Tag: Reusable grocery bags

The Human Cost of Plastic Bag Bans… (Updated – new link added)

September 26, 2018August 18, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

What are the unidentified costs of banning disposable shopping bags? I’ve been speculating for months. In this video PERC Lone Mountain Fellow Jonathan Klick argues that the presence of harmful bacteria (in reusable grocery bags whose use is mandated after plastic bag bans are put in place) creates a health cost that has not been considered. (Hey…I know I’m just chopped liver but I considered it. a few months ago ‘What could go wrong- LA Set to Ban Paper and Plastic.’)

And here, and here, and here, and here…

Mr. Klick points out that about half the reusable bags of shoppers heading in for more groceries have some form of contamination, and that the human cost could be a doubling in the number of cases of food borne illness in humans and even death as a result.

A Spec of Common Sense in McAllen Texas

September 26, 2018July 24, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

McAllen Texas rests in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas, right along the border with Mexico. And for now, at least, McAllen is not hopping on the plastic bag ban train to nowhere.

If you have not been following my recent (bizarre and persistent) interest in this annoy environmental stupidity, towns and cities all over the US are banning what are called “single use” plastic grocery bags (which my family re-uses for all kinds of things so single use is misleading). The Los Angels California bag ban was what caught my attention–and Lord knows if those moon-bats are on board with it something must be wrong; and there was, or actually is something very wrong. See “What could go wrong?“, ‘Reusable bags spread norovirus’, and “Reusable bags may be worse for the Environment.”

Unfortunately, most of the discussion about bag bans is one-sided. Or should I say left-sided.

Happy “Dependence Day” Seattle – Your City Just Banned Plastic Bags

September 26, 2018July 5, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

Nothing says freedom like telling your citizens or local businesses what to do. But Seattle is not exactly a bastion of Freedom and liberty. And today is no different.

The Seattle City Council has voted to ban plastic grocery bags.

This is another win by so-called environmental groups that claim the bags fill up landfills or in the case of Seattle, also end up in the water and threaten wildlife. There is no concrete evidence that if the plastic gets in the water it does any actual harm, but nothing else about being an environmentalist is based on concrete anything (including concrete) so why let that deter the assumptions. It’s for everyone’s good, right?

Wrong.

Take electric cars. The process of making the batteries is such a strain on the environment that the average electric car would need to run well beyond its life expectancy for any perceived benefit to outweigh the environmental costs associated with its manufacture. Wind and Solar farms likewise have costs (and this was before Democrats wasted trillions on failing companies that failed anyway) that seriously challenge the so-called benefits. So is it any surprise that plastic shopping bag bans are no different?

L.A. Plastic Bag Ban – By The Way…Reusable Bags Might Be Worse For The Environment

August 26, 2023June 13, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

This is almost a palate cleanser, but then it is not. Apparently, the LA plastic bag ban was motivated by celebrity goobers with green thumbs.

Norovirus Source – Reusable Grocery Bag

September 26, 2018May 10, 2012

by Steve MacDonald

Remember when I wrote about LA looking to ban paper and plastic grocery bags?I included this quote… Coliform bacteria, suggesting raw-meat or uncooked-food contamination, was in half of the bags, and E. coliwas found in 12 percent of the bags. Running the bags through a washer or cleaning them by hand reduced bacteria levels to … Read more