4 ms·

I go to a thai place in SF that skirts the ban by using the heavy "reusable" bags as disposable ones. There's no difference between these and actual disposable

by imh 11y ago

I go to a thai place in SF that skirts the ban by using the heavy "reusable" bags as disposable ones. There's no difference between these and actual disposable bags other than that they are thicker. They're still small and worthless to reuse. And there's no chance to ask not to get one. The problem in my eyes isn't how people use them, it's that the businesses hand them out in place of disposable bags as if they were substitutes. If we can't ban them from doing that, then can't we let the plastic bag surcharge be for the smaller less impactful ones and have the bag fee pay off carbon credits or something.

biggc 11y ago
They can't even be used as a garbage bag in a small wastepaper bin, because they're too small.
unethical_ban 11y ago
It's as if one can't legislate away every problem.
gkanapathy 11y ago
Oh, they're different. They cost more, take five or ten times as much plastic to make, take more fuel to transport, and take up more space in landfills. Think about just how little material the thin bags use, and think about how many of them you'd have to stack to equal the thickness of the thick bag.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> I go to a thai place in SF that skirts the ban by using the heavy "reusable" bags as disposable ones. There's no difference between these and actual disposable bags other than that they are thicker. They're still small and worthless to reuse. And there's no chance to ask not to get one. If there is no chance to ask not to get one, they aren't, as I understand it, "skirting" the ban, they are straight-up violating it just as much as if they were using the regular disposable bags in the same role rather than the heavier, notionally reusable ones (presuming, of course, they are covered by the ban at all; I think there are scale rules on who is covered, so they may be a non-covered entity that just has been less able to source the old bags because of the ban.)

by imh 11y ago

biggc 11y ago

They can't even be used as a garbage bag in a small wastepaper bin, because they're too small.

unethical_ban 11y ago

It's as if one can't legislate away every problem.

gkanapathy 11y ago

Oh, they're different. They cost more, take five or ten times as much plastic to make, take more fuel to transport, and take up more space in landfills. Think about just how little material the thin bags use, and think about how many of them you'd have to stack to equal the thickness of the thick bag.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> I go to a thai place in SF that skirts the ban by using the heavy "reusable" bags as disposable ones. There's no difference between these and actual disposable bags other than that they are thicker. They're still small and worthless to reuse. And there's no chance to ask not to get one. If there is no chance to ask not to get one, they aren't, as I understand it, "skirting" the ban, they are straight-up violating it just as much as if they were using the regular disposable bags in the same role rather than the heavier, notionally reusable ones (presuming, of course, they are covered by the ban at all; I think there are scale rules on who is covered, so they may be a non-covered entity that just has been less able to source the old bags because of the ban.)