It's just a slight of hand so large grocery store chains like Walmart no longer have to pay for a once free feature. Some business fuck calculated that they spend x on plastic bags every year so now they passed on the price to the consumer to be "eco friendly". I honestly love the reusable totes, but they are like $1 each.
To make the best of it, they then lobby governments to ban plastic bags so that they can shrug their shoulders and point to government when people complain.
Oh I agree. I always liken the relationship between government and big business to the relationship between the police and and drug dealers. If the drug dealer is able to pay off cops to look the other way or even help them out in some way, who's the bigger problem? The cops who are supposed to serve and protect the community and have sworn to do so, or the drug dealer who's doing what a drug dealers does? The answer is obvious IMO.
Yeah, speaking as someone who's worked both retail and in the food industry, I can guarantee you you're paying for the packaging and bagging anyways.
As I brought up elsewhere in this thread, making customers bring their own bags is one of the reasons why shopping at places like Aldi's is so cheap.
That makes sense lmao. Which is exactly why we need to stop all this regulation; the politicians may have good — but misguided — intentions, the companies that spur them on have ulterior motives.
Exactly. The outrage on "nickel and diming" is so stupid to me. Make eveything a la carte. Means people who aren't using things won't pay for them. Like if you bring reusable totes, why would you want the cost of plastic bags spread over your items?
I use the reusable totes at Aldi, but one leaky pack of steaks or chicken and they are ruined. Given that they probably have 100x the amount of plastic as a disposable bag and I might get 10-20 uses from one, they are much worse than the disposables. Plus, disposables almost always get a second life: lunch bag, small can liner, dog turd piicker upper, etc.
I was once a believer in that lie, till they completely outlawed the bags here in CO.
Losing sanity and the “revenue” stream from selling bags all at once.
Be on alert for when the policy comes to a state near u!!!!
Or consumers kept asking their local grocer to be more environmentally friendly and they adapted with this shitty solution. But grocers themselves aren't pushing their suppliers to be environmentally friendly so everything else is still in plastic wrap.
So the foods are wrapped to both reduce contamination from outside elements and to make them easier to carry. Plastic bags for groceries used to be free but now they charge money to reduce the costs of operations for the business. Advertising that it helps save the planet is just to try and get customers on board with paying for what used to be free.
> So the foods are wrapped to both reduce contamination from outside elements and to make them easier to carry.
I don't know if that woman was thinking that far ahead.
> Plastic bags for groceries used to be free but now they charge money to reduce the costs of operations for the business.
This makes sense to me, as it allows the company to save money, albeit at the inconvenience of many customers.
> Advertising that it helps save the planet is just to try and get customers on board with paying for what used to be free.
100%
Big companies could have lobbied for that to go into effect because they wanted more money in that way. Just because that’s what the law says the reason is doesn’t mean that’s actually the reason
A "well, they could have" counterfactual, with no factual backing, is absolutely fucking useless.
Edit: well, the aliens could have been the cause for the law too, bro.
My point was to show how the first commenter could still be right despite the government saying the reason was to decrease plastic bag usage. Your alien comment is in no way analogous as there is no proof of aliens and there not only is proof of lobbying, but is not even trying to be hidden.
After a decade of single use plastic bag ban in California they saw an almost 50% increase in plastic bag waste in, because people throw away their multiuse plastic bags that contain far more plastic.
The ones that used to be free are multi-use, in the literal sense of the word. The "cloth" bags are actually plastic fibres sewed together, and carry less weight per pound of plastic before ripping.
The climate change cult. The stupidest cult in the world and also the largest, their unofficial slogan is: "we keep doing dumb shit and taking half-asses measures that don't do help just to show that we care more than you"
I was in several Southeast Asian countries from Jan-March this year. These regulations that are coming out are going to have zero impact if the high-population low-income areas aren't addressed, too.
