San Jose moved one step closer yesterday to implementing a citywide Bring Your Own Bag policy. A four-member City Council committee voted unanimously to prohibit grocery stores and major retailers from handing out plastic bags to their customers. Taking the issue one step further, they also voted to ban most paper bags, unless they are made of at least 50 percent recycled material. Even then, customers will be required to pay a fee in order to receive the paper bags.
Two exceptions to the bag ban will be restaurants and not-for-profits, who will still be allowed to distribute bags. In other words, if you buy takeout, you can get the bag for free, but if you decide to pick up ingredients at the supermarket and cook dinner yourself, customers will receive a free bag as well. So eating takeout, long linked to obesity, will now have a direct impact on pollution levels too.
Read More at KCBS.
This is another truly awful idea. There is more than enough government overregulation in our lives. If there’s a problem with excessive litter, why not enforce existing laws against littering and dumping? If this passes, I’ll be happy to shop in Santa Clara.
Sounds great. I will just spend my hard earned money outside of this stupid show boating gaven newsome wantabe city.
Plastic bags straining our environment? Not in my neighborhood. Apparently we must use the kind of plastic bags that don’t land in gutters, float around in traffic, or wind-up in the creek. So how about this: instead of banning all plastic bags, just ban the kinds that aren’t like those used in my neighborhood? You know, the kind used by the bums stinking up the sidewalks, illegals camped in the creek, and the slobs dumping their empty beer bottles?
Do I have it right? Is the problem with the bags or with an uncivilized minority of people who use them? If the former, as City Hall seems to believe, then let’s just all change to the good kind of bags. If the latter, however—if the problem is one of lowlife behavior, then why the hell are they even bothering the rest of us?
Fascism is now wrapped under the banner of environmentalism.
Of course the loudmouth libertarian in all of us hates the nanny state, but this is such a minor sacrifice that I can’t put up much of a fight. I have way too many plastic bags sitting under my sink. All I ever do with them is put other recyclable materials inside and carry them out to the bin when full. My life will go on.
If I lived in an area of San Jose bordering on a neighboring city with a close grocery store and less hassle and also save money, I would chose to shop in the neighboring city. All this additional regulation is going to chase more business out of San Jose. Also, our city is supposedly broke. Is this the time to create more government? Is this the best use of the city council’s time? Can’t we recycle paper and plastic bags with our weekly garbage pick up? This is totally asanine.
No, you can’t recycle them, that is the point. They can go in the recycling bin, but they are not getting recycled.
That’s great, Nam. But our city council just jumped from ‘should’ to ‘must’. Typically there is an economic incentive step somewhere there in the middle.
I think I just made some decisions on how I will vote in next city election.
“But our city council just jumped from ‘should’ to ‘must’.”
That’s open to interpretation. They’re forcing businesses to phase them out. Will SJPD shoot you down for carrying groceries in a plastic bag, though? Nope, so let’s not act like this is some measure of tyranny.
“Typically there is an economic incentive step somewhere there in the middle.”
The surcharge for recycled bags was mentioned in the article. One still has the option to use these bags from the store if they think a reusable sack will cost them their firstborn.
Turk,
The economic incentive is to shop elsewhere!
We don’t need no stinking tax revenue!
You’ll go out of your way, probably using more gas, just to spite this well-intended effort? Wow, way to stick it to the man! U-S-A! U-S-A!
Our fair city runs the risk of losing revenue, as many folks pass through well-run cities – Santa Clara, Sunnyvale, Campbell, etc. – on the way home.
Since I bring my own cloth bags to the store this doesn’t bother me. Even if I didn’t bring my own bags this wouldn’t bother me.
I’m trying to view this from the minds of those of you who are so anti-government but I just can’t see it.
If people are going to rearrange their shopping to go to other cities they must have an awful lot of time to waste. Besides, it is only a matter of time before all cities adopt something like this.
Now, tell me again how doing something to improve the environment is a bad thing?
Bagger: I enjoyed reading your thoughtful post.
