Reusable plastic bags. (Photo: Katy Grimes for California Globe)
Plastic Bag Ban Fraud: California Lawmakers Vote to Now Ban ‘Reusable’ Plastic Grocery Bags
‘It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags – the evidence shows just the opposite’
By Katy Grimes, May 28, 2024 5:22 pm
After forcing California grocery shoppers into “reusable” plastic bags at .10 cents a piece, flighty lawmakers are trying to ban them outright now. California lawmakers have voted to do away with reusable plastic bags – again.
Assembly Bill 2236 and Senate Bill 1053, authored by Assemblywoman Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) and Senator Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas), propose to ban any kind of plastic bag at food stores and convenience stores. Both bills will act as an expansion of SB 270, a 2014 bill that was approved of by voters in 2016 as Proposition 67, which banned all “one time use” plastic bags, and only allowed thicker plastic bags to be purchased in stores.
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. We hear this daily and see those orders nearly everywhere. Paper or plastic? Separate out your wet garbage and put it in another recyclable food bin. Separate bottles and cans. Compost. Rinse. Repeat.
Yet none of this has reduced landfills. And recyclers in California are going broke. According to CalRecycle, statewide recycling rate dropped significantly from 2020.
And don’t lawmakers Bauer-Kahan and Blakespear have more important issues they should be addressing instead of pretending to care about plastic bags: Escalating crime, a growing drug-addicted homeless population, increasing energy costs, energy shortages, failing public schools, pro-Palestine protesters on college campuses threatening Jewish students… oh, and a $73 billion budget deficit?
CalRecycle reports legislation signed by Gov. Newsom requires all packaging be recyclable or compostable by 2032, with 65% of it recycled by 2032, shifting the burden from the consumer to the packaging producer. Expect prices to go up – again.
And now comes more legislation to ban plastic bags. But banning plastic grocery bags does not reduce disposal and recycling costs, studies over the last 9 years have shown.
And their lies, environmental myths, exaggerations and misinformation that have been spread about plastic bags have led many to believe that plastic bags kill 100,000 sea mammals and one million seabirds each year. Each of the bill authors have used this emotional argument and trotted out the much-used photo of a turtle with plastic bag in its mouth as proof. Not only is the story about the turtle not true, The London Times exposed the dead sea mammals and seabirds as a myth based on a typographical error. The original report mentioned discarded fishing tackle including fishing nets, not plastic bags. David Santillo, a marine biologist at Greenpeace, told The Times: “It’s very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags. The evidence shows just the opposite.”
In 2009, when plastic bag bans were all the rage in cities around the country, and paper bags were considered tree killers, I reported in the Washington Examiner:
San Francisco’s ban on plastic bags has not provided the environmental results it expected. Anticipated environmental gains resulting from the ban were “nonexistent at best,” and the ban likely did more harm than good. Consumers just switched from single plastic to double paper bags; few consumers remembered reusable totes, which caused delays in checkout; and recycling bins were hard to find or nonexistent.
Additionally, A recent microbiological study found unacceptably high levels of bacterial yeast, mold and fecal bacteria counts reside in the reusable bags (nastysack.com).
The study found that 64 percent of the reusable bags tested were contaminated with some level of bacteria, and close to 30 percent had elevated bacterial counts higher than what’s considered safe for drinking water. Further, 40 percent of the bags had yeast or mold, and some of the bags had an unacceptable presence of fecal intestinal bacteria when there should have been zero.
They are only now realizing that their low-carbon footprint bag is also filled with nasty bacteria if not washed regularly. A recent microbiological study found unacceptably high levels of bacterial yeast, mold and fecal bacteria counts reside in the reusable bags (nastysack.com).
I wonder if Assemblywoman Bauer-Kahan and Senator Blakespear carry reusable cloth nasty bags. Both lawmakers claim studies found that most Californians are either not recycling those bags or are still using the thicker bags as one time only bags, despite being designed to be used multiple times. According to one state study cited by Blakespear, the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds per year in 2014 to 11 pounds per year in 2021, despite the massive law change. Both lawmakers claim plastic bags are still causing environmental damage, and that a total ban is the only way to stop it. Some coastal cleanup surveys also found that volunteers have collected over 300,000 plastic grocery bags in the last three decades.
Only there are no links to those supposed studies. They also still claim many people dispose of plastic bags after just one or a few uses. Yet most people tell you they use plastic bags multiple times, for myriad uses – especially after being forced to pay for them.
A report from Ocean Conservancy claims many people dispose of plastic bags, after just one or a few uses. But in the report they say the AG Rob Bonta and the California Department of Justice have sent letters to seven top plastic bag manufacturers in the state asking them to substantiate claims that their bags are recyclable. This sounds like the real motive behind Assemblywoman Bauer-Kahan’s and Senator Blakespear’s bills.
