Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

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storewanderer
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Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by storewanderer »

Albuquerque City Council just voted 6-3 to repeal their plastic bag ban. A couple of the council members who voted for the ban years ago, reversed their position and voted in favor of the repeal. A few others who voted for the ban years ago and voted against appeal appeared to be visibly angry this was even being discussed... We will see if the mayor who initially pushed for the ban, vetoes this repeal.

The Ordinance was very well written and spelled out the reasons to repeal it.
https://cabq.legistar.com/LegislationDe ... FullText=1


This was a Zoom meeting. There was a ton of what felt like well organized public comment against the repeal, they all said the same general things and the people speaking against the repeal mostly sounded as if they were given scripts to read. Many of their scripts were full of outright lies and exaggerations and started getting real repetitive real fast. Litter was a common theme. Also all speaking against the repeal seem to be completely clueless the "reusable" bags are pretty much all plastic at this point, some speaking against the repeal even indirectly spoke for the repeal by noting the bacteria is not an issue as long as you wash the reusable canvas bags- well that is certainly true but the canvas bags are like less than 10% of the reusable bags being used and the other 90% are hand wash only plastic...

I guess it really hurts obnoxious people who like to dictate what everyone else does, when people step in and try to reverse their mandates and let people make their own choices.

Nothing stops retailers and consumers in Albuquerque from doing whatever they want with regards to this topic, either.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by HCal »

Sad to see them moving backwards. Huntington Beach did the same thing several years ago before California implemented a statewide ban. New Mexico should do the same.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by storewanderer »

HCal wrote: March 7th, 2022, 10:08 pm Sad to see them moving backwards. Huntington Beach did the same thing several years ago before California implemented a statewide ban. New Mexico should do the same.
Backwards is the use of super thick plastic bags, reusable bags that are imported, and paper bags that we were told how horrible they are for the environment back in the 90's. I really have a problem with those super thick plastic bags- almost nobody reuses them, they take up tons of space throughout the chain (from transportation right down to when I get the bag home), and end up used just like the single use one was used (one trip for groceries, then used as a trash bag/lunch bag/pet waste bag). Paper is worse in the sense it takes up even more space on the delivery trucks, uses a ton of water to manufacture, has zero repurposing other than for dry trash, but at least you can throw it in a single stream recycling after bringing it home.

That happened in Huntington Beach due to a plant in the city that made plastic bags lobbying for its repeal.

Let's see how the ban on all bags goes in New Jersey that is starting on May 1. At least that completely eliminates the paper bags and super thick plastic bags at grocery level.

The conversation needs to shift to fixing recycling.

Also the California Statewide Ban is only in effect at stores that carry a liquor license. It does not impact anything other than a convenience store, grocery store, or drug store. Mall retailers/department stores/home improvement stores/any other store is not subject to any statewide bag regulation in California. A few retailers that do not need to participate such as Dollar Tree and Petco seem to love handing out super thick bags for a 10 cent fee... we will see what decision Dollar Tree and Petco they make as the cost of that super thick plastic bag goes past 10 cents... the point is about to come where it will be cheaper for them to give a single use bag free, than sell a super thick one for 10 cents.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by storewanderer »

Also the Albuquerque Mayor released a statement in response to the appeal saying that "nobody wants to see plastic bags hanging from streets and blowing down our streets again." Sounds like what about 20 of the "citizens" who spoke said as to why they were against repealing it. I've never seen so many plastic bags as these folks who want to ban plastic bags say they are seeing around. I do see a lot of food wrappings, bottles, and paper fast food bags as litter...

Back to what the mayor says- uhh, that is a littering problem. That is a problem with your citizens behavior. Not with the bags. Increase penalties on littering, put more public trash cans around, or something.

I keep seeing broken glass bottles all over too. Maybe we need to ban those too. There seems to be a "thing" about throwing glass bottles and making them shatter, in parking lots or on roads. The problem is the glass bottle can damage your tires and cause a car accident. That is a much bigger problem than a plastic bag.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by storewanderer »

Albuquerque Mayor timetable to take action on this (veto or to sign this into effect) was 10 days from when it was passed over to him. 10 days was 3/25 and he vetoed it. The city council members voted for this repeal 6 to 3.

The mayor is able to veto but per statute then the city council will then hear the issue again and can override the veto if 6 members or more vote to override the veto.

We will see if the mayor changed one or more of the council member's minds and they will not be able to get 6 to vote to override the veto, or if this is just a game being played to waste taxpayer money, waste time and run the clock because the mayor likes to keep having plastic bags banned.