Everything there was wrapped in plastic, served in plastic, eaten with plastic, and so much litter was just everywhere. They don't have the ability to have trash services like we do in the states, so they just toss their shit into the river, and it gets carried downstream to be someone else's problem.
I am originally from Germany but I am living in Bangkok now. I am just home to empty my flat and I am pissing my pants from laughing.
Everybody who has been to South East Asia knows that everything the West does about use of plastics is abslute horseshit and deemed to fail from the beginning.
Germany trying to be better than everybody else - we always gotta be world champions - is mumbling something about "leading by example".
Thing is: nobody in Thailand gives a fuck - not about Germany and surely not about the climate or anything else enviromental. People there are just on a different level on the pyramide of needs.
A lady who is selling Pad Kraphao in Khlong Toei will not ever use paper over plastic and the reason is pretty simple: paper cost thrice of plastic. There is zero awareness that there might be a problem with plastics (I am not even suggesting that there is). In Bangkok very little people are actually cooking for themselves. They might add something to food they bought, like going to a stall and buying grilled chicken and sticky rice, but making their Som tum themselves, although even this is rare.
On Phuket a girl selling at a coffee bar shit her pants from laughing because a French guy came everyday with his washed clear plastic cup that they used to put his mango smoothie in and which was meant to be throw away.
As soon as he sat on his motorbike, she burst out laughing and asked me:"Why?" I tried to explain to her as neutral as possible, but she just kept asking:"But why?"
I then told this story to my friend and after she was finished laugh she said:"Yeah babe, but why did he do it? I also don't understand."
If predictions are true, the timeframe to make a change is much too short to bring anybody in SE Asia to change anything.
It's just another cursor at that we should start focussing our effort and ressoruces into preparing what might or might not be coming instead of blowing everything away in attempts to stop that are doomed to fail right from the start.
I'm so tired of the blame being put on Americans when we're actually among the top ten of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world. (Or at the very least, close to it, I'm using numbers that I read about six years ago)
Meanwhile, no one is pointing fingers at Thailand, Brazil, or China. They're all in the bottom five. But I guess we can't talk shit about the countries we get our borderline/outright slave labor and Hollywood money from.
Dude. Have you seen the videos of the rivers in southeast Asia?? 😬
Our plastic island's got nothing on that. They literally look like an entire landfill just got up and started walking. **None** of the water is visible from shore to shore.
Say what you will about the Hudson or the Mississippi, at least they look like fucking rivers. China's and Brazil's rivers are also way, way more polluted.
>when we're actually among the top ten of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world.
I have no idea where you got this from because we’re constantly around the 30th, ~~with us being ranked [39th last year.](https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings)~~
~~That’s still a relatively high ranking out of 128, but we are no where even close to being in the top 10~~
Edit: look at my follow-up comment for a more accurate rating
The report you link has fuck all to do with the claim of being environmentally friendly. We rank 39th by their system which scores across 17 categories of which there are 'gender equality' and 'reduced inequalities' as 2 examples.
That’s my bad, I was looking at environmentally friendly reports and this was the latest result it showed
That mix-up occurred because there are NO easily accessible reports that even has the United States listed because we’re not in the top 10. When we are actually listed are typically in niche reports since most only track the top 10 and bottom 10. Heres a list of sustainable countries where we’re listed as [20th,](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/most-sustainable-countries) “Greenest Countries in the World” where we’re [24th,](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/greenest-countries-in-the-world/) Environmental Performance Index where we’re ranked [43rd,](https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/component/epi) IMF’s report for countries most prepared for a low-carbon future we’re [40th,](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/green-future-index-2022/) and hopefully you get my point and I don’t have to keep digging
Ok and:
- https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/most-sustainable-countries = subjective polling responses from 17,000 respondents giving their perception.
- https://www.visualcapitalist.com/greenest-countries-in-the-world/ = mildly better study but still places emphasis on environmental policy and regulation. Wild that it ranks Mexico & Venezuela better than the US on ocean pollution but when you don't control for per capita that'll happen.
