure would make an impact.

Just taking about it has already made an impact. There is now a code on the produce sheet of older self serve cashier stands that allows you to weigh your bag and use it at checkout. That wasn’t there prior to the pending imposition of a bag fee.

JT…

Which of the pollution regulations have we voted on? Among other things, plastic bags migrating into the ocean are a pollution issue where they impact wildlife

and a garbage issue where they don’t. We have a lovely garbage dump in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that someone is going to have to clean up… I guess that’s us when it migrates to our shores.

did i miss the vote on garbage collection? plastic bags end up as a garbage problem…. so ubiquitous that it isn’t even noticed unless an individual makes a pledge to pick them up and begins to notice them.

Will we vote for increasing garbage collection on our city streets and hiways and beaches to alleviate the problem?

personal comment…

I really don’t understand the opposition here. The best i can come up with is a very juvenille..

You can’t make me!

I don’t know what the election on this will cost, but my guess is that whatever it’s cost, that money would have gone a long way towards providing public services.

I, for one, am not happy about being forced to absorb the costs for what should have been a no brainer for citizens who profess to be concerned about their environment.. or even citizens who don’t want their garbage bills increasing..

This was a fee that should have been every independent libertarians dream come true.. you get to decide whether or not you pay and make your own choices accordingly.

Instead, the grocery and plastic industries spent a lot of money making sure the rest of us will spend a lot of money that will produce absolutely nothing.

Now.. is that what you call a solution?