Media criticism is really more Goldy’s thing, but I’m reading our newspapers’ reaction to plastic bag fee scheme announced today.
Forget the canvas sacks at home? Shoppers at grocery, convenience and drug stores will pay the price starting Jan. 1, if the City Council approves. A family buying six bags of groceries a week would spend $62.40 a year in bag fees.
That’s sixty bucks a year if you forget, every single time, when you go to the supermarket. That’s every single time. Who forgets every single time? If you’re that forgetful, maybe you have more pressing problems than grocery shopping.
You can read the P-I’s “Sound Off” on their article. When I go to the market, almost always, all of my purchases can fit into one (or maybe two) canvas bags. Of course, I often forget to bring my canvas bags along. If I had to pay twenty cents a shot, I’d remember every time. Or if I was one of those rugged libertarians, I’d pay the surcharge.
In a way, I’m glad we didn’t decide to ban plastic bags. Consumers have always had a choice: paper or plastic. Consumers can still choose, but their choices will better reflect the environmental realities, not to mention that giant floating garbage pile in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Banning the bags is a demand; charging a fee is a suggestion.
Not to mention that at Fred Meyers you get a nickel off your bill for each reusable bag you bring in.
I like them because they carry more and they don’t tear like plastic and paper bags.
I’m saving those nickels because I can’t wait to see ex-congressman Reichert panhandling in Bellevue next year. I’ll toss him a handful of those nickels and laugh my ass off at the sight of him and 50 other Republicans, like MTR, diving and fighting for my loose change.
What I don’t get is why the canvas bag alternatives offered by many stores are the only reusable alternative at most stores?
Trader Joes has a reusable bag similar to the ones at any store in Germany, made of recycled plastic tarp like stuff that lasts forever, and doesn’t absorb any spilled liquid.
Europeans buy such bags for a lot less than the typical $3.99 (which sure as hell is a price intended to maximize profit, getting a “99” ending) you see for the inferior canvas bags. I think the two we brought home cost less than a Euro.
There’s a kind of “swag” bag that’s showing up at trade shows (and events like the Home Show), that they hand you when you check in to carry all the literature and crap you collect on the exhibit floor. They’re not fancy, but they’re rather large and made of double-stitched, ballistic-weave nylon. We have a couple of these and one will hold a whole week’s groceries.
ArtFart: I was expecting you to say all the literature and crap you collect and finally leave on the exhibit floor.
Maybe if they offered those reusable “swag” bags at the Street of Dreams them fine homes wouldn’t been torched by them “conservationists”.
Is wasn’t conservationists, it was insurance fraudsters who have a can of red spray paint.
That is the difference between donks and repubs. When republicans wage war we volunteer and fight it ourselves. The democrats force others to fight their battles. Since I don’t live in Seattle I guess it will be my patriotic duty to laugh at any schmuck walking with one of those canvass shopping bags. hehehehe
@6 – Republican Conservative fraudsters…puddydick’s friends.
@7 – way to support all and any democratic soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. True Republican – only live in denial. Patriotic dumb fuck, stupider than any schmuck!
“In a way, I’m glad we didn’t decide to ban plastic bags. Consumers have always had a choice: paper or plastic. Consumers can still choose, but their choices will better reflect the environmental realities, not to mention that giant floating garbage pile in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Banning the bags is a demand; charging a fee is a suggestion.”
Yep, perfect!
When I get hit up 20 cents for plastic bags for my $100 worth of groceries, I will not only pay for my bags, I’ll give the cashier an extra $10 for the customers following me. Then I will make a point of putting mine in the regular garbage can when I get home. Along with my newspapers and plastic. My little form of protest against the leftists trying to take over this (formerly) great country…
Tommy Thompson says:
@7 – way to support all and any democratic soldiers fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. True Republican – only live in denial. Patriotic dumb fuck, stupider than any schmuck!
04/03/2008 at 7:21 pm
Sorry, I apologize to the dozens of active military soldiers who might vote democrat and the millions of fake US soldiers who do vote democrat. roof roof.