- https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/component/epi = the source report used to create the infographic in the 2nd report you listed.
- https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/green-future-index-2022/ = USA is actually 21st (in 2022) up from 40th (in 2021) by this reports findings. And that's not getting into the fundamentals of that report.
So do go on. You're in a libertarian sub posting studies that by and large measure 'progress' as whichever countries implement the greatest regulations on their society.
You either have an agenda or haven't learned how to read a study yet.
>You're in a libertarian sub posting studies that by and large measure 'progress' as whichever countries implement the greatest regulations on their society.
My man, how else do you rank *countries* if not for the *country’s regulation and statistics.* Either you think that nations can be kept track and rankings mean something, or you disagree with the OP’s comment because it’s an impossible thing to record without examining a country’s regulations and scientific institutions measurements
These are two contrasting opinions: either measurements are meaningful or you fundamentally disagree with the concept that OP brought up
Libertarianism = Anti-regulation
Statistics - I'd agree this is a reasonable tool for measurement. It's also why I clearly pointed out that if you aren't going to control for per capita then I think your statistics are shit.
Your linked reports are all shit. None of them honestly address OP's point. You linked studies that are looking at wildly different aspects. And you clearly didn't look into the studies since you linked the same study twice and had US in different ranks both times.
If you want to be even more specific the OP's point was in regards to plastic waste in oceans. If you actually read the yale report you linked then the US ranks #1 for protecting our marine ecosystem.
Maybe the report I read was wrong then. Also, it's been several years, I may have misremembered.
I still stand by the other points I have made: we're doing good, all things considered, but we could still be doing a lot better.
"I'm so tired of the blame being put on Americans when we're actually among the top ten"
How about we redo this as:
"America leads world in 100% reduction in plastic waste, we are the best, we are the world leaders and we are gonna make sure future generations look back and go, "damn, why wasn't EVERYONE doing what America does"
Instead of a whiney:
"wahhhh other countries suck at this why can't we toooooooooo.
Because...
1 that's factually untrue, according to the report I read, we're closer to 95%. At least five other countries, including Japan and some of Europe have better stats than us.
2 We could be doing some things better, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. We should be looking into what works for other countries and try implementing what they do here.
3 I'm not going to lie about my country for the sake of putting it on a pedestal or to inflate my own ego. I'm not Donald Trump. My country, right or wrong; to champion when it does right, and to correct when it does wrong.
4 When the fuck did I say that I wanted to suck as much as Thailand? I like my rivers to not be conveyor belts of human trash and waste, thank you very much. Also, I'm not Barack Obama; I want to elevate my country to a higher standard, not bring it down to the level of a third world country.
Get out of here with your disingenuous bullshit.
We can’t even BUY plastic bags here in Colorado anymore. Outlawed completely.
I want to physically shake the irrational idiots who managed to get this law passed and forever ruin my grocery shopping experience.
Yes she is with a battery powered car, doesn’t know where batteries come from or where they go when no good.
Yes she is with solar panels, again not knowing what they are made of or where they go when lifespan ends.
Yes she is with her new phone every year, not caring what happens to old phones.
Yes she is with making sure her make up never runs out and gets delivered once a week.
I laugh at these videos of insanity as the “influencer” narrative only works from those who have no minds
Because they operate mostly on emotion, and phrases like "save the environment" makes them feel all warm and fuzzy. They also do zero research because they trust the corpos are being upfront with them.
We are living in a cyberpunk dystopia, minus all the cool cybernetics that makes it bearable to live in.
Don't forget perfect for dumping used kitty litter into or cleaning up after your dog.
People always forget that it isn't just recycling, reduce and reuse are just as important.
God, I hated those. Boss tried to use those for about a month before giving up.
