San Francisco Plastic Bag Ban

The ban will be overturned in court... restricting free trade or something along those lines. The argument for paper being more "green" than the plastic bags is stronger in the plastic bag's favor. See my earlier post.

who's gonna go to court to overturn a plastic bag ban?

now, let's talk about the saturday car ban in golden gate park. i say cars should be banned completely, except on cross over between 19th/25th avenue.

NO MORE PLASTIC BAGS AND CARS IN THE PARK!

atf wrote:

Why are "educated" people always too stupid to do anything themselves?

I fail to see where their store of choice prevented all these educated people from bringing in their own reusable bags.

Dude, in order to make a real environmental difference, there needs to be either incentives or regulations to encourage people to participate. Becausee plastic bags are given for free at these stores and 99% of the rest of the people take the plastic bags its easy for everyone to realize that alone they are not making much a difference so why put in the effort. This is not an issue about individual freedom. This is about protecting public lands and public goods. This really isn't much to ask for and by putting in place little regulations like this we can make a real impact on the environment with only a very very minor change to our everyday lives.

Why put up such a fuss over such a small change in your life? Why would this be such a big deal to you? Regulations like this allow us to have clean beaches, parks and forests, as well as helping to ensure our water doens't contain toxins and our air is not polluted. Certainly not using plastic bags doesn't solve all of the environmental problems, but it is a step in the right direction.

I agree that it's about time. How hard is it to carry cloth bags with you? It's just a habit thing. Maybe theese people buying mass-quanities at mega-stores will think again.

ban plastic to kill more trees....you f---ed up lib's banned paper bags years ago to save trees...make up your Pelosi-blinky eyed bi--- twisted minds, drink a bit more kool-aid, huge a terrorist and give it a break. Plastic bags are cool, I love thowing em out the window of my Hummer as I drive down the road....cant wait for summer....just love that Global warming....might even drive up to 'Frisco and kill a few seals...feed em to the homeless after cooking them over an open fire.....hows that for helping my fellow man. biatch.

the sad truth wrote:

reggie smith wrote:

Did you ever notice it is usually liberal cities or states that are for banning things or forceing people to comply with new laws or restrictions.

In the left wing city of Cambridge Mass we had a counciler actually try and ban fluffer nutter sandwiches. Even that was to much for the wacky left wingers of the peoples republic. But I'm sure Counciler Barrios will try again.

So much for individual freedoms when the dems are in control.

i wish we could give you the individual freedom to f*** up your own environment without f***ing up anyone else's. unfortunately we can't so we have to stop you from violating OUR freedom to not have our environment f***ed up.

This whole thing is a big misunderstanding. The city meant to put a ban on plastic fags. When I was typing up the bill I inadvertently typed "plastic bags" and now look what a mess I have created...

Cotton or hemp canvas or mesh is even more environmentally friendly.

Pamela Andersons Left Nipple wrote:

Stoopid move. Overall, plastic is more environmentally friendly...

I never have understood why people think it's "cool" to not care about anything or anyone but themselves...

Lazy L wrote:

I never have understood why people think it's "cool" to not care about anything or anyone but themselves...

I never understood why people thought it was their business to care for me. I'm doing fine on my own.

I contribute significantly less to global warming than Al Gore does. Who is he pointing the finger at? People like me.

He and the rest of you "I'm going to save the world from themselves" people can eat my ass.

Thats the problem you think it's your environment and you should be able to tell others what their individual freedoms should be and shouldnt be. Because only you and your fellow libs are smart enough to make that decision. The fact is it is our environment and our individual rights that are being taken away by you and your big brother liberal friends.

Uh, they've actually proven that they're better than any alternative in being smart enough to make that decision.

