Current Events > New CO law bans plastic bags and takeout containers

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.cpr.org/2021/06/08/colorado-plastic-bag-ban-plastic-foam-container-ban/

Starting in 2024, all major retailers cannot use plastic bags and customers must either pay for a paper bag or bring their own. Restaurants can no longer use polystyrene takeout boxes.

Local municipalities will be allowed to enforce even stricter bans if they wish


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Q

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NY banned plastic bags last year. Good stuff

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Gotta save the Earth.

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Why?
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Solar_Crimson posted...

Gotta save the Earth.

from what??

Horrible, ridiculous law.

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I know its selfish but I hate not being able to use plastic bags

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Good

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anyone remember when people were banning paper bags to save the trees? Like 20 years ago

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Lol I can't believe anyone is against this

Have you seen your city's rivers and highways? There are millions of plastic bags

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CO has gotten much worse since so many people from out of state come here and litter. Makes perfect sense to me.

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pure_temper posted...

anyone remember when people were banning paper bags to save the trees? Like 20 years ago

Yeah. Even now, people are turning on reusable bags because you have to use them hundreds of times to break even with the carbon footprint of a regular plastic bag. I'm sure they still cut down on the litter of plastic bags, but I've never had a reusable bag last that long. The bottom always falls out or the straps break.

I'm not even sure where my reusable bags are because they were effectively banned at the start of the pandemic. I haven't used them in over a year.

Everyone in the country could simultaneously stop using plastic bags and it would be the equivalent of a company like Walmart improving their pollution output by 1%. Bag laws are just a way for people to feel like they're making a difference while shifting the blame onto the consumer and away from the actual polluters, functionally improving almost nothing while simultaneously making everybody's lives less convenient.

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My grocery stores bags are pretty thin and go right in the trash, but Walmarts gray plastic bags have good strength and get saved in the pantry for reuse.

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#SavingtheWorld

Antifar posted...

NY banned plastic bags last year. Good stuff

This. And many local municipalities on Long Island have banned plastic containers too.

It's really not as big a deal as people make it out to be. Get some reusable grocery bags and you're good to go. Plus, cardboard/paper containers are just as good as plastic.

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The more plastic we continue to get rid of the better.

On average a person consumes a credit card sized amount of plastic a week as it is.

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Will_VIIII posted...

The more plastic we continue to get rid of the better.

What about action figures with kung fu grip? Are they ok?
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_Rinku_ posted...

I've never had a reusable bag last that long. The bottom always falls out or the straps break.

I'm not even sure where my reusable bags are because they were effectively banned at the start of the pandemic. I haven't used them in over a year.

What the hell are you putting into your reusable bags that they don't last a year? I bought some shitty Zelda tote bag at Hot Topic for like $3 in like 2011 and I still use it to this very day haha.

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I like my plastic can someone explain why its bad sitting in a landfill with other trash

_Rinku_ posted...

they were effectively banned at the start of the pandemic.

I mean, my places just said you bag it if you want to use reusable so thats what I did.
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_Rinku_ posted...

Even now, people are turning on reusable bags because you have to use them hundreds of times to break even with the carbon footprint of a regular plastic bag.

I've heard this, but isn't this just talking about what it takes to make one? The concern over single use plastics is largely with disposal, which is an important part of the lifecycle too. And reusable bags can be made from a far greater range of material, I don't know if all of their footprints are that bad, it's more plausible that inefficiencies can be improved, etc.

Also you can put like 3x as much stuff in them depending on the size and I'm not sure if that gets accounted for

I've had the same reusable bags for like 4 years now

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Also sometimes you get handed out bags from conferences, employers, prizes, hotel stays, etc. That's where I've gotten my reusable bags from, so it doesn't even feel like I went out of my way to get them. Now of course I think that handing out pointless crap is a bit of a problem too, but as long as it happens, it's nice if you can put some of it to good use like that

The rest of retail just needs to adopt Ikea-style bags.

I'm skeptical anytime someone is like "X fossil fuel alternative is actually a lot like Y fossil fuel!" Yeah I mean everything comes with costs. It's like when people point out that EVs are probably being charge by fossil fuels. Okay but what if that energy is eventually renewable? What exactly is the solution where we stay on internal combustion engines that can someday be green in the future?