If people are passing through other cities it doesn’t take extra time to shop at another, easier, cheaper store. Besides, we already have recycling bins for the bags.
steve, currently less then 3% of plastic bags are recycled. for the ones that are just thrown away, it takes 800 years for these bags to break down in the environment.
is it really that difficult for you to have cloth bags in your car? so difficult that you would go out of your way, even slightly, to avoid a few pennies in surcharge? what are you going to do when other cities levy the same fee?
It is not a few pennies. It is 25 cents a bag. And no, I do not want to carry a bunch of cloth bags around with me.
Carry them around with you? Do you randomly stop by for tons of groceries? All you have to do is take them out of your trunk when you head to the store and toss them down in your cart as you shop. If you walk to the store, carrying empty bags is certainly no more a burden than carrying full ones on the return trip.
Actually Greg Howe has pointed something that is a brilliant counter for a reason he may know, as he is intelligent, or may not, as few people look the following point:
SANTA CLARA AND CAMPBELL INTERSECT PARTS OF SAN JOSE IN MANY AREAS.
So, Greg is right that revenue may be lost withouth driving over to another city. In some cases, all one has to do is cross to another side of Winchester or other parts, to go to a small store or a large one that is right over the county line. This always happens with bans. Santa Clara is not going to pass this, and I think one more thing that adds other amunition to Mr. Howe’s point:
a. The wacky Jamie McLeod version of this legislation for other cities allows seniors to skip a fee for plastic bags, IF THEY SUBMIT A BANK STATEMENT ABOUT THEIR FINANCES.
b. Cities that Mr. Howe mentioned, especially Santa Clara, allows residents to put plastic bags in the recycle bin.
This idea is another way for McLeod to champion big government at our expense. She works with someone who actually told the Santa Clara City Council, and has written to the San Jose City Council, that the homeless have voting rights and should serve on commissions.
There are plenty of places that mandate a charge of a nickel for a plastic bag. People get used to it fairly easily and it makes a noticeable difference to the amount of litter.
Stores don’t mind as they sell permanent shopping bags with their logo on the side and get free advertising (as many stores already do).
Seattle just voted the bag tax down. What makes anyone think it would fly here if put to a vote?
http://tinyurl.com/mqbz5p
But what irks me more is that San Jose is facing some very serious issues and the city council is wasting time on minutiae like the bag tax? Shades of Nero!
Aside from this being a great step to cleaning up our city, state and ocean I had one thing to mention. I went scuba diving in Thailand in 03 and while I was watching one of the most amazing fish I had ever watched float with the current a safeway bag floated by. i remember distinctly it was safeway. that hurt me so bad to see and this is going to help keep those areas of the world clean. Also the cost to the garbage companies and the city for clean up of plastic bags is unimaginable. Third many countries in this world still use reusable bags. Our country got stuck in this disposable world which creates many problems and this bag ban is just one small step to bringing us back to where we once were when we lost our way.
nobody has ever driven down the road? 80% of what you see on the side of the freeway is plastic bags. open your eyes and you will notice the issue here.
San Jose has now banned all shopping bags, plastic and paper.
That won’t stop the residents of East San Jose from tossing
food containers out onto Highway 101 at the Alum Rock interchange.
Littering is a way of life for East San Jose residents
Littering is a way of life for East San Jose residents
As an East San Jose resident I have to comment that this is an absurd statement, since it is all encompassing, and littering is a country wide issue.
However, I have to admit that over the years in East San Jose I have seen many new neighbors from other countries do things, such as littering, overcrowding, etc., that are out of place in a civilized society. Then again, others try to do the right thing. It always amazes me that some people say they come to this country to have a better life, and then proceed to live as if they are still in a 3rd world country with no living standards, code enforcement, etc. In other words, drag this area down to their 3rd world standards.
Personally, I find Code Enforcement to be a more useful tool for “cleaning up” East San Jose than the Police Department. But, the SJPD is definitely needed for some issues.
To finish, I want to thank Code Enforcement and the SJPD for the great job they do. Many on this blog do nothing but deride city employees, but I have seen firsthand the great job done by city employees.