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Starting March 1,2020 plastic bags are banned. Get used to bringing your own “reusable” bags and have them ready on your person just in case you need to go grab something from the store. Are we going backwards? What’s this insanity who wants to keep bags with them at all times in case they need to go shopping? Either that or pay a fee for some paper bag that will likely rip and take up half of your car, that is if the store even carries them. This and the planned proposal for east river bridge tolls going in and out of Manhattan, is there anything more they can do to drive everyone out of New York City? Why don’t we ban soda cans and plastic bottles so they don’t get thrown out as litter? Just being your own reusable mug if you want to get some soda from the stores fountain!
Right is wrong. Get over it. 31 of the 50 states (plus D.C.) now prohibit plastic bags, including Oregon, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut and Delaware, Maryland, and California. We’ve been using several canvas bags for nearly 10 years years for shopping and just keep them in the trunk of the car. They are much stronger than plastic or paper bags, hold a lot more and easier to carry in the parking lot. If you do any research, you will see that plastic bags are among the most problematic from a landfill and recycling perspective. Its no big deal unless you want to kvetch about it but within the decade, they will be prohibited in the most of the world.
Its a stupid idea that hurts the poor and promotes disease (reusable bags attract and spread germs). I suggest voting out the politicians who dreamed up the idea.
Overall, getting rid of disposable plastic bags in the environment is a good thing. However, carrying around bags, I fear, will be one more thing to devolve onto women; men will likely pay for the bag. Women already carry so much and do the bulk of the shopping. An alternative that would better serve customers and vendors would be to use biodegradable plastic bags. The technology is there. The price will come down as demand increases.
Curious: will men shlep bags happily/easily? It’s one thing to have a car and keep bags there all the time. I live in an area where everybody drives. It’s another thing in a city environment like Manhattan where most rely upon public transportation.
On another note, remember that it is incumbent on Jews to protect our environment. Encourage recycling and judicious use of materials. We throw away so much stuff!
I think there are more important things going on in the world to worry about than plastic bags. Just deal with it and move on.
This will end up hurtng local retailers as more consumers will buy online or the retailers will have to provide home delivery. This will probably reduce spur of the moment purchases as you have to plan how much you can fit in your bag. I think any savings in sanitation cost will be offset by losses in sales tax revenue. Reduction in local retail sales will result in layoffs costing more in welfare benefits.
The supermarkets will use a lot more boxes than they currently are. They charge for them.
My biggest question is: now what are we going to use to throw out diapers?@abbaS
Youe logic is faulty, no one is going to start buying all their milk and eggs on line because they don’t get a free cheap plastic bag in the local supermarket
Why are garbage bags different than shopping bags?
Here in CT the ban went into effect last July 1. It has been an easy adjustment. I keep a bag full of bags in each car and take what I need into the store when I shop.
Thin plastic bags for produce, dairy, meat are still available free in stores, so one doesn’t have to worry about dripping into reusable bags.
Some stores have paper bags available at no charge (Trader Joe’s for example). In Costco or Aldi I just use cardboard boxes to pack up my purchases.
This is no big deal and much better for the environment and our grandchildren’s world
Like all leftists ideas – sounds/feels good; in reality, silly, annoying and expensive. I now believe S’dom was a leftist utopia and we’re witnessing how it all began.
@ctlawyer
Its different here in NYC or an urban area. It will be harder to “run to the corner store for a few items” or stop off at a local store on my walk from the subway to my house. People will start shopping more exclusively at larger supermarkets and small/local businesses are likely to suffer.To all you non-NYC people, here most people use public transportation to go to work. To start shlepping bags to work then home again to pick up a few items after work IS a tircha.
Yes, there are more important things in the world, but here in NYC, the government is making life uncomfortable. This bag thing is annoying unless you keep them in a car, but here it is getting harder to get around in a car. The speed limit is 15 – 25 mph, depending where you are. They are NARROWING the highways instead of making them able to carry more cars. The trains and buses don’t run on a normal schedule. Our Mayor would like to eliminate all free street parking.
It is like the city would like to go back to the 1950s when most people didn’t have cars and people used paper bags (which often would fall apart mid-use).
We need a government that is responsive to the people’s needs.Liberals like making things more difficult for the average person. Their ideas seem nice on paper but they are often useless in real life.
My state just went bag free, my town has been bag free for 10+years. For those of you complaining about taking mass transit and wanted to stop and shop on the way home there are solutions to your problem. You can pay and buy a bag, you can also purchase a very lightweight and compact bag online or in a store.Stores where I live have a wide variety of non disposable bags for sale, the majority cost .99-$1.50. Grocery stores locally still have paper bags for produce and biodegradable (cornstarch) bags for meat. (An enterprising Yid can make a few bucks by selling a variety of non disposable bags for shopping.) I can fit at least 4 compact ripstop bags in my small (6″x9″) purse with room to spare. I keep a couple in my rain coat pocket too. I’m old enough to remember a time before plastic or paper bags at stores. We managed then and we can manage now.