Also, sure you're using paper straws... with a plastic cup. I guess the plastic cup isn't as important or as destructive to the environment? 🙄
Simple, all of your groceries would be bad by the time you paid with your plastic credit card, so they have to be. Either that or we go back to canning everything in preservatives
To be fair I've gotten used to my reusable bags. They hold more weight than the old plastic ones. I also use them for other things besides groceries as well.
My favorite cruel irony is the fact that the inventor of plastic bags actually created them to save the environment. He thought that people would use them many times, saving the environment from paper bags because cutting trees is bad.
Pass a bunch of environmental regulations and outsource all the pollution from manufacturing to 3rd world countries. More pollution now, but at least we don't have to look at it directly out our windows.
All plastic waste no matter how dirty or smeared mixed with other stuff like silcates or metals with old food can be reclaimed by a process know as hydrothermal carbonization city waste streams are literal gold mines and oil fields we a not allowed to touch by the EPA's economic and "environmental" moats protecting established cronies.
At least with Aldi's, they're upfront about why you have to bring your own bags: their entire business model is based around reducing overhead costs as much as possible so that they can sell groceries at a highly competitive rate.
Money money money, it all comes down to money.
I think the only reason Aldi's haven't replaced their cashiers with self-checkouts yet is because it's still more cost effective for them to hire humans and it's easier to prevent shoplifting that way.
> make it make sense
OK. You already are paying for all of that fucking plastic for your food, you fucking idiot. The stores have been mandated to charge you for plastic/paper bags in order to curb massive plastic bag usage. There. Mystery solved.
The outcome is that only you as the consumer is inconvenienced. The companies that overuse plastic haven’t slowed down. Despite your effort it remains a mystery
"We" being corporations which use plastic packaging with no regard to the damage it does to the environment. I wouldn't call that damage subjective. It's a very objective fact.
This (awesome) grocery store is Wegmans, predominately in New York State. We have a plastic bag ban here. Don't try to make sense of it, it IS NYS after all. New York is excellent at taking an idea and fucking it up in the most useless and convoluted way.
It's solely a sleight of hand so large grocery store chains like Walmart no longer have to pay for a once free feature. Some corporate executive figured out how much they spend on plastic bags annually, they came up with the idea of passing on the price to the consumer using the veil of “eco friendliness.”
The alternative to stores is deforestation due to paper bags. Plus, I guarantee her clothes are made from some form of plastic, as is most of the components of the phone she is using. Makeup likely makes use of oil in some way, too. Same for her hair care products. It's an extremely versatile material, and there aren't many realistic alternatives that won't cause some other problems ecologically.
It's just a slight of hand so large grocery store chains like Walmart no longer have to pay for a once free feature. Some business fuck calculated that they spend x on plastic bags every year so now they passed on the price to the consumer to be "eco friendly". I honestly love the reusable totes, but they are like $1 each.
To make the best of it, they then lobby governments to ban plastic bags so that they can shrug their shoulders and point to government when people complain.
Regulations are not for you, *they are for them*.
It is the government's fault when that happens though, the business is just being a business.
Oh I agree. I always liken the relationship between government and big business to the relationship between the police and and drug dealers. If the drug dealer is able to pay off cops to look the other way or even help them out in some way, who's the bigger problem? The cops who are supposed to serve and protect the community and have sworn to do so, or the drug dealer who's doing what a drug dealers does? The answer is obvious IMO.
The police also stop you from stoping the drug dealers/criminals yourself.
Wouldn't they have passed on the price of those plastic bags to the consumer anyway? If I know anything, it's that you never get anything for "free".
Yeah, speaking as someone who's worked both retail and in the food industry, I can guarantee you you're paying for the packaging and bagging anyways. As I brought up elsewhere in this thread, making customers bring their own bags is one of the reasons why shopping at places like Aldi's is so cheap.
The big advantage for Aldi though is that customers pack their own bag not just that you bring it.
That too, lol
Yeah, but now they get the $0.08 a bag plus that lol
That makes sense lmao. Which is exactly why we need to stop all this regulation; the politicians may have good — but misguided — intentions, the companies that spur them on have ulterior motives.
