NY Times: Is It Time to Bag the Plastic?
A great article here talking about America's addiction to this convenient "product". Only a handful of cities are trying to resolve this problem with bans and taxes on this plastic commodity. This really reminded me of the super market I shopped at while I lived in NY this summer. Double bag everything unless you ask them not too. The double bag is the default. What is the reason behind this? Addicted to convenience? Are we so narrow minded that we forge what happens to these bags once they leave our possession?
The article points out that "the city pays $10 million annually to send 100,000 tons of plastic bags that are tossed in the general trash to landfills in South Carolina, Ohio and Pennsylvania".
In addition, the article talks about how the plastic bag frenzy never caught on in many European Countries. Is the plastic bag addiction something that is engrained in our American culture and the illusion that our huge country is an endless plain?
Another good point: "But experience shows that even environmentally conscious people need prodding and incentives to change their behavior permanently."
This is pretty wild/ridiculous: "After Austin, Tex., passed a bag ban earlier this year and with Dallas considering one, State Representative Drew Springer, a Republican, introduced the Shopping Bag Freedom Act in the Legislature. That act essentially bans bag bans, protecting the right of merchants to provide bags of any material to customers."
A ban on bag bans is so silly.
The article even speaks about how Representative James P. Moran, Democrat of Virginia, just recently introduced a bill to create a national 5-cent tax on all bags.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/sunday-review/should-america-bag-the-plastic-bag.html?pagewanted=all&module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Ar%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A17%22%7D