The Plastic Bag Scandal

It goes without saying that plastic waste is a significant global environmental problem! The world generates over 300 million tons of plastic waste each year, only 10 percent of which is recycled. More worrisome, 17 percent of this material ends up in the ocean. Just how effective, do you think, will California's war on plastic take-home bags be in reducing the environmental pollution caused by plastic waste? Most likely we will never know the answer to this all important question. After all, the politicians have made an effort to "fix" the problem and that’s all that really matters in the la-la land in which liberals live. Whether or not the "fix" works is of little or no importance. Common sense should tell us that the ban on plastic take-home bags will have little or no effect on the mountains of plastic waste we humans generate each year. This is so, because nearly everything you buy at a retail outlet these days is contained in a plastic sack or container, even corn flakes. Thus, what difference does it really make if our purchases are carried home in yet another plastic container? I will argue that it doesn't

make the slightest bit of difference, none at all! In fact, the liberal do-gooders who passed this meaningless legislation are making a giant mountain out of a infinitesimally small mole-hill. But, I have led the reader slightly astray because this absurd piece of poorly crafted legislation is about a lot more than simply banning plastic bags at the supermarket. Rather, it is about banning all take-home bags at retail outlets unless, of course, you pay an extra charge for paper. How in the Sam hill, you might be asking, did paper get into this fight? Good question! As we all know paper products including grocery bags, cardboard containers and the like, decompose relatively rapidly when disposed of and are not a significant problem, wherever they end up (by the way, my composting earthworms love paper products of all kinds). More importantly perhaps, paper comes from trees which are a renewable natural resource in ready supply. People make money growing trees and turning them into paper, so what’s not to like about the paper industry and their products they produce for us? No, something went badly wrong when the liberal politicians in Sacramento crafted this destructive piece of legislation. Why, include paper bags in legislation designed to decrease the amount of plastic which ends up in our landfills, streams and oceans? That’s the $64,000 question. Well, first because there is a lot of money to be made in bags if the retailers do not have to provide them for free! Second, politicians live on the campaign contributions provided to them by corporations like Safeway who will profit handsomely from the plastic bag ban. I have been unable to determine how much money Safeway contributes to the campaign coffers of politicians they consider to be "business friendly" however, you can be sure it is substantial. So, how do you convince customers to pay for something they are accustomed to receiving for free? The first step is to outlaw the plastic grocery bag and force customers to bring their own cloth bags or pay ten cents for ones made of paper. Remember that before the social engineers got their fingers in the grocery store’s "bag of tricks" you had a choice of plastic or paper, both of which were free. At this point, plastic bags are a thing of the distant past and the previously free paper ones now cost ten cents. As a result, merchants are way ahead of the game because they now only have to stock one type of bag; more importantly, they made a nice profit by selling the paper bags they previously provided for free. Nice work if you can get it! Sure, some of us who were accustomed to free grocery bags are pissed, just as we were when gasoline hit $4.50 a gallon. But, as with the gasoline rip-off, time has a way of deadening the effect of what you pay for things and we consumers undoubtedly will soon forget that bags were once free and be willingly pay an added charge for the convenience of transporting our food and beverages home in bags rather than piece-meal in the trunk or back seat of the car. However, the "rip-off artists" at Safeway, in cahoots with their political cronies in Sacramento, were just "warming up" when they decided to screw the public by banning plastic bags and requiring us to buy ones made from paper! As I made my way through the check-out line at our local Safeway yesterday morning I noticed something new, a large rack of fancy plastic take home bags. I kid you not, less than two weeks after banning free plastic bags, the bureaucrats in Sacramento authorized the sale of similar plastic bags- at 25 cents a pop! I was told that the new bags were more environmentally friendly and would last longer than the previous free ones. Really? Somehow, I am a bit skeptical of these claims and common sense tells me that, sooner rather than later, the new 25 cent bags will end up in our landfills and oceans, side by side with the previous free ones!