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Original Associated Press article instead of giving traffic to Voice of America
Edit: and a good LA Times article explaining the glaring flaw with the original 2014 law.
Thank you!
Yeah np; VOA is I feel overall pretty tame as national propaganda outlets go, but it's nonetheless expressly conceived of and funded as a propaganda outlet, so that's not much of a compliment.
Plus, a news agency article from its own website tends to have a better shelf life than syndicated versions of that article.
VOA seems very factual and accurate in their reporting. Their bias exists in that they'll never report on something that doesn't align with US interests.
Which isn't the individual single use plastic bags every single item comes in.
It's just the one final plastic bag, all the other plastic bags are carried in.
I don't have a problem with the move myself. I'm single, with a supermarket just up the street. I use my own hand basket for my groceries. I never even use a cart.
But this policy always strikes me a tackling the smallest, least effective part of the problem. Banning plastic packaging would be FAR more effective. But also much harder. So this is just a way for politicians to seem like they are doing something, when they really aren't. In other words it's pandering.
Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
Like @TheTechnician27@lemmy.world said, this is closing a loophole that was in the original grocery bag reduction law.
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We can't afford to think like this. Climate is such an unthinkably massive issue that we need all of it, and then some more, and then some more.
There is no project big enough that we don't need 50,000 more projects of equivalent scope to get things where they need to be.
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California has been working toward legislation that reduces plastic in packaging. It's not as good as it should be, but it represents about as much departure from the status quo I think California can reasonably get when people raise so much fuss over even superfluous things like plastic straws and grocery bags (and because California is already really throwing around their weight here in compelling out-of-state producers to change their manufacturing). And this new law is just closing a loophole on a 2014 law that at worst was actively making things worse or at best was making the law fail to address the issue. This isn't "pandering"; it's addressing a real, ongoing, actual issue in a sensible way.
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Yeah. The whole shit-show is depressing really.
Firstly, you're entirely correct - it's a tiny part of the problem.
Secondly, it shifts the "blame" for plastic on to consumers. "Oh we've been so bad all this time using plastic shopping bags".
Thirdly, it provides a feeling of resolution. "I'm so happy now we've done the hard work to buy these $0.10 reusable shopping bags and solved the plastic problem".
Fourthly, you have to wonder how many plastic shopping bags were actually single use. For example, a lot of them were made from recycled plastic, and a lot of them were re-used as garbage bags, which are now purchased anyway.
On balance, I think it's within the realm of possibility that these laws do more harm than good. Honestly, just tax plastic producers and see how quickly producers using plastic to package their products magically fine innovative new alternatives.
to buy these $0.10 reusable shopping bags
This literal exact sentence tells me you didn't read past the headline; those shitty $0.10, thicker "reusable" plastic bags are exactly the loophope in the 2014 ban that this 2024 law is designed to close. The thing you're accusing this law of allowing people to do is the one thing it expressly outlaws. Media literacy is dead.
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We did it a while back, you will adapt pretty quickly.
In Austin we had a ban. The state overrode it a year later, but the damage was done...everyone realized how much easier it is to carry groceries in large tote bags that you can sling over your shoulder.
Or boxes; we use boxes. Carrying 3 - 4 boxes up stairs is much easier than 10 bags.
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good. My balls are already maxed out on microplastics
Can we ban plastics in the fishing industry next?
I know little to nothing about fishing on a commercial scale. What are viable alternatives to plastics in that industry?
Hemp it would be a viable alternative due to its rot resistant properties.
Hemp was used as the primary material for this purpose until the oil industry helped feed the anti-cannabis movement.
Interesting. I was thinking more about lines and lures. It didn't occur to me that such a large amount of ocean trash would be plastic based rope and nets.
Commercial fishing is terrible not only for the environment but leaves a large amount of trash in the ocean. It creates a ton of micro plastics and fucks up entire biomes.
if you ever watch a documentary of the great pacific garbage patch it usually shows the most rampant and dangerous items from aquatic life tends to be discarded fishing nets. They all suck though, just nets suck more and get cut off all the time.
Commercial fishing is probably the biggest contributor to ocean plastic pollution.
Much like commercial industry is the biggest contributor to atmospheric pollution.
You know, I think I'm beginning to see a trend here.
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What asshole downvoted a legit question of someone asking for more info on something they admit they don't know much about...?
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I remember save the trees campaign years ago. I'm convinced it was all started by the plastic industry.
Yup. Logging industry, at least in the US, is remarkably renewable. I remember reading that we have significantly more trees than we did 100 years ago because we’ve improved logging methods. No more clear cutting for pulp or lumber, proper replanting, and age-tracking for proper harvest.
In other words, saying “don’t use paper, save a tree” is akin to saying “don’t eat fries, save a potato.”
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In Austria, we banned plastic bags ~ 5 years ago. We only have paper bags that are ~ 70c each. Before that we had 30c plastic bags.
Oh, and that is the price per bag. People here just get some high quality bags, baskets… and use them over and over.
Crafty people: If you don't already, you should learn about plarn, aka yarn made from cut up disposable plastic shopping bags.
My wife makes it and turns it into forever bags.
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My gf got me into bringing my own grocery bags and after a few times forgetting to bring them in, I got used to it. Now it’s automatic and can’t see doing it any other way.
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Excellent! Now, please ban single use plastics in most consumer packaging. We devised solutions to many of these for centuries or longer before most stuff went to plastic unnecessarily. Very little actually requires single-use plastic.
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As long as it also requires them to carry paper bags that's perfect
In my country (Jamaica) you either have to beg to use their old boxes from inventory or just carry it all out by hand if you forget your bags.
Canada works pretty well without them. If you forget your bags though you have to buy more.
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In France they didn't always have bags available, and if they did they were usually for sale and were reusable. Everyone just brought their own bags.
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Great to see this. I have not seen someone bring their own bags except me in months.
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this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2024
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