Also funny the mayor waited the 10 days to veto. If he knew he was going to veto it, why didn't he do that immediately? Almost like he knows it will be overridden by the city council and he is just running the clock.

Meanwhile the super thick "reusable" plastic bags being used by Albertsons/Safeway/Vons in California are now "Made in Singapore." Many locations do not have any paper bags either.

The folks promoting these bag ordinances and completely ignoring that the thin bags are being replaced by imported super thick "reusable" plastic bags must love to see the environment trashed and US jobs lost. These need to be disallowed, or at a minimum required to be made in the USA.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by storewanderer »

Ban is officially repealed; 6 council members overrode the mayor's veto of their previous 6-3 vote to repeal this ordinance.

There was much abuse and divisive behavior directed toward the 6 city council members who have voted to repeal this. It was bad enough the mayor even acknowledged it in his written veto as unacceptable behavior. These folks who push regulations like plastic bag bans are very obnoxious.

I am sure this isn't the last of this issue though.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by TW-Upstate NY »

storewanderer wrote: April 4th, 2022, 10:14 pm These folks who push regulations like plastic bag bans are very obnoxious.
Again it's something pushed by people who don't live in the real world. I've been in stores where the cashier literally apologizes to customers for charging a bag fee. I can't think of anybody who likes this-store employees, store management and customers. And the storage issues large paper bags create at home can be a nightmare for people with small living spaces.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by BillyGr »

TW-Upstate NY wrote: April 5th, 2022, 12:15 pm
storewanderer wrote: April 4th, 2022, 10:14 pm These folks who push regulations like plastic bag bans are very obnoxious.
Again it's something pushed by people who don't live in the real world. I've been in stores where the cashier literally apologizes to customers for charging a bag fee. I can't think of anybody who likes this-store employees, store management and customers. And the storage issues large paper bags create at home can be a nightmare for people with small living spaces.
Perhaps that cashier should be instead letting the customers know that their store has chosen to charge a fee that they don't have to (save Albany County and the city of Troy, plus Tompkins County). Those (along with the counties that make up NYC, Suffolk on LI and the Cities of White Plains and New Rochelle, none of which are part of Upstate) are the ONLY places that opted into that part of the law.
Beyond those areas, ANY store charging a fee is keeping that money to cover their own costs for the paper bags.

As to the small spaces, those bags can be recycled, so no need to store them for very long (unless you want to).
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by storewanderer »

Well the Albuquerque situation shows just how hard it is to un-do one of these ordinances, after it is put into place. But it is possible. And how small groups organize to show "support" for the ordinance, the majority of the public is indifferent, and then they start to get extremely nasty when the ordinance is cancelled. If people really wanted this ordinance they will just not use the bags even if they are offered.

These small groups can keep using reusable bags. Nobody is stopping them. The amount of false information the folks who spoke in favor of keeping the ban in place were stating was very concerning. And I think they truly did believe what they were saying.

I am hoping to see more of these ordinances un-done in the future but it isn't easy.

In California the bag fee seems to be getting assessed rarely since COVID. Before COVID it was assessed routinely in larger areas but not assessed as often in rural stores. I've received a number of CA bags but unless I go to a self checkout and charge myself the bag fee, I have not been charged any bag fee in quite some time. I observe the same with other customers not being charged a fee as I watch the screen in front of me.

The industry designed the plastic bags for maximum efficiency at checkout and low cost. The industry already had the most environmentally friendly and most cost effective option in place with thin bags. Certain retailers opted to not have bags at all, charge a fee for bags, or only have paper bags, as they saw fit to meet their specific format. Now we have places like Trader Joe's who used to have paper bags by default, now giving out super thick "Made in Germany" plastic bags much of the time since they can't get enough paper bags anymore due to supply chain.

The amount of space these paper bags and super thick plastic bags take up on the trucks is a waste of fuel and delivery effort also. We will see how the upcoming "no paper or plastic bag" rule goes in NJ. We will see if people accept it or whine and complain and it gets overturned. That just may be the watershed moment for this topic.
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Re: Albuquerque repeals plastic bag ban

Post by BillyGr »

storewanderer wrote: April 5th, 2022, 7:39 pm The amount of space these paper bags and super thick plastic bags take up on the trucks is a waste of fuel and delivery effort also. We will see how the upcoming "no paper or plastic bag" rule goes in NJ. We will see if people accept it or whine and complain and it gets overturned. That just may be the watershed moment for this topic.
Just to note that the NJ rule is no plastic bags and no paper bags only for supermarkets (2,500 Sq. Ft. and larger), so other types of stores will still be able to use paper bags as an option.
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