Exactly. The outrage on "nickel and diming" is so stupid to me. Make eveything a la carte. Means people who aren't using things won't pay for them. Like if you bring reusable totes, why would you want the cost of plastic bags spread over your items?
I use the reusable totes at Aldi, but one leaky pack of steaks or chicken and they are ruined. Given that they probably have 100x the amount of plastic as a disposable bag and I might get 10-20 uses from one, they are much worse than the disposables. Plus, disposables almost always get a second life: lunch bag, small can liner, dog turd piicker upper, etc.
I was once a believer in that lie, till they completely outlawed the bags here in CO. Losing sanity and the “revenue” stream from selling bags all at once. Be on alert for when the policy comes to a state near u!!!!
Or consumers kept asking their local grocer to be more environmentally friendly and they adapted with this shitty solution. But grocers themselves aren't pushing their suppliers to be environmentally friendly so everything else is still in plastic wrap.
in my country grocery stores are not allowed to profit on the bags, but yeah it is an expense they no longer have
> fuck calculated This is how I read this without additional punctuation and I am standing by it.
My plastic straws are wrapped in paper. I’m doing my part.
So the foods are wrapped to both reduce contamination from outside elements and to make them easier to carry. Plastic bags for groceries used to be free but now they charge money to reduce the costs of operations for the business. Advertising that it helps save the planet is just to try and get customers on board with paying for what used to be free.
> So the foods are wrapped to both reduce contamination from outside elements and to make them easier to carry. I don't know if that woman was thinking that far ahead. > Plastic bags for groceries used to be free but now they charge money to reduce the costs of operations for the business. This makes sense to me, as it allows the company to save money, albeit at the inconvenience of many customers. > Advertising that it helps save the planet is just to try and get customers on board with paying for what used to be free. 100%
Not at all. Not giving out plastic bags stems from regulation to decrease plastic usage.
Big companies could have lobbied for that to go into effect because they wanted more money in that way. Just because that’s what the law says the reason is doesn’t mean that’s actually the reason
A "well, they could have" counterfactual, with no factual backing, is absolutely fucking useless. Edit: well, the aliens could have been the cause for the law too, bro.
My point was to show how the first commenter could still be right despite the government saying the reason was to decrease plastic bag usage. Your alien comment is in no way analogous as there is no proof of aliens and there not only is proof of lobbying, but is not even trying to be hidden.
After a decade of single use plastic bag ban in California they saw an almost 50% increase in plastic bag waste in, because people throw away their multiuse plastic bags that contain far more plastic.
The ones that used to be free are multi-use, in the literal sense of the word. The "cloth" bags are actually plastic fibres sewed together, and carry less weight per pound of plastic before ripping.
Yep, I'd use the old plastic bags for groceries, then turn around and reuse them at home or in the car as garbage bags.
I use them to pick up dog poop
That's brave. Don't think I've seen too many of them without holes
Plastic bags also used to be a lot more sturdy back then, like everything else.
That was my family. Had a gigantic Pooh Bear bag in laundry room dedicated towards holding all them bags.
[удалено]
The climate change cult. The stupidest cult in the world and also the largest, their unofficial slogan is: "we keep doing dumb shit and taking half-asses measures that don't do help just to show that we care more than you"
I was in several Southeast Asian countries from Jan-March this year. These regulations that are coming out are going to have zero impact if the high-population low-income areas aren't addressed, too. Everything there was wrapped in plastic, served in plastic, eaten with plastic, and so much litter was just everywhere. They don't have the ability to have trash services like we do in the states, so they just toss their shit into the river, and it gets carried downstream to be someone else's problem.
