Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Aug 19, 2009
Strike up another victory for the plastic bag lobby. The city of Seattle was to begin a 20 cent fee per non-reusable plastic or paper bag distributed at the checkout counter beginning January 1. The deep-pocketed Progressive Bag Affiliates, which "promotes the responsible use, reuse, recycling and disposal of pastic bags" (huh?), pumped $1.4 million into a campaign to bring the issue to a referendum. The law was voted down by the people today.
Progressive Bag Affiliates and savetheplasticbag dotcom (I won't link to them here) have been chasing down proposed "plasti-taxes" and bag bans across the country, helping to get many of them overturned. "Save the Plastic Bag" has launched a strange-logic campaign based on comparisons between plastic and paper bags, with little or no mention of reusable bags in their analyses.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Aug 18, 2009
Plastic bag ban update:
The Hartford Courant recently reported that Fairfield is a step closer to enacting a ban on plastic shopping bags. The town board will be voting next week on an ordinance that was passed unanimously by the Reusable Bag Ordinance Committee.
Posted by: johnny_a
in MyBlog on Aug 07, 2009
The Highland Park News reported yesterday on a public hearing over a proposed citywide ban on plastic foam packaging and single use plastic bags. Local restaurant and retail owners spoke out, claiming that such a law would place undue economic hardship on their businesses. 
Claiming that (unspecified) "alternative" packaging would cost three times more than current materials, one restaurant owner stated "I'm afraid if we raise our prices we're just going to drive people to the bordering communities where (those restaurants) don't have these pass-through expenses." Other opponents said that any new required containers would create the same litter problems, and advocated for better recycling programs.
