Plastic Bags Blow, City Too Slow

Well said, Glen!

Excellent Glen, and while we're at it, let's stop using styrofoam take-away garbage (clamshells, cups, ect..) Maybe a small campaign is all it would take, ask local businesses to stop, and when they do, they get a cool looking sign/poster to post in their window (which we all will look for). You see the sign, you know you won't be shocked to receive your burrito after it has been wrapped in 2 inch thick mummy casing, and after you've already paid for it.

Ah yes let's encourage another insignificant symbolic act and further inconvenience the populace by the liberal enviro-fascists!
How long before the international enviro-police will be raiding people's houses to check their thermostats or disable their air conditioners? One small step at a time they take away your liberties. Has anyone taken inventory in your local grocery store of all of the other plastic packaging used in every product sold? Illegalizing plastic bags are sure to save the planet, we dont have to worry at all about the other 99% of plastic consumed once the careers of all the liberal Mayors are secured by this political stupidity. Plastic bags probably account for .001% of consumable plastic but hey we did something!! Now the planet is .001% greener! Let's all kick back now and take a nap now that our consciences are clear. Right you green progressive fools? Thats right just keep following the leader, you dumb sheep don't use your brain. Make us all pay the price. Give up your liberties one small plastic bag at a time. You know what? If people are convinced plastic bags are not good they will not use them. We don't need more laws and regulations to enforce a good idea. Liberalism is truly a mental disorder.

My sister, who lives in Morocco (for the past 34 years), calls the plastic bag the "national bird of Morocco". It is truly sad to see them flitting about - I'm reminded of that scene in American Beauty - in such abundance.
Sadly, I have come to opine that "recycling" is just another way to encourage overconsumption, whilst making the consumers feed good about themselves because they are doing something "good for the environment". In reality, they are only doing something perhaps (and even this is debatable) less harmful to the environment. I would vote for banning both plastic AND paper bags.
Liberalism, or more accurately, progressivism, is not a mental disorder, it is a mental exercise, unlike the typical conservative knee-jerk reactions that believe the market produces its own morality. If your "liberties" are doing harm to others, then they must be abridged. We all share a common wealth, and it only takes common sense to protect it.

AShaw brings up a good point.

We need to ban ALL plastic packaging to really save the environment for future generations.

Plastic, styrofoam, and all non-biodegradable packaging and substances has got to go now!!

Yes indeed let's legislate ourselves back to the dark ages while all the other countries of the world destroy the planet for us as they develop and less foolishly care more about their own economic welfare than they do about "the planet". How many enviro-fools do you think there are in China? We will become the new third world as the other countries produce more plastic and burn more oil than we ever could have imagined. Let's continue to be the fools while the world takes advantage of our foolishness. Let's not drill in the Gulf while more "environmentally responsible " countries like China and VietNam do it instead.

I am writing a book called "Earth out of balance". It's about the coming destruction of the planet as the Earth spins out of control when only one side of the planet gets its oil sucked out and there is too much oil left in the ground on our side. The planet spins off its axis, much like an unbalanced tire and crashes into the sun. Just as valid as Al Gore's (author of "Earth in the Balance") theories. DRILL HERE NOW - BALANCE THE EARTH - SAVE THE PLANET!

Progressivism is a mental deficit disorder. MDD I think it's called. Gotta love how liberals became rightly ashamed of being liberals so they changed their name. It really is progress as we digress to what they truly want - horses and buggys and campfires. Progressivism is an oxymoron. They morons seem to need oxygen for their brains to function correctly.

And how exactly is banning plastic bags in Santa Barbara going to help the problem in Morrocco? You illustrate my point too well, tegrat. The "mental exercise" must have gotten lazy.

And damn it - I just looked out my window and I did not see plastic bags flying around like birds! I did not see anything resembling the scene in American Beauty! Are you people hallucinating? Or is it the MDD? And the ban hasn't been even been enacted! Maybe we don't need a law, maybe there is a difference between the mentality of people here as opposed to those in Morrocco!

Hello everybody, I'm italian and I'm in Italy and we have the same problem :-(
We pay for plastic bag since always I think but this is not enough.
We start to use a draper bag, they are also colorfull and we can use always; stronger off course than plastic bag and less dangerouse for nature.
Just keep with you in your car and use that for your shopping.
I hope everybody can follow this very simple action and is not a new idea, I learn from some ancien that use to have a big draper ( cloth) bag to go in bycicle and don't loose the food everywhere.
Arianna

Reusable cloth shopping bags are the way to go. I have about ten of them, both insulated and canvas ones, in both cars at all times. I have no problem taking my Trader Joe's bags into Vons or Costco (jumbo!) bags into Kmart. No trees are destroyed this way and I'm not contributing to the production of plastic and the pollution all of these bags cost.

Yes, these are baby steps, AShaw, but have you ever noticed how a bunch of $10-$30 purchases on a credit card can quickly add up to thousands of dollars? Doing something is better than doing nothing.However, I don't think taking one small step then frees us to waste other resources with no guilt. We all need to thoughtfully plan our purchases and think about our actions.

Trader Joe's offers shoppers who provide their own bags a raffle ticket for a chance to win a weekly $25 gift card. I would like to see stores offer cash incentives to shoppers who bring their own bags (of any type-reusing paper ones, for example) or charge a minimum of 20 cents per bag. That would encourage folks to buy at least a couple of reusable bags and surely, if we all did that, it would make a difference.

Don't tell me: The cloth bags market will go to hemp...

I'm all for saving and recycling etc. I am not supportive of hypocrites with an agenda.

Gavin Newsom in SFO is a hypocrite. While wrapping himself up in a flag of self righteous indignation about the evils of plastic, he and his people dole out thousands and thousands of plastic syringes to drug addicts--on the taxpayers tab. Now he has a bio hazard that finds itself on the playgrounds and in the public bathrooms of his progressive sanctuary.

Why on earth do people look to this philandering such and such for leadership? THAT...is a hypocrite, and if I choose to save and recycle, or use a hemp freking grocery sack, it will be on my terms, not because some politbureau comrade telling me what to do.

I think my english is not good enough to well understand every posts and I hope off course to give you exactly my idea about clothes bags ( I mean bag make by material, fabric...so, I found this words in my dictionary)
My message is just to remember that we can have allready a lot of big bag in our house and than just use that.In my case I receive a lot of branded bag from many company like a wellcome present...are draper bag and I use to use that. This is my small stap and help to don't use a plastic bag.

Hmm, I was only bringing up Morocco (and please to notice the spelling) as a point of amusement, not to suggest that things are that bad here in SB. If Mr. Shaw spent half of the time he wastes bloviating on the comment section actually thinking, you know, where your brain is doing real work and not parroting crap you've heard Rush or O'reilly regurtitate, then he might add some value to this exchange.