Right is CORRECT (no pun intended) ….to correct my prior posting, cities in 31 states have adopted some form of prohibition on plastic bags, not 31 statewide bans. I cannot post the link but you can google plastic bag ban state by state to get the complete listing. In most states, the bans are enacted at the city/county level not statewide. In response, a number of states have enacted preemption laws prohibiting their localities from adopting such bans. These states include Ohio, Missouri, Idaho, Arizona, Wisconsin, Indiana and Florida .
“I’m old enough to remember a time before plastic or paper bags at stores. We managed then and we can manage now.“
Amil is probably old enough to remember no cell phones too so he would be perfectly fine if the government banned cell phones too (same goes with internet)
🙄
“You can pay and buy a bag, you can also purchase a very lightweight and compact bag online or in a store”
So my options are to pay for a paper bag or keep reusable bags in every coat and jacket pocket that I own. But what happens in the summer? Do I need to start keeping reusable bags in my pants pockets?
Coffee addict I sure am. But frankly I seldom carry my cell phone now that I’m retired. (My first cell phone was one of those huge things as big as a car battery. It was more of a novelty than a necessity.) I don’t need to be interrupted when I’m socializing or shopping or at the movies. Typically I will take the phone if I’m driving out of town. If I miss a call there is always voicemail or a text can be left.
Why are people who pay with SNAP or WIC entitled to free bags? Do the less fortunate have any less of an obligation to help the environment? Or is this really just another tax that the idiot left wing government is levying on the middle class.
@Coffee Addict
Amil is a female using her husband’s CR accountThe only way this Insanity stops is by voting out the nanny State Socialist Leftist Democrats. This is insane! It should not be allowed!
CTlawyer, how wonderful for you that you have a car, and keep bags in it. Most of us in NYC do not drive casually around, and when we buy something we DEPEND on plastic bags to get it home. Paper bags will not work because they have no handles. If I can’t get a bag from the store, and I don’t happen to have shlepped a bag with me I WILL NOT BE ABLE BUY THINGS, because I will have no way to get them home on the subway. Even if I have taken a bag with me, I will only be able to buy as much as fits in that one bag. If I pass a store and see something good on sale, I will not be able to buy it in quantity unless I go around everywhere with five bags, just in case. This is insane.
Also, I will have to start buying garbage bags. And pet owners will have to start buying bags for that. What is the purpose served by all this? There is an almost UNLIMITED supply of landfill, so don’t drei me a kop about the garbage problem.
Amil. All very good points. We’ve been bag-free for 8 or 9 years and not a real issue, even for mass transit ursers. For the occasional shopping trips when you don’t have a car or shopping car, the paper bags or cheap multi-use bags work just fine. For most of my friends , getting used to the paper/ bamboo straws and recyclable shot glasses at the Kiddush clubs has been a bigger challenge.
I remember a time before many of the vaccines we have now. We managed then (except the ones who died unnecessarily) and we can manage now without them. Right?
I don’t get it. There was a time not so long ago where your eggs were laid in your backyard not bought in some earth killing styrofoam container.
Milk was delivered from a metal jug and bread had no bag.
And many survived.
So let’s ban egg cartons, milk bottles and bread bags.
Don’t you care for the environment?
NitwitsReverting to paper bags is more expensive as paper bags will have a higher transportation and storage costs as it’s thicker and bulkier besides sometimes ripping on the way home. Here in NYC most retail stores do not have parking lots and free parking is hard to find and many consumers don’t have cars. All this is doing is encouraging residents to move outside the city.
The city is requiring developers to provide affordable housing which sounds nice. An Apartment complex in Midwood has over 90 one bedroom Affordable Apartments at $2,300.00 per month with two bedrooms going for $2,800.00. These apartment are assigned by lottery which the government oversees. Which just encourages more residents to move out of the city and increase homelessness as these prices are not really affordable.
@Millhouse
#1The Paper bags from Trader Joe’s have handles
#2 For a hundred years or more shoppers in Europe have had to provide their own bags and most used public transit or walked.
I always carried small net shopping bags when in Europe, cheap, easy to store in a pocket.It’s NOT all about you or NYers. The whole world is affected by the plastic mess in oceans, forests, etc
Why does it have to be banned, why can’t there be a trial stage to see how people will be affected (maybe big supermarkets should have the ban but the little Chinese food restaurants can still use bags) and see what people say
Once people are used to something it’s very hard to changeBtw why wouldn’t Amil’s wife make her own account (and just btw I don’t know genders here so I usually call posters he)
@CoffeAddict
I can’t answer why she is using his account. She posted that info more than a year ago. I am not sure that he is even alive anymore.In our area, takeout food places have switched to paper or collect the 10 cent tax if the consumer wants plastic.
@bk613
The plastic bags are NOT sold, a tax is collected if a customer wants one. Therefore SNAP and WIC purchases are exempt because the purchase is paid fro by the state and the state doesn’t pay tax to itself.Years ago we were foster parents and the state gave us a card to buy for the child. The purchases of clothing and school supplies were not taxed because the state was the customer, not the foster parent…same with SNAP and WIC
To quote a rav I heard say recently “in the near future, a man will be walking down a street with a big garbage bag full of dead babies and cocaine, and will get arrested for the garbage bag”
The world isn’t affected by plastic bags. The sensationalized news about plastic in the oceans is due to countries that are acting irresponsibly, but not the US. The stupidity of leftist ideologies like banning plastic straws citing data from a 5th grade science project is just one example. See what rivers in China and India look like. They are the polluters of the world, yet the left wants to penalize the US. Do me a favor.
