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From someone who lives in Austin, the problem isn't the bag ban. It's the low impact of skirting around it. As another commenter mentioned, the only major retai
by SOLAR_FIELDS 11y ago
From someone who lives in Austin, the problem isn't the bag ban. It's the low impact of skirting around it. As another commenter mentioned, the only major retailer that sells reusable plastic bags in Austin is HEB. And HEB does move a very significant percentage of all groceries in Austin.
Whole foods, Randalls, Sprouts, Fiesta and Walmart all use paper bags. If HEB either switched to paper or charged more for each plastic bag this story wouldn't exist.
- bduerst 11y agoThat's what I got from this story as well - the problem isn't that Austin is trying to solve the plastic bag issue, it's that Austin is going about it the wrong way. The article seems to dance around that but settles on just the ban itself.
- SeanBoocock 11y agoI also live in Austin and have supported the plastic ban. HEB is almost single-handedly undercutting the effectiveness of the ban by selling cheap "reusable" plastic bags at checkout for the majority (at least in my experience) of people who don't bring their own. If they joined the rest of Austin grocers and instead sold paper bags, it would eliminate most of the remaining plastic bag litter. Increasing the price of these bags - coupled with making the canvas bags available for SNAP participants if they aren't already - may also start to change behavior.