According to a study by the National Center for Policy Analysis, an examination of the bag bans and budgets for litter collection and waste disposal in San Francisco, San Jose, the City and County of Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and Brownsville and Austin, Texas, showed no evidence of a reduction in costs attributable to reduced use of plastic bags.
Plastic bag manufacturers argue that the litter problem is caused by careless people. Enforcing litter laws would go much further to helping the environment.
Instead, the bills will likely be sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his approval.
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When are fed up Californians going to stop complying with all the ridiculous dictates being imposed by these annoying Marxist Democrats who’ve been installed into office mostly with voter fraud and rigged voting machines? There’s only a few hundred of them compared to 40 million are so Californians? Let them try to police all of us?
Look on the bright side TJ. At least this stupid brain-dead banning of plastic (again) apparently means these freaks don’t have another fake plandemic in the works. You know, where they would be “conscience-stricken” (as if!) to revert again to plastic bags to protect our health.
Grocery stores should be fighting this tooth and nail. After all, those dimes-per-bag add up, so there is an incentive for them. And who knows, maybe they are doing that behind the scenes.
OMG I am SO SICK of these idiots. Good solid arguments are made against this crap (Katy’s article above for instance), over and over and over again but they continually pass this stuff anyway because there is something especially EXQUISITE for them in tormenting people over TRIVIA and ignoring that CA is becoming more of a filthy, crime-ridden, vagrant-littered, smoldering, stinking, cesspool of a hellhole with every day that passes. And all because of their fine work.
Jeepers, it sure seems like there’s an irony there. “Bringing you more filth in the name of environmentalism.” But we knew that already, didn’t we.
Yes, not only do these Marxist Democrats enjoy tormenting Californians over trivia but they are probably also getting paid to do so? Some good forensic accountants and auditors could probably reveal the money trails?
YES.
I agree 100%. They don’t live by the law, why should we?
Well… for ~ $15 you can buy 500 of the thinner old “T shirt” bags and for ~$40 you can buy 350 of the ones you are buying today. They are about the same price , but a visible protest vote. Honestly, the real bread and butter problem goes deeper.
While we are being pecked at by government ducks, no one is looking at the loss of money to corruption. Julie Su, who presided one a multi-billion dollar fleecing of state taxpayers for mailing money to inmates named “Fido”, and other unknown and un asked persons, she is happily riding out the statute of limitations in DC., scamming along with misuse of the term “temporary”. Suddenly 50 billion dollars and been memory holed in favor of “bag gate”….
We have a government operating by misdirection and getting away with it.
Love it.
“I wonder if Assemblywoman Bauer-Kahan and Senator Blakespear carry reusable cloth nasty bags.”
My guess is that these two elitists never step into a grocery store. They have their paid nannies do the shopping for them. I also wonder if their servants are legal citizens and/or being paid cash under the table.
Yes. And who authors such a bill – emotional Democrat women.
Is there any other kind?
Ridiculous.
This governing body is the laughing stock of the country, while our governor is being called a p___k behind his back.
Push back Californians!
………….more importantly being avoided and called names by his PEERS
It won’t be long and those that are hanging/grifting around Newsom will start turning on him and providing “insider” information. We already see this happening to Biden. The disinfectant of daylight causes the cockroaches to scurry away. Nobody wants to be left standing without a chair when the music stops no matter how politically correct you are.
Yes. And who authors such a bill – emotional Democrat women.
I wonder how a politician can make laws like this. They work for us not the other way around. The US CONSTITUTION and the BILL OF RIGHTS was written FOR THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE to protect us from the GOVERNMENT. I do not know how their Government Overreach Abuse has gotten this far. No Politician has a right to tell consumers, businesses what to sell and what not sell or what to buy. If they are using a business license as extortion then it is illegal and against the law. Why do we allow corrupted politicians to make unconstitutional laws? Any Government agencies making laws is also Unconstitional and they get away with this because our checks and balances have been stacked by Communist/Marxist Democrat Cohorts. They are also breaking our Immigration laws too – they are violating their oath of office.
NONE of them think they “work for us”! The California sheeples proved that they aren’t in charge when for the most part they allowed the governor, mayors, and health “experts”, to dictate how they should live, whether or not they could work, go to church, keep their business open, or exercise in a gym. And of course, taking the poison shot!! Do most Californians know how to stand up for their rights? I don’t think so! Those of us who did were in the distinct minority. I’m happy that I had the common sense to see through the scam! The plastic bag is another scam, one of many in this Marxist state!
When are we going to put an initiative on the ballot mandating a part-time legislature?
Let’s put an initiative the ballot to move election day to the same week as tax due day. April 15. Then watch those little Marxist toadies change their tune.