Has anyone ever seen an arial picture of that giant floating garbage pile in the Pacific ocean?
Gotta link?
If the city fathers were honest they would call the 20 cent fee for grocery bags what it is – a tax. It is designed to increase city revenue. It has nothing to do with saving the environment, it is a tax on groceries, pure and simple.
Just like the stop light cameras. The city fathers claimed they were put in place to cut down on accidents. What actually happens wherever these cameras are placed is that the number of accidents goes UP, not down. http://tinyurl.com/24aygm
So the city tried out a few stop light cameras and liked the revenue they created. So now the city is installing even more stoplight cameras, even though they know that it will cause more accidents.
The same thinking is going into the grocery bag tax. Our city fathers do not think of us as people to be served by our government, but merely as an endless source of money for the government.
@13 – No…because there is no such thing, if there was, there would be proof in pictures. This seems to be a widely talked about subject with everyone asking that very same question with absolutely no pictures of proof. Google Livve Earth doesn’t even show it!
Frank Blethen mouthpiece sez:
“Forget the canvas sacks at home? Shoppers at grocery, convenience and drug stores will pay the price starting Jan. 1, if the City Council approves. A family buying six bags of groceries a week would spend $62.40 a year in bag fees.”
Roger Rabbit reply to Frank Blethen:
So what? If someone buys your paper every day, he’ll spend $234.50 a year and think of all the trees being destroyed!
That’s why I read your paper at the newspaper rack without paying for it — to save trees.
@14 Of course it isn’t on Google Earth. The floating trash pile is under water. In the ocean. Not on it.
I’m a conservationist. I have to be. That’s my habit you’re chainsawing down to print your silly tripe on.
habitat
What do republicans and dogs have in common? Oh, yeah…they eat their own doo-doo.
@7
How many years did you serve in the military? What branch?
How many years did Dick Cheney and George Bush serve in Vietnam? Have their kids served in Iraq?
You do realize that both Gore and Kerry served in Vietnam, right? Oh, and Carter was an officer on a nuclear submarine.
PS You sound like a total idiot. But please keep up the good work. Because of folks like you, the Democrats now control Congress. Thanks.
@13 and 14:
Yeah and Global Climate Change is not real either. And we will never run out of fossil fuels. There is no reason why we need to change our lifestyles. Everything is great and wonderful. Our society can live like this forever.
http://www.bestlifeonline.com/.....e_we.shtml
http://www.wired.com/science/d.....4/06/63699
http://www.mindfully.org/Plast.....1nov02.htm
@12 do all everyone a favor, including the patriotic soldiers that vote democrat – take a loaded pistol, put it to your head and pull the trigger, you fake patriot.
Tommy_The_Idiot_Thompson@6:
Yes, I’m sure the builders did it since one house was pending sale and two other houses had persons of buying interest. And there was a sheet which said “Built Green? Nope black! McMansions in RCDs r not green. ELF”
Also the Asian building couple who had one house withstand the attack turned in the non-exploded incendiary device to police.
So we’ll see…
Here it the main reason the republicans are going to lose in November:
the economy – we just lost 80,000 more jobs last month.
Link: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/n.....obs_in.php
People want out of Iraq and want a fix for the economy – McCain is more of the same and knows nothing about the economy. The new NIE is out – and it hardly even mentions Basra. Once again – the war in Iraq is being sugarcoated to make it seem like everything is working well.
didn’t bush say that this was great news – that the Iraq government was taking on the “lawless” elements in Basra – well – now that the Iraq government has fallen flat on it’s face and given in to the Mahdi army – what does that mean?
What about bags at Target, or Bartells, ect…?
Does this only apply to grocery stores?
#22 passionate_jus says:
Thanks for the links, I already read them.
What I asked for was a link to a picture of this collection of trash.
I use the plastic ones in my woodstove for heat but
they dont last very long like car tires.
I like the guys’ over at KJR’s solution: When asked if you want a bag, decline. But then tell the baggers you want them to help you carry everything to the car.
har har