7 ms·
Michigan has banned the banning of plastic bags
- PaulHoule 10y agoWhen I worked at a supermarket we were trained to use as few bags as possible because each bag costs us 1-5 cents and our margin is tight. This was before any legislation or regulation to do anything about bags.
- stuaxo 10y agoI've seen a lot more people bringing in their own bags since the 5p charge was brought in, in the UK. I try to myself, but often don't remember often.
- tabeth 10y agoAre there any grocery stores that give you discounts for bringing your own bag, as opposed to banning certain types of bags? AFAIK Aldi's doesn't even offer bags of any kind. Is there actually an argument against just putting the crates directly in the store? Benefits: 1. Faster to stock items. 2. Cheaper to stock items (because there is no traditional stocking). 3. More environmental efficiency, given the time and energy required to stock items (though its debatable if this is actually more efficient than a few stockers -- humans use pretty little energy). Downsides: 1. It doesn't look pretty. 2. It may be harder to find things? 3. Difficult to do with many brands (traditional supermarkets probably don't receive enough of a given brand and category of specific item to just dump an entire crate).
- ben1040 10y agoTarget and Whole Foods both give you a credit for each bag you bring. I didn't realize Target did this until googling; it's 5 cents at Target and 10 at Whole Foods. Incidentally, neither store gives you the discount for not using a bag at all -- just if you substitute a reusable bag for the disposable one they otherwise give you.
- theandrewbailey 10y agoEvery ALDI I've been to sells bags (doesn't give them away).
- eli_gottlieb 10y agoPre-emption at work. Remind me of that time when these legislators supposedly believed in local self-government?
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoBags are pervasive. Limiting them city by city, county by county could make trouble for a lot of people. Heck, having local sales tax is already an enormous pain for online sales or mail-order.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago>Bags are pervasive. So are wages, another thing state legislatures have started pre-empting local governments on. >Heck, having local sales tax is already an enormous pain for online sales or mail-order. I don't really see why "business is hard" warrants destroying local self-government, particularly in such a blatantly unprincipled way as to center power on offices held by a particular political party.
- JoeAltmaier 10y agoGet used to government I guess. And the harder it is, the fewer small businesses will exist. Striking down pointless restrictions is a small-business boon. Allowing endlessly complexes rules of commerce is another way of solidifying power for the oligarchy. If only Google or Amazon can sort out the rules without getting penalized to death, then goodbye entrepreneur.
- eli_gottlieb 10y ago"Business is hard, let's destroy freedom and build a one-party state!"
- linksnapzz 10y agoIt's entirely legitimate that the division of authority between a state gov't and smaller entities be different from that between states and the Federal gov't. These are not the same thing. For instance, I think that municipal broadband is a great idea, but I also respect that states have the authority to stop cities and towns from doing it, so long as that is allowed by the state and federal constitution. It's possible to not want the same policy when it would be executed in a vastly (intrastate/interstate) different context. Also, "Business is hard, let's destroy freedom and build a one-party state!" is an obnoxiously reductive non-sequitur, disrespectful of arguments made upthread, and not really deserving of a civilized response. HN rhetoric at its finest.
- Joof 10y agoSo how much plastic pollution do bags actually cause?
- dingleberry 10y agodepends on who u ask some will say that a drop of oil can polute acres of sea or a drop of semen can fertilize a country. but those don't actually happen in real life. so the answer to your question can be little to very polluting (a bag requires more than a drop of oil), depend on what you believe.
- Joof 10y agoI was hoping for a more quantifiable answer like X tons of plastic compared to total plastic pollution.
- serge2k 10y agoWow, such small/local government.