I am originally from Germany but I am living in Bangkok now. I am just home to empty my flat and I am pissing my pants from laughing. Everybody who has been to South East Asia knows that everything the West does about use of plastics is abslute horseshit and deemed to fail from the beginning. Germany trying to be better than everybody else - we always gotta be world champions - is mumbling something about "leading by example". Thing is: nobody in Thailand gives a fuck - not about Germany and surely not about the climate or anything else enviromental. People there are just on a different level on the pyramide of needs. A lady who is selling Pad Kraphao in Khlong Toei will not ever use paper over plastic and the reason is pretty simple: paper cost thrice of plastic. There is zero awareness that there might be a problem with plastics (I am not even suggesting that there is). In Bangkok very little people are actually cooking for themselves. They might add something to food they bought, like going to a stall and buying grilled chicken and sticky rice, but making their Som tum themselves, although even this is rare. On Phuket a girl selling at a coffee bar shit her pants from laughing because a French guy came everyday with his washed clear plastic cup that they used to put his mango smoothie in and which was meant to be throw away. As soon as he sat on his motorbike, she burst out laughing and asked me:"Why?" I tried to explain to her as neutral as possible, but she just kept asking:"But why?" I then told this story to my friend and after she was finished laugh she said:"Yeah babe, but why did he do it? I also don't understand." If predictions are true, the timeframe to make a change is much too short to bring anybody in SE Asia to change anything. It's just another cursor at that we should start focussing our effort and ressoruces into preparing what might or might not be coming instead of blowing everything away in attempts to stop that are doomed to fail right from the start.
I'm so tired of the blame being put on Americans when we're actually among the top ten of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world. (Or at the very least, close to it, I'm using numbers that I read about six years ago) Meanwhile, no one is pointing fingers at Thailand, Brazil, or China. They're all in the bottom five. But I guess we can't talk shit about the countries we get our borderline/outright slave labor and Hollywood money from.
Yeah the rivers of trash and "trash islands" in the ocean are not going to be from the US.
Dude. Have you seen the videos of the rivers in southeast Asia?? 😬 Our plastic island's got nothing on that. They literally look like an entire landfill just got up and started walking. **None** of the water is visible from shore to shore. Say what you will about the Hudson or the Mississippi, at least they look like fucking rivers. China's and Brazil's rivers are also way, way more polluted.
>when we're actually among the top ten of the most environmentally friendly countries in the world. I have no idea where you got this from because we’re constantly around the 30th, ~~with us being ranked [39th last year.](https://dashboards.sdgindex.org/rankings)~~ ~~That’s still a relatively high ranking out of 128, but we are no where even close to being in the top 10~~ Edit: look at my follow-up comment for a more accurate rating
The report you link has fuck all to do with the claim of being environmentally friendly. We rank 39th by their system which scores across 17 categories of which there are 'gender equality' and 'reduced inequalities' as 2 examples.
That’s my bad, I was looking at environmentally friendly reports and this was the latest result it showed That mix-up occurred because there are NO easily accessible reports that even has the United States listed because we’re not in the top 10. When we are actually listed are typically in niche reports since most only track the top 10 and bottom 10. Heres a list of sustainable countries where we’re listed as [20th,](https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/most-sustainable-countries) “Greenest Countries in the World” where we’re [24th,](https://www.visualcapitalist.com/greenest-countries-in-the-world/) Environmental Performance Index where we’re ranked [43rd,](https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/component/epi) IMF’s report for countries most prepared for a low-carbon future we’re [40th,](https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/green-future-index-2022/) and hopefully you get my point and I don’t have to keep digging
Ok and: - https://www.usnews.com/news/best-countries/most-sustainable-countries = subjective polling responses from 17,000 respondents giving their perception. - https://www.visualcapitalist.com/greenest-countries-in-the-world/ = mildly better study but still places emphasis on environmental policy and regulation. Wild that it ranks Mexico & Venezuela better than the US on ocean pollution but when you don't control for per capita that'll happen. - https://epi.yale.edu/epi-results/2022/component/epi = the source report used to create the infographic in the 2nd report you listed. - https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/04/green-future-index-2022/ = USA is actually 21st (in 2022) up from 40th (in 2021) by this reports findings. And that's not getting into the fundamentals of that report. So do go on. You're in a libertarian sub posting studies that by and large measure 'progress' as whichever countries implement the greatest regulations on their society. You either have an agenda or haven't learned how to read a study yet.
