cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/11906510
It was a decade ago when California became the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags, ushering in a wave of anti-plastic legislation from coast to coast.
But in the years after California seemingly kicked its plastic grocery sack habit, material recovery facilities and environmental activists noticed a peculiar trend: Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels.
According to a report by the consumer advocacy group CALPIRG, 157,385 tons of plastic bag waste was discarded in California the year the law was passed. By 2022, however, the tonnage of discarded plastic bags had skyrocketed to 231,072 — a 47% jump. Even accounting for an increase in population, the number rose from 4.08 tons per 1,000 people in 2014 to 5.89 tons per 1,000 people in 2022.
The problem, it turns out, was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to provide thicker, heavier-weight plastic bags to customers for the price of a dime.
When they did this in my state this was my first thought. Not only am I now using a bag that weighs 10 times as much, because I doubt many people remember to grab the bags before going to the store. But the thicker bags suck at at least being 2 use bags as a garbage liner in the bathrooms etc. So now I have to buy those.
The problem, it turns out, was a section of the law that allowed grocery stores and large retailers to provide thicker, heavier-weight plastic bags to customers for the price of a dime.
This part is so preposterous. They did it in Washington too. “Plastic is bad, so we’re going to use even more plastic! Oh, but we’re going to charge you for it too”. Very few people reuse them. Now we’re just wasting even more plastic and the consumer has been hit with yet another new fee. Fucking idiots.
where i’m at, ever since covid, they won’t package your groceries for you unless you buy bags, you used to be able to bring your reusables and they’d use those to package them, but now you have to pack them up yourself if you bring your own and i hardly have time to count my change, its not conducive unless you find yourself at Aldi’s where they have a space for you to pack up
It feels like the whole thing was one big ploy to ease people into paying for bags, giving a false reason rather than “because we’re greedy as fuck”.
I always try to carry these newer plastic bags with me when I go shopping, the pockets of a particular jacket work great (as long as it isn’t summer), I can just store them in the jacket pockets for reuse. This worked great until I had to go to the courthouse. Going through security at the front door, I was questioned by one cop because I had a metal pen and checkbook in my shirt pocket which I didn’t think to put through the scanner, a second cop harassed me because my jacket pockets bulged. Then the cop didn’t like my response, which was emptying my pockets so he could see the empty plastic bags. I really have no idea how I’d ever carry cloth bags for reuse, those would make my pockets bulge even more.
Perhaps we need to give up on shopping bags entirely?
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