I always bring reusable bags to the store myself or i decline a bag and carry with my hands. However, i don't support this type of rule in san fran. It seems that this rule is based on subjective "feelings" about plastic. I wouldn't want a few people deciding for me what is valued for the collective good when it seems i have a choice to decide for myself. what happens when those law makers choose something more important to try and ban in the future. Where does it end? The collective good must be objective not subjective.[quote]atf wrote:

Yeah we use mesh,cloth bags whenever we go to the grocery store and even though we get wierd looks from the people(we live in hicktown,usa) they are great and they hold a lot of items. Plus if they ever get dirty I just throught it in the washing machine and it's fine.

reggie smith wrote:

Thats the problem you think it's your environment and you should be able to tell others what their individual freedoms should be and shouldnt be. Because only you and your fellow libs are smart enough to make that decision. The fact is it is our environment and our individual rights that are being taken away by you and your big brother liberal friends.

you moron's dont get it do you? it is our environment, i.e. we all share it. When I or someone else does something to the environment or ruins a gallon of air I am keeping you from having clean air and now am infringing on your rights.

Your actions affect my freedoms so if you think that the liberals are infringing on your rights maybe you should think again. Your H2 and your plastic bags infringe on my rights to a clean environment. Stop taking away my individual freedom conservative douche bag.

I get plastic bags...I use them for trash bags or bring them back to the store the next time. I have to use something for trash bags, so it seems better to use bags from the store than just letting them pile up in my closet.

Precipitation Man wrote:

who's gonna go to court to overturn a plastic bag ban?

That would be the retailers.

If using paper over plastic significantly raises the cost of doing business, the retailers will go to court. Think globally; not environmentally globally, but from a national chain standpoint. If plastic can be banned in San Francisco, then it can be banned other places. Allowing San Francisco's ban to remain, retailers run the risk of other cities doing the same. It will be fought in court. Just you wait and see.

The retailers may protest; however, it is really in their interest to have shoppers start bringing their own fabric bags to carry purchased items home. Retailers buy a lot of plastic and paper shopping bags and then they give them away at the cash register.

One grocery store I shop at used to charge customers for each bag (2 or 3 cents). It was a long time ago and some of the regular shoppers used to bring their own bags along. Unfortunately, some ignorant shoppers felt inconvenienced and threatened to shop at other stores where the shopping bags were free.

Again, it is "our" environment, right? So who decided that you and your pals get to make all the rules? And when are you going to start apologizing for the damage that you are doing? Because you are "infringing on my rights", correct?

Show me some proof that liberals or democrats or environmentalists actually live the way they preach and have a lesser impact on the environment. Have you done any studies? I don't have an H2 like you presume but John Travolta has 5 private jets. Al Gore burns 20x the US average in electricity.

I am an environmentally conscious person even though I am conservative. I am sure that 99% of environmentalists consume and waste more than I do. I don't need someone to tell me how to behave. If you need someone like Al Gore to tell you how to behave than I am sorry for you.

As for the plastic bag ban I could give a crap since I preferred paper bags (until you environmental assholes forced the grocers to go to plastic). Most of the time I don't even take a bag so it doesn't mean a thing to me.

EM, you clearly don't have a clue. It isn't your, or even our environment. It belongs to no one. And the rules are made because people see the wastefulness of the general populace and take actions to counter it. It's hardly different than any other law...do theft laws infringe on your "right" to steal? Or to break out the example a little more - just because you personally don't feel any compulsion to steal, does that mean that we don't need any theft laws?

AndI'm sure Al Gore and John Travolta are REAL representative of environmentalists. Or that you're representative of conservatives...

Liberals are far more likely to cycle or take public transportation or walk and are likely to live on smaller lots or in multi-unit housing. They are also far more likely to be vegetarian. That's just demographics and if you're so dense as to not understand that instinctively, then maybe you're beyond help.

You would be dead wrong if you thought 99% of anyone, especially environmentalists, were more consumptive or wasteful. Do you drive? Many people NEVER do. Do you eat meat? Many people NEVER do. And that's just scratching the surface.