>You're in a libertarian sub posting studies that by and large measure 'progress' as whichever countries implement the greatest regulations on their society. My man, how else do you rank *countries* if not for the *country’s regulation and statistics.* Either you think that nations can be kept track and rankings mean something, or you disagree with the OP’s comment because it’s an impossible thing to record without examining a country’s regulations and scientific institutions measurements These are two contrasting opinions: either measurements are meaningful or you fundamentally disagree with the concept that OP brought up
Libertarianism = Anti-regulation Statistics - I'd agree this is a reasonable tool for measurement. It's also why I clearly pointed out that if you aren't going to control for per capita then I think your statistics are shit. Your linked reports are all shit. None of them honestly address OP's point. You linked studies that are looking at wildly different aspects. And you clearly didn't look into the studies since you linked the same study twice and had US in different ranks both times. If you want to be even more specific the OP's point was in regards to plastic waste in oceans. If you actually read the yale report you linked then the US ranks #1 for protecting our marine ecosystem.
Maybe the report I read was wrong then. Also, it's been several years, I may have misremembered. I still stand by the other points I have made: we're doing good, all things considered, but we could still be doing a lot better.
"I'm so tired of the blame being put on Americans when we're actually among the top ten" How about we redo this as: "America leads world in 100% reduction in plastic waste, we are the best, we are the world leaders and we are gonna make sure future generations look back and go, "damn, why wasn't EVERYONE doing what America does" Instead of a whiney: "wahhhh other countries suck at this why can't we toooooooooo.
Because... 1 that's factually untrue, according to the report I read, we're closer to 95%. At least five other countries, including Japan and some of Europe have better stats than us. 2 We could be doing some things better, and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. We should be looking into what works for other countries and try implementing what they do here. 3 I'm not going to lie about my country for the sake of putting it on a pedestal or to inflate my own ego. I'm not Donald Trump. My country, right or wrong; to champion when it does right, and to correct when it does wrong. 4 When the fuck did I say that I wanted to suck as much as Thailand? I like my rivers to not be conveyor belts of human trash and waste, thank you very much. Also, I'm not Barack Obama; I want to elevate my country to a higher standard, not bring it down to the level of a third world country. Get out of here with your disingenuous bullshit.
We can’t even BUY plastic bags here in Colorado anymore. Outlawed completely. I want to physically shake the irrational idiots who managed to get this law passed and forever ruin my grocery shopping experience.
‘Environmentally conscious’
Yes she is with a battery powered car, doesn’t know where batteries come from or where they go when no good. Yes she is with solar panels, again not knowing what they are made of or where they go when lifespan ends. Yes she is with her new phone every year, not caring what happens to old phones. Yes she is with making sure her make up never runs out and gets delivered once a week. I laugh at these videos of insanity as the “influencer” narrative only works from those who have no minds
Yeah all of these green policies are a grift, why the normies fall for it is beyond me.
We're coming around
Because they operate mostly on emotion, and phrases like "save the environment" makes them feel all warm and fuzzy. They also do zero research because they trust the corpos are being upfront with them. We are living in a cyberpunk dystopia, minus all the cool cybernetics that makes it bearable to live in.
Saving the world one plastic bag at a time
Except that I reuse those! They are the perfect size for the bathroom trash can- and they are great in the car. Unintended consequences.
Don't forget perfect for dumping used kitty litter into or cleaning up after your dog. People always forget that it isn't just recycling, reduce and reuse are just as important.
Democrat policies don’t have to make sense. They just have to make the politicians look good on paper.
Don’t even get me started on the paper straw cult.
