The city of Tumwater becomes the latest Washington State municipality to have plastic bag ban. They’ll be doing it similar to what Seattle does with an outright ban on plastic bags and a 5 cent fee on paper ones. Plastic bags are awful, and since Thurston County won’t be able to recycle them anymore soon this may have been a necessity. It also could be larger than just Tumwater.
Once the ban takes effect in Tumwater next July, shoppers who don’t bring their own reusable bags will pay 5 cents per paper bag to offset stores’ costs. Plastic bags that are used for meat or produce, and thicker plastic shopping bags provided by some retailers, are exempt from the ban, as are newspaper bags, doggie bags and dry cleaning bags.
The Thurston County Commission could approve a bag ban as early as next week, and the City of Olympia is expected to follow.
I’d like to see the whole state get rid of plastic bags sooner or later. They’re bad for the environment and tough to get rid of. They’re unsightly: there’s a bag in the tree near my apartment that has been there since before the Seattle ban (I remember writing about it, but can’t find the link), and will probably be there for some time to come. For now, the localities will have to take up the lead. Hopefully with Thurston County as a precedent, other counties can take it up.
Another freedom taken away! Free markets, not government bureaucrats, should decide what bags shoppers use! This is creeping (or creepy?) socialism! Dictator Obama ordered this.
The over reaching Obanners practically have this in the bag!!!!111!
STOP MENTIONING THE SECRET PLAN!!!!!111!1
You’re letting the cat out of the bag. (A good thing, if it’s a plastic bag. Cats are more fun in paper bags; that would be a nickel well spent.)
Think of this as opening a whole new revenue stream for business. Why should a business be forced to give a customer a bag? The free market demands that industry charge whatever the market will bear for the convenience. How dare you insist on a handout like that you socialists.
Or think of it as one of the many things that have ceased to be free. Airline nuts, gas station air, unlimited catsup packets, restaurant matches….
Pure lunacy, government over reaching, damn bag Nazis.
now i will have to go buy plastic bags for trash wonderful keep voting idiots in
@5
You can always go somewhere else to shop if you really need plastic grocery bags. I’d suggest Texas.