Happy New Years everyone!!! What a way to set of the New Year by banning plastic bags! I think its a great idea honestly. It will encourage shoppers to bring their own bags and best of all, help the environment!
What do you think of the plastic bag ban?
Starting Sunday, retailers in San Jose and unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County can no longer use single-use plastic bags and paper bags without recycled content, as a city and county ordinance to ban the bags takes effect.
Under the new policy, passed by the San Jose City Council in December 2010 and by the Board of Supervisors in April, only restaurants, nonprofits and social organizations will be able to hand out the bags.
Proponents claim that a ban on plastic bags would lead to a cleaner environment, saving the city money in clean-up efforts. Single-use bags litter roadsides, clog drainage systems, pollute local creeks and streams and harm wildlife, according to proponents of the ban.
Meanwhile opponents have said that the ordinance will hurt consumers and small businesses because they don’t have the same buying power as the bigger stores.
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The San Jose ordinance, proposed four years ago by Councilman Kansen Chu, permits retailers to provide single-use paper bags that contain a minimum of 40 percent recycled content. They must charge shoppers a fee of 10 cents per bag, which would be increased to 25 cents in two years.
There would be exceptions for retailers that provide plastic or paper bags for items such as fresh produce, meat, or bulk goods.
Businesses in unincorporated areas will still be allowed to use plastic bags for items including fresh produce, meat, frozen foods, prepared foods, bakery items, plants, prescription drugs and newspapers.
Retailers in unincorporated areas can sell customers single-use paper bags that are 100 percent recyclable and contain a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer waste at a cost of 15 cents each.
In response to the new ordinance, Pet Food Express announced this week the business will reduce the cost of its reusable bags to 49 cents and donate 100 percent of the money collected in the sale of reusable bags to San Jose Animal Care and Services.
The fundraiser will be in effect at all three Pet Food Express stores in San Jose between Sunday and April 1. Pet Food Express will also have paper bags available for 10 cents that are at least 40 percent post-consumer recycled.
Michael Levy, founder of Pet Food Express, said the fundraiser would directly go toward helping homeless animals in San Jose.
“We realize the ban is going to be a major adjustment for people shopping in San Jose, and we wanted to find a way to help them in the transition by reducing the price of our reusable bags,” Levy said in a statement.
I think a ban is a fabulous idea. I have hated these bags since the day they debuted. They are a lazy man’s grocery bag but sure saved the grocer plenty of money over paper.
It is so easy to make a one time outlay of $15 [for 3 - 7 of them, depending on where you buy them] and buy reusable bags [or buy one at a time over a period of months] and keep them in your car, purse, backpack. And for everyone that whines about them being unsanitary – for goodness sakes, wipe them out once and a while.
I love the pet store’s promotion and would shop there if I live in SF.
Take care and I hope we see you soon. Don’t be a stranger.
http://aneriejello.blogspot.com/ Lorelei
I don’t have a problem with banning plastic bags, but so far no re-usable bag is worthy of spending money on. If there’s not a good alternative, plastic will always be the go-to bag. I’m curious to see how this ban goes.
Laura Tanner
Living on the East Coast, we are very behind the times. I’m sure it will be years before they ban those here. I reuse all my plastic bags for fun things like dirty kitty litter and poopie baby diapers so it would make me sad to have to buy bags for those specific things. Hopefully by the time they ban them here I will have both the cat and the kid potty trained.
http://biodork.wordpress.com/ Biodork
At first glance I like the idea of the ban. I guess there’s a little bit of rebellious person in me that says “Hey government, get outta my grocery bags!”, but legislation like this does get everyone in line for what seems like a very environmentally-healthy choice. I support laws that have a chance at protecting the environment.
I own about 12 of the reusable bags, but often forget them and think “eh, that’s alright” because the bags are available in-store. I KNOW from experience with Aldi and Costco that I can’t forget my bags because they *do* charge for them (in the case of Aldi) or just don’t provide them (in the case of Costco), so I am less likely to forget them; it’s become ingrained: Going to Aldi, don’t forget bags. I think the same thing would happen everywhere with this new law. I’ll be interested to see how it works.
Peter L
It would be nice not to see all those (large retailer) bags blowing in the wind along the highway. We use the old ones for trash or Aldi shopping. And when at (large retailer) I try to re-bag things since the clerks never learned how to economize on bag use. One little thing in this bag, a couple of light-weight things in that one. Needless to say, the clerks don’t appreciate my bagging lesson (not that I say anything to them). But I occasionally ask them politely to fill the bags more than they do.
Of course, said large retailer has a big box by the entrance for recycling the bags, which I do. But someone heard a rumor that our local store just puts all those into the trash, which ends up at a landfill near my rural home. So, some of those blowing the wind bags could be mine!
Plastic Bag Ban Starts Now
by PkWynn on January 2, 2012
Happy New Years everyone!!! What a way to set of the New Year by banning plastic bags! I think its a great idea honestly. It will encourage shoppers to bring their own bags and best of all, help the environment!
What do you think of the plastic bag ban?
Starting Sunday, retailers in San Jose and unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County can no longer use single-use plastic bags and paper bags without recycled content, as a city and county ordinance to ban the bags takes effect.
Under the new policy, passed by the San Jose City Council in December 2010 and by the Board of Supervisors in April, only restaurants, nonprofits and social organizations will be able to hand out the bags.
Proponents claim that a ban on plastic bags would lead to a cleaner environment, saving the city money in clean-up efforts. Single-use bags litter roadsides, clog drainage systems, pollute local creeks and streams and harm wildlife, according to proponents of the ban.
Meanwhile opponents have said that the ordinance will hurt consumers and small businesses because they don’t have the same buying power as the bigger stores.
advertisement
The San Jose ordinance, proposed four years ago by Councilman Kansen Chu, permits retailers to provide single-use paper bags that contain a minimum of 40 percent recycled content. They must charge shoppers a fee of 10 cents per bag, which would be increased to 25 cents in two years.
There would be exceptions for retailers that provide plastic or paper bags for items such as fresh produce, meat, or bulk goods.
Businesses in unincorporated areas will still be allowed to use plastic bags for items including fresh produce, meat, frozen foods, prepared foods, bakery items, plants, prescription drugs and newspapers.
Retailers in unincorporated areas can sell customers single-use paper bags that are 100 percent recyclable and contain a minimum of 40 percent post-consumer waste at a cost of 15 cents each.
In response to the new ordinance, Pet Food Express announced this week the business will reduce the cost of its reusable bags to 49 cents and donate 100 percent of the money collected in the sale of reusable bags to San Jose Animal Care and Services.
The fundraiser will be in effect at all three Pet Food Express stores in San Jose between Sunday and April 1. Pet Food Express will also have paper bags available for 10 cents that are at least 40 percent post-consumer recycled.
Michael Levy, founder of Pet Food Express, said the fundraiser would directly go toward helping homeless animals in San Jose.
“We realize the ban is going to be a major adjustment for people shopping in San Jose, and we wanted to find a way to help them in the transition by reducing the price of our reusable bags,” Levy said in a statement.
Bay City News