WebProNews

Tag: plastic bags

  • NYC Grocery Bag Fees Will Charge Ten Cents for Paper and Plastic

    The New York City Council introduced a bill today that will require a ten cent fee for all grocery bags, both paper and plastic. “Plastic bags are a problem. Our goal has to be to reduce the use of plastic bags. There are a lot of different ways to do that,” said New York Mayor Bill de Blasio, according to CBS. The bill already has nineteen members in support of the bill. If six more members sign on their support, it will become law.

    “The bags get stuck in storms drains, they cause flooding and they litter our beaches,” the Associated Press quoted Council member Margaret Chen, “And they cost New York City a lot of money.” The AP went on to point out that other cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington have already passed similar legislation.

    Law makers first considered a bill back in August to charge for plastic bags, CBS reported. They quoted officials saying the city produces over seventeen hundred tons of garbage from plastic bags per week. They also pay ten million dollars to transport one hundred thousand tons of plastic bags to other states per year.

    CBS interviewed New Yorkers both in favor and against the legislation. Shopper Ed Stark said “Bad idea. I know it’s an attempt to reduce the use of bags, but I don’t think the right way to do it.” Meanwhile supporters of the bill like Daniele Dimartini said the plan was “a good idea. It makes people support recycling.”

    The Human Impacts Institute, a local grass roots environmental organization, tweeted a photo in support of the measure:

    Image via CBS New York, YouTube

  • Plastic-Bag Ban Starts In Los Angeles

    Plastic-Bag Ban Starts In Los Angeles

    On Wednesday, January 8, large grocery stores in Los Angeles will stop providing disposable plastic bags to customers.

    The Los Angeles City Council passed a new law in June that prohibits grocery stores from providing the plastic bags that many customers have grown accustomed to. The council cited the reasoning behind the new law as concerns for the fish and wildlife when the bags make their way into the oceans. With the council’s vote, Los Angeles became the largest city in the nation to ban plastic bags.

    Now, customers must bring their own reusable bags with them when they are grocery shopping. If they choose not to bring their own, the customers must pay ten cents per paper bag from the store. Since the law was passed, the Los Angeles city officials have teamed with different environmental groups to provide thousands of reusable bags to customers for free. Smaller grocery stores, including liquor stores, will be subject to the ban starting July 1, 2014.

    “This is huge step,” said Sarah Sikich, the science and policy director for Heal the Bay. “It really sends a message to other places, both nationally and beyond. Now Chicago and New York are looking at similar policies for their communities.”

    Los Angeles is not the only city that is implementing a similar policy. Santa Fe’s ban will be effective starting on February 27, 2014.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Reusable Grocery Bags are Filthy Garbage

    Reusable Grocery Bags are Filthy Garbage

    It’s a great trend, many people are choosing to buy reusable grocery bags rather than continuing to litter our landfills with thousands and thousands of paper and plastic shopping bags. It has also probably saved the stores involved thousands of dollars, but some recent research studies have found a big issue with the reusable bag trend.

    Basically a lot of people are remembering to bring the bags to the store, but too many are forgetting to wash those bags. After awhile that unwashed shopping bag becomes more like a used garbage bag that we keep putting our groceries in. Sound appetizing?

    Almost two years ago a University of Arizona study found that reusable shopping bags carry all sorts of extremely hazardous bacteria and germs including Salmonella and e-coli. The bags were even traced back to cases of death, with the most significant risk being to the elderly and very young.

    Charles Gerba, professor of soil, water and environmental science and co-author of the study at the University of Arizona comments on the results:

    “Our findings suggest a serious threat to public health, especially from coliform bacteria including E. coli, which were detected in half of the bags sampled,”

    “Furthermore, consumers are alarmingly unaware of these risks and the critical need to sanitize their bags on a weekly basis.”

    The study came out just before California wanted to pass a law banning disposable plastic bags at the grocery stores. I guess you can imagine what happened to that piece of legislation. The problem, as the study found, is more about a lack of awareness. People don’t realize that bacteria is breeding and growing in there. It doesn’t even occur to most people that they need to be sanitizing and washing those bags.

    Here’s a link to the study fittingly called, “Assessment of the Potential for Cross Contamination of Food Products by Reusable Shopping Bags“. The University report also features some interesting recommendations about how lawmakers and consumers can protect the population from the bacteria that forms in reusable bags.

    Here’s what they came up with:

    * States should consider requiring printed instructions on reusable bags indicating they need to cleaned or bleached between uses.

    * State and local governments should invest in a public education campaign to alert the public about risk and prevention.

    * When using reusable bags, consumers should be careful to separate raw foods from other food products.

    * Consumers should not use reusable food bags for other purposes such as carrying books or gym clothes.

    * Consumers should not store meat or produce in the trunks of their cars because the higher temperature promotes growth of bacteria, which can contaminate reusable bags.

    It’s not exactly a feel-good story, but I see people at the stores using some pretty grungy looking bags, so I thought it would be wise to raise some awareness about the issue. I never thought about the health concerns related to the bags, but certainly putting my groceries into a garbage bag to take home doesn’t sound attractive either.