Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Ban Plastic Bags!!!
Novemeber 16, 2010

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors passed regulations concerning plastic bags in supermarkets and large drug stores. This is very similar to a bill that the State of California could not pass earlier this year due to political pressure. Beginning July 1, 2011. Plastic bags will no longer be available and paper bags will be for sale for 10 cents/bag. Bags must be 100 percent recylable and made with a least 40 percent post consumer recycled material. The law only applies to un-incorporated areas in Los Angeles County...but this is the start!!! Cities in Los Angeles County should jump on board and pass similar legislation. This will not only slow down the use of plastic bags, it will eliminate confussion as to where the ban is and where it is not. Those who live in Southern California, please contact your city reps to pass similar legislation to reduce the use of plastic bags!!! This is a victoty for us all.

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TOO MANY BAGS

oye...another plastic bag

We, as consumers, use too many disposable bags. You go to the market and come home with 2 or three bags (paper or plastic?). You go the drugstore for bandaids and come home with one more bag (probably plastic). When you buy a DVD at Target, even though the DVD is in a package, did you bring home yet one more plastic bag?. All this in one afternoon. And you are just one person. You may live in a state with 4,000,000 or more people. Half of them may bring home a couple of bags a day...or more. Oh yes, the United States has a population of over 300,000,000. That is a lot of bags everyday of every year!!!

Where do the bags go?

Most go into land fills, some are recycled. Lots end up in the oceans as litter. Parts of plastic bags end up in some sea creatures' stomachs and they die. The same happens to birds. You see bags on the side of the road all the time. Today I saw two plastic bags hanging from a neighbors shrub. Some bags are reused for a different purpose. Remember hundreds of millions of new bags are used everyday. How many different ways can you think of resuing them? Or will you just throw that bag away because tomorrow you will get a new one when you go shopping?

Have we touched upon where these bags come from?

Most bags used today are made from plastic. Some are paper, some are even made from cornstarch. But the vast majority are plastic and plastic comes from oil. You know about oil, the stuff cars run on, electricity is generated from it, it puts greenhouse gases into the air and so many other pollutants, most of them toxic....Oil is really nasty stuff. And oh yes, the United States goes to war in order to secure a reliable source for oil in order to run our cars, manufacture stuff and more. It might be smart to think about how much of this gooey stuff we consume. Since there is only so much oil in the World, we may want to think about ways to use less and still maintain our quality of life.

reusable canvas bags

Think of it like this. Every night you go to bed. You go to bed on the same bed. You do not use a new one every night. For one thing, there is no reason to have a new bed every night, Where would you put last night's bed when you wake up in the morning? And the cost...it would be prohibitive for most of us to buy 365 beds each and every year. You find a bed you like and re-use it until it is no longer usable for you. Well, bags can be looked at in the same light. You find a few good reusable bags and every time you go to the store, you bring the empty ones with you and bring them home full of goodies and do the same thing every day. It is that simple. Stores can save money and pass the savings on to you (some do that now!!!) You have less waste to dispose (the city you live in needs less space for landfills and less fuel to move the garbage. All this may impact the municipal budget). There is less use of petro-chemicals and fewer trees are cut down to make paper. Even if you re-cycle, less chemicals are used to process the plastic or paper and hence less pollutants are put in the atmosphere and water supplies. And you get to use the same (designer?) bag day after day after day while making the world a healthier place to live.

This bag thing may seem trivial. But just think...there are millions and millions of plastic and paper bags that are disposed of each and every day. Millions and millions,and that is just in the United States. The amount of bags that go into landfills is not trivial. The energy used to manufacture these bags is not trivial. The amount of fuel used to transport these millions upon millions of bags to the various stores and landfills is not trivial. Using canvas or other type of reusable bags, if all Americans did it, is a no brainer way to have a major positive impact on the world we all live in. It is that simple, that easy and that good. The only hard part is to REMEMBER to bring you bags with you!

One more thing...You bought a pound of tomatoes, 3 apples and a bunch of carrots the last time you went to the market. If you shop like most, that is 3 more plastic bags you brought home with you. You can re-use these bags or you can use re-usable cotton bags (that weigh nothing) which are made for the same purpose as the plastic ones the stores give away. Again, less to throw away...you know the routine by now.

CLICK HERE FOR WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP!!!

Check out the Plastic Bags Are Evil page from the HyattsvilleWiki. Info and links to alternative bags for every use.