My previous editorial was on the armchair activism that is so rampart here in Austin, and this weeks will be a brief extension upon that in the realm of plastic bags.
One of the newest crazes sweeping our "go-green" city is the bag ban. I'm all for turning out the lights when you leave the room, not using DMT on bald eagles, and I even recycle, but this concept that these bags are better for the environment is something that our armchair activists locked onto, and got passed is ridiculous, and not to mention annoying.
According to some actual science and calculations that were done comparing reusable bags, plastic bags, and paper bags the following was found:
"There are also no environmental benefits to banning plastic bags — but there is potential harm. Compared to cloth bags, plastic bags require less energy to produce and less energy to recycle and produce less municipal waste. Plastic bags generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions and require less water to produce than paper bags. Cloth bags need to be used 104 times before there is any environmental advantage over plastic bags. But most cloth bags are used half that amount. Reusing cloth bags can also lead to cross-contamination and disease."
It is interesting to even see major news outlets such as Bloomberg , who stated:
"Seventy-five percent said they keep meat and vegetables in the same bag. When bags were stored in hot car trunks for two hours, the bacteria grew tenfold.That study also found, happily, that washing the bags eliminated 99.9 percent of the bacteria. It undercut even that good news, though, by finding that 97 percent of people reported that they never wash their bags."
While I know it might be too much to ask for tree hugging hippies to bathe themselves you would think that they would at least wash their bags, or use some common sense and place items such as meats in a different bag due to the cross contamination that could occur.
In addition to the food factor there is the convenience factor. I recently went to Hobby Lobby on to obtain some acrylic paint for mural we are doing at work. I was able to procure a cart and fill it with paint, brushes and glazing medium which was packed in enough trash plastic, saran wrap pressure packaging, and Styrofoam to fill a small sinkhole, upon checking out I was informed that I needed to cart these items out to my car or buy bags as they don't have plastic bags. /facepalm. If I wanted to carry around bags all day Id be homeless, just like if I wanted to check out m own groceries Id get a job as a checker, not stand next to a machine and scan my own stuff.
However at the game store right next door, as well as at Best buy loaded me up and double bagged. It isnt even enforced at ALL locations, its totally voluntary, which means that the term "bag ban" is just another political term fed by social media and consumed by the armchair activists.
Im deeply saddened when I read that the city of Austin is spending 150,000 dollars on buying 50,000 bags to give out to low income families. Why is it 3 dollars a bag when I could BUY them from HEB for .99 cents? GG government. I was even sadder to read that our state government is spending almost 2 million dollars on education and marketing on this topic.
2 million dollars on bags that are worse for the environment than their predecessors all to secure votes and feed the flames. I guess that's one way to "Go Green", although with spending like that we will soon be in the red.
I have lived in Austin for almost 7 years and I do consider it to be a very "go green" city. But how green is too green. The blogger of It's Called Texas brings up the bag ban that has recently swept over Austin. The author brings up many valid points on why this may not be in our best interest. For one, it is not very cost effective and we wont actually see the affects for 150 years. Also, the food contamintation is a huge concern for me. Granted I never remember to bring my bags and always end up buying new ones at the store. Some people do remember their bags but did they remember to wash them? Did they remember that they had chicken and pork in that bag just last week. Food Bourne illness is a very serious sickness. According to the CDC "it estimates that each year roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) gets sick, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases. That is a lot of people, granted not all of those people got food bourne illness due to reusing a paper or cloth bag. I also have to agree with the author of the pure inconvenience not only do I forget my bags but when I am going shopping to look around and find a few items I have to figure out a way to get them home or but another bag. No joke I probably have 50 bags behind my shelf. Recently, I went to Pflugerville to shop just so i could get bags without having to pay for them. Another flaw to the system is the paper bags are much taller and look very sturdy however they're not! I wish that grocery store employees would stop putting all my cans in one bag. I do not know how many time I have been carrying my groceries up the 3 flights of stairs to my apartment and the bag starts ripping due to weight! Its paper people not indestuctible! So after that rant I have to agree with the author I think the bag ban that turns out is voluntary is too far. I thought the author presented a great case and formulated an argument based on facts. Maybe there should be a reusable bag option which I could use when I am going to the store for a few small things. I just wish this project that cost so much money was a bit more thought out.
ReplyDeleteI chose "If I Wanted to Carry Around Bags, I'd Be a Trashman." as my blog post. I would agree with the writer if the facts that he mentioned are true. The writer seems pretty mad about the new Austin ordinance that bans distribution of free plastic bags in Austin retail stores. As an Austinite, I share the same inconvenience and burden (literally) that the writer had to carry, but I don't think the council made a too bad decision on banning the plastic bag and there is still a room for improvement.
ReplyDeleteThe writer pointed out many cons about not using plastic bags; he mentioned about how the plastics bags are much easier to recycle and takes much less energy to produce than other replacements such as reusable bags. He also mentioned about the behavioral problems that most people have when using reusable bags; many people don't wash their reusable bags, exposing themselves to potentially harmful bacteria. Maybe the behavioral problems that he mentioned was a little bit over said, but the points were very clear. If the statistics are right, using reusable bags isn't too bad.
I think there should be some moderations between the writer of the blog and the ordinance. I don't think it's right to completely ban plastic bags, and I also think that plastic bags are, no matter how eco-friendly and cost effective they are, still too harmful if too much of them are being used. I think the city council should tell the retail stores to come up with their own plan to give out free plastic bags to certain customers. For example, HEB can give out plastic bags to people who buy over hundred dollars since hundred dollar worth of groceries are very hard to carry.
Plastic bags are very convenient. Not only do I use to carry groceries, I also used them for my trash bags. Maybe we have been using plastic bags too much until the ordinance, but I started to miss the convenience and the economy (that the writer had mentioned) that they bring. If I spent my precious money at HEB, It's my right as a customer to carry those groceries comfortably. I just really hope that the city council moderates the issue.
I thoroughly enjoyed the article, “If I wanted to be a Trash Man,” my classmate had written. I enjoyed it solely because it was very informative and filled with numerous amounts of facts. I liked how the author brought attention to the bag ban, and the dangers it can ultimately have. The author of the article explains to people, the dangers of not washing your bags after you have had raw meat in them. The author expresses that not a lot of people know that they must wash their reusable bags, leaving a whopping majority of 97% of people being susceptible to bacteria, such as e.coli. He claims that if you wash your bags, you are eliminating 99.9% of bacteria.
ReplyDeleteIn this article, the author expresses his/her resentment towards the new bag ban, and honestly I can’t blame them. With the hard on facts they provide such as, “There are also no environmental benefits to banning plastic bags — but there is potential harm. Compared to cloth bags, plastic bags require less energy to produce and less energy to recycle and produce less municipal waste. Plastic bags generate fewer greenhouse gas emissions and require less water to produce than paper bags. Cloth bags need to be used 104 times before there is any environmental advantage over plastic bags. But most cloth bags are used half that amount. Reusing cloth bags can also lead to cross-contamination and disease." I find these explanations to be solid and valid reasons as to why they are not for the bag ban.
What is my stance in all of this? I am not for the bag ban, because I honestly miss grocery stores giving me bags. One positive to the bag ban I have noticed though - especially in my apartments, there are no more bags lying around haphazardly like they used to be. Although that is one positive, like the author explained, there are many downsides to having this law in place. Like the author, I find that having this ban on bags is overall, inconvenient. Furthermore, I loved their article because it will remind me to wash my bags, because of the potential harm of not washing re-usable bags can cause.