I lived in a place that banned bags. I moved. The immigrants and urban poor didn’t understand reusables. Stores gave them out for free in week one, and everyone threw them out. All I ever saw was people carrying loads of groceries in their hands. That looked stupid. And because of the spike in disease from unwashed bags, they had to build a new medical school.
The malls and stores are great too. I like going to large national department stores and listening to the explanation to people that they don’t give out bags. Given how much retail hated people bringing in bags, I wonder how the shoplifting is going.
Oh, and guess what type of non-chain stores appear to still give out plastic bags anyway, although banned???
Wonder why online is taking over? Here we are.
#1The Paper bags from Trader Joe’s have handles
True and they very expensive and most stores will likely not offer them to customers for free.#2 For a hundred years or more shoppers in Europe have had to provide their own bags and most used public transit or walked.
I’ve been to several European countries and have always received a bag when shopping..I always carried small net shopping bags when in Europe, cheap, easy to store in a pocket.
Good for you. You should be proud of your Tikkun Olam.It’s NOT all about you or NYers. The whole world is affected by the plastic mess in oceans, forests, etc
True, but why do our concerns need to be totally discarded?FYI: According to the NY Times, quoting the Britain’s Environment Agency:
“You’d have to reuse a paper bag at least three times before its environmental impact equaled that of a high-density polyethylene plastic bag used only once. And if plastic bags were reused repeatedly, they looked even better.”
“The study found that an avid shopper would have to reuse his or her cotton bag 131 times before it had a smaller global warming impact than a lightweight plastic bag used only once.”CTLawyer, the plastic in the pacific ocean isn’t from you. The plastic cups in San Francisco doesn’t go there either.
They have boxes at the stores for something called “recycling”.
There is no need to trial it when bans on plastic bags have been implemented successfully all across Europe and people get by fine. Yes, it’s even been brought into law by governments that aren’t leftist (like the UK Conservative party) and no, people aren’t dying of all the germs apparently festering in these reusable bags.
I think many Jewish people refuse to make changes to help the environment because, (possibly subconsciously) we’re tuned to not worry about tomorrow because Moshiach is coming today.
Why does it have to be banned, why can’t there be a trial stage to see how people will be affected (maybe big supermarkets should have the ban but the little Chinese food restaurants can still use bags) and see what people say
That would be really complicated to enforce. A ban that applies to all stores is simple.
“The plastic bags are NOT sold, a tax is collected if a customer wants one. Therefore SNAP and WIC purchases are exempt because the purchase is paid fro by the state and the state doesn’t pay tax to itself.”
The City is calling it a fee not a tax, and according to the NY Post the vendor gets to keep 40% of fees they collect. At the very least SNAP and WIC should be responsible for the vendors portion. In any event, why are the poor absolved of any responsibilities when it comes to protecting the environment?
״That would be really complicated to enforce. A ban that applies to all stores is simple.״
There already are exceptions
When my husband was alive we used his login to read and infrequently post in the CR. After his passing I found his CR logins. Ergo that’s why I use his logins.
I was just in France and was charged 10 cents for a “non-disposable” plastic bag. I’d be happy to pay that here, a large family shopping trip with 10 bags (larger than the disposable ones) would add a dollar to the final cost.
CTLawyer- there are no plastic bags available for a fee. It’s only paper bags available for a fee. Paper bags rip very easily. I do believe in protecting the environment but they should be chasing the discarded fishing nets and encouraging reusing bags and recycling them. Not a ban.
” And because of the spike in disease from unwashed bags, they had to build a new medical school.”
JDF007, you can’t possible expect anyone with at least half a brain to believe this silliness.
Did anyone used to change their cars oil by letting it drain into the storm drain? No-one would do it today. Remember not buckling in kids? Or the person driving carpool smoking?
Times change. We’ve adjusted to many changes the past few decades. I think we’ll figure out how to survive without plastic bags.@Gamanit
I use the large heavy duty plastic bags with handles sold by Aldi for 10 cents. I get about 20 uses per bag.
In CT it is the flimsy t-shirt sty;e disposable plastic bags that can not be sold by the stores. Multi use heavy duty bags are available,I can’t believe how many people there are on this blog that are okay with this garbage. Don’t you see you or your rights and your liberties are being taken away from you by the feel good socialist liberal Democrats? Something happens in the world and WE get blamed for it? they blame us for everything while they go out and do exactly what they’re telling us they don’t want us to do.
We really need to have normal people, those of us who really want to maintain our liberties and freedoms to take back New York City and New York State. I don’t want to hear how Connecticut has it and it’s okay over there. If you like it in Connecticut stay there and don’t do anything about it. Let them keep taking stuff from you. You’re never going to get it back, do you understand that? When they take something from you, one of your liberties and your freedoms, you will never ever ever get it back. It doesn’t happen.
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