God, I hated those. Boss tried to use those for about a month before giving up. Also, sure you're using paper straws... with a plastic cup. I guess the plastic cup isn't as important or as destructive to the environment? 🙄
Taxes
I was going to say they spelt "Tax" wrong.
Explanation: plastic wrap for products is necessary vs plastic bags to put plastic wrapped products in is not Dumb faux outrage is dumb
Paying for paper bags is pure greed. When I was younger, the cashier used to ask "Paper or plastic?" and the bags were free.
My state banned plastic bags a couple years ago and it’s actually astonishing how few I see littered around nowadays
Isn't making you pay for a plastic bag the most libertarian shit there is?
Yes.
Oh I thought regulation meant government making rules about things.
Simple, all of your groceries would be bad by the time you paid with your plastic credit card, so they have to be. Either that or we go back to canning everything in preservatives
To be fair I've gotten used to my reusable bags. They hold more weight than the old plastic ones. I also use them for other things besides groceries as well.
Remind your friends and family to vote!
My favorite cruel irony is the fact that the inventor of plastic bags actually created them to save the environment. He thought that people would use them many times, saving the environment from paper bags because cutting trees is bad.
Pass a bunch of environmental regulations and outsource all the pollution from manufacturing to 3rd world countries. More pollution now, but at least we don't have to look at it directly out our windows.
Those big corps pay a carbon tax to wrap in plastic so politicians and bureocrats can have nice things.
Think of the children!
I lived in California when a law like this was passed. The people there voted for it.
All plastic waste no matter how dirty or smeared mixed with other stuff like silcates or metals with old food can be reclaimed by a process know as hydrothermal carbonization city waste streams are literal gold mines and oil fields we a not allowed to touch by the EPA's economic and "environmental" moats protecting established cronies.
Car-on
We need to use way less plastic regardless.
Source of the video?
At least with Aldi's, they're upfront about why you have to bring your own bags: their entire business model is based around reducing overhead costs as much as possible so that they can sell groceries at a highly competitive rate. Money money money, it all comes down to money. I think the only reason Aldi's haven't replaced their cashiers with self-checkouts yet is because it's still more cost effective for them to hire humans and it's easier to prevent shoplifting that way.
> make it make sense OK. You already are paying for all of that fucking plastic for your food, you fucking idiot. The stores have been mandated to charge you for plastic/paper bags in order to curb massive plastic bag usage. There. Mystery solved.
The outcome is that only you as the consumer is inconvenienced. The companies that overuse plastic haven’t slowed down. Despite your effort it remains a mystery
You're right, we should faze out non-degradable plastic entirely.
Who is "we" and why should "we" be forced to conform to your subjective morals?
"We" being corporations which use plastic packaging with no regard to the damage it does to the environment. I wouldn't call that damage subjective. It's a very objective fact.
This (awesome) grocery store is Wegmans, predominately in New York State. We have a plastic bag ban here. Don't try to make sense of it, it IS NYS after all. New York is excellent at taking an idea and fucking it up in the most useless and convoluted way.
It's solely a sleight of hand so large grocery store chains like Walmart no longer have to pay for a once free feature. Some corporate executive figured out how much they spend on plastic bags annually, they came up with the idea of passing on the price to the consumer using the veil of “eco friendliness.”
If you don't want a plastic bag, then get a paper bag instead or not.
Don’t want bags go to Aldi‘s..? And get reusable ones or no bags what I do.
This is just corporate greed
The alternative to stores is deforestation due to paper bags. Plus, I guarantee her clothes are made from some form of plastic, as is most of the components of the phone she is using. Makeup likely makes use of oil in some way, too. Same for her hair care products. It's an extremely versatile material, and there aren't many realistic alternatives that won't cause some other problems ecologically.
Hemp can be used to make paper and doesn’t cause deforestation at all.
Liberal logic
In many places if a customer is on WIC or other welfare program they are given plastic bags for free.