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Plastic bag bans deemed illegal in Texas per Texas Supreme Court

Posted: June 23rd, 2018, 10:52 pm
by storewanderer
This was a long time coming. I'd like to see the California ban go away too. What a joke that is. Thicker plastic bags everywhere which get stuffed full and punctured (forget about reusing up to 125 times), slower checkouts (especially self checkouts) in a state with some of the highest labor rates in the country... Safeway spent a ton of money to get this ban passed and Raleys and Kroger threw some money into that pot as well; I sure hope all those bag fees they are getting (when their employees bother to actually charge the fee...) are making them a ton of money because they are sure wasting the customer's time and inconveniencing everyone involved. Just driving more sales to online.

Meanwhile you can order many items these stores sell online and have them shipped to you (often in multiple shipments) free of charge in super thick boxes that are filled with various packaging materials (plastic tape, plastic wrap, paper wrap, etc.). A few thin plastic bags is a lot more eco friendly than that option is...

Re: Plastic bag bans deemed illegal in Texas per Texas Supreme Court

Posted: June 24th, 2018, 8:18 am
by architect
storewanderer wrote: June 23rd, 2018, 10:52 pm This was a long time coming. I'd like to see the California ban go away too. What a joke that is. Thicker plastic bags everywhere which get stuffed full and punctured (forget about reusing up to 125 times), slower checkouts (especially self checkouts) in a state with some of the highest labor rates in the country... Safeway spent a ton of money to get this ban passed and Raleys and Kroger threw some money into that pot as well; I sure hope all those bag fees they are getting (when their employees bother to actually charge the fee...) are making them a ton of money because they are sure wasting the customer's time and inconveniencing everyone involved. Just driving more sales to online.

Meanwhile you can order many items these stores sell online and have them shipped to you (often in multiple shipments) free of charge in super thick boxes that are filled with various packaging materials (plastic tape, plastic wrap, paper wrap, etc.). A few thin plastic bags is a lot more eco friendly than that option is...
The overturn of Texas bans was more tied to state regulations for solid waste collection, which these local bans conflicted with. However, I do share your sentiment exactly. About four years ago, Dallas adopted a 5 cent fee per plastic bags which also required the bags to be thicker and marked with the name of the business (a huge burden for independent retailers). The law only lasted about 6-9 months before being repealed by the city as it was more costly to enforce than to just deal with the local consequences of the bags themselves. A pending lawsuit from bag manufacturers also sealed the deal.

Re: Plastic bag bans deemed illegal in Texas per Texas Supreme Court

Posted: June 24th, 2018, 8:35 am
by Super S
Meanwhile, Seattle is enacting more bans, this time straws and plastic utensils:

http://komonews.com/news/local/seattle- ... ter-july-1

Re: Plastic bag bans deemed illegal in Texas per Texas Supreme Court

Posted: June 24th, 2018, 9:19 am
by rwsandiego
storewanderer wrote: June 23rd, 2018, 10:52 pm This was a long time coming. I'd like to see the California ban go away too. What a joke that is. Thicker plastic bags everywhere which get stuffed full and punctured (forget about reusing up to 125 times), slower checkouts (especially self checkouts) in a state with some of the highest labor rates in the country... Safeway spent a ton of money to get this ban passed and Raleys and Kroger threw some money into that pot as well; I sure hope all those bag fees they are getting (when their employees bother to actually charge the fee...) are making them a ton of money because they are sure wasting the customer's time and inconveniencing everyone involved. Just driving more sales to online.

Meanwhile you can order many items these stores sell online and have them shipped to you (often in multiple shipments) free of charge in super thick boxes that are filled with various packaging materials (plastic tape, plastic wrap, paper wrap, etc.). A few thin plastic bags is a lot more eco friendly than that option is...
I've come around to the belief that bag bans are ineffective and counterproductive. Trader Joe's has never used plastic bags and Whole Foods switched to paper many, many years ago. These retailers demonstrate that they can make business decisions without legislation.

Reusable bags are my preferred option. However, since switching to a small trash can I re-use grocery bags for trash and will take them when the supply runs low.

Re: Plastic bag bans deemed illegal in Texas per Texas Supreme Court

Posted: June 25th, 2018, 10:00 pm
by storewanderer
rwsandiego wrote: June 24th, 2018, 9:19 am
storewanderer wrote: June 23rd, 2018, 10:52 pm This was a long time coming. I'd like to see the California ban go away too. What a joke that is. Thicker plastic bags everywhere which get stuffed full and punctured (forget about reusing up to 125 times), slower checkouts (especially self checkouts) in a state with some of the highest labor rates in the country... Safeway spent a ton of money to get this ban passed and Raleys and Kroger threw some money into that pot as well; I sure hope all those bag fees they are getting (when their employees bother to actually charge the fee...) are making them a ton of money because they are sure wasting the customer's time and inconveniencing everyone involved. Just driving more sales to online.

Meanwhile you can order many items these stores sell online and have them shipped to you (often in multiple shipments) free of charge in super thick boxes that are filled with various packaging materials (plastic tape, plastic wrap, paper wrap, etc.). A few thin plastic bags is a lot more eco friendly than that option is...
I've come around to the belief that bag bans are ineffective and counterproductive. Trader Joe's has never used plastic bags and Whole Foods switched to paper many, many years ago. These retailers demonstrate that they can make business decisions without legislation.

Reusable bags are my preferred option. However, since switching to a small trash can I re-use grocery bags for trash and will take them when the supply runs low.
I agree fully this can be handled by the retailers. In Canada a number of retailers (Wal Mart and the Loblaw Stores included) charge 5 cents for a plastic bag and have similar thin bag as in the US, but slightly larger in size. Then other competitors in their markets have the regular old thin bags for free (like Safeway Canada or Save On Foods). I believe this fee deters the "bag for a one item transaction" sort of thing but it does not push out an excessive fee and give the customer an excessively thick plastic bag the way the California Ban does.

We even have retailers here in the US who self regulate a "no bag" policy and offer nothing but reusable bags (they do have boxes up front like Costco that you can take, though). Natural Grocers is the only one who I've seen do this.

Speaking of boxes, I don't know why the California grocers don't offer free boxes from freight to customers in lieu of bags...

I liked those 99 cent reusable bags (shaped like a paper bag and better ones even came with a piece of plastic to put in the bottom) that were being pushed 7-10 years ago and supposedly made from recycled milk cartons. Fred Meyer/QFC had some nice ones that were slightly larger than the ones other stores had, during that time years ago. For some reason Rite Aid and CVS still sell those (Wal Mart might too) but I am not seeing them at Safeway, Save Mart, or Raleys in NorCal for some reason. I am seeing higher priced reusable bags at most of those stores, though.