Same with plastic bags. What exactly are we going to get long term out of sticking with plastic? At least there's some potential in alternatives.

CoorsLight posted...

What exactly is the solution where we stay on internal combustion engines that can someday be green in the future?

Hydrogen

CoorsLight posted...

At least there's some potential in alternatives.

Any day now, hemp...

I thought hydrogen wasn't ICE but you know what I mean anyway. It's not like petroleum companies care unless it's petroleum, which is where most of that propaganda of "actually fossil fuels are greener right now" bubbles down from.

CoorsLight posted...

I thought hydrogen wasn't ICE but you know what I mean anyway.

It certainly can be, and already has been
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrogen_internal_combustion_engine_vehicle

The county I was in charged for plastic bags when I was in Colorado so I started using my 35l travel backpack to carry everything I purchased at the local Walmart. I would pop it off my back in the self checkout and place it next to the bags. Easy. I still do this where I'm at now even though there is no local ordinance that charges for plastic bags. I guess if I had to shop for an entire family I'd just make everyone carry the reuse bag of their choice or buy a bunch.

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Anchorage did this a couple years ago. The common attitude was that we barely make any pollution compared to tons of other American cities who are NOT banning them. Anyway the rule only lasted a short time and then Covid happened and they couldn't allow reusable bags anymore.

Now they are slowly trying to go back to the ban. I haven't seen many plastic bags lately. But they offer free paper bags still.

Getting rid of more things = Lost jobs where those plastic bags are created and where they're disposed off and recycled as well

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LostForest posted...

What the hell are you putting into your reusable bags that they don't last a year? I bought some shitty Zelda tote bag at Hot Topic for like $3 in like 2011 and I still use it to this very day haha.

Cans tend to be the primary suspect in breaking them for me. I suspect the ones sold at the grocery stores are more flimsy than other tote bags. My mom has been using a canvas bag I got for free in college for a decade at this point and she keeps a lot in it.

sktgamer_13dude posted...

I mean, my places just said you bag it if you want to use reusable so thats what I did.

Wasn't an option at the grocery stores I went to. They even closed the self-checkouts early on.

CoorsLight posted...

I've heard this, but isn't this just talking about what it takes to make one? The concern over single use plastics is largely with disposal, which is an important part of the lifecycle too. And reusable bags can be made from a far greater range of material, I don't know if all of their footprints are that bad, it's more plausible that inefficiencies can be improved, etc.

Also you can put like 3x as much stuff in them depending on the size and I'm not sure if that gets accounted for

...hence why I said it reduces the litter of plastic bags even if they don't break even on the carbon footprint.

You can squeeze a lot more in them though, that's for sure. A grocery trip that took a dozen plastic bags could fit into four (three if I really tried) of the reusables. A lot of people don't clean out their reusable bags though and they get really gross as a result.

You do have to consider all the extra times washing machines and dryers are run as a negative for reusable bags.

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El Mexicano Texano posted...

Getting rid of more things = Lost jobs where those plastic bags are created and where they're disposed off and recycled as well

This guy thinks plastic bags are recycled.

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Cardboard is not as good as plastic and styrofoam. I care about the Earth,but I want hot food too.

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Ideally we'd find a way for people to being their own Tupperware for hot food but that'd violate health code.

Dunno what the solution there is

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For those looking for quality reusable bags go to Trader Joes.

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This has been in Oregon for a few years, you get used to it.

But the paper straws can burn in hell.

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I walk, so this has been pretty shitty. Not only that, but a lot of places are no longer letting me take my backpack into their stores.

Soon I'll just stop shopping IRL all together, because that is a bunch of bull shit. I doubt they're going to make people stop bringing in their purses.

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Did Californian transplants do this?

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Great now ban oil next

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scar the 1 posted...

Great now ban oil next

Ban self service and give people jobs

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s0nicfan posted...

Everyone in the country could simultaneously stop using plastic bags and it would be the equivalent of a company like Walmart improving their pollution output by 1%. Bag laws are just a way for people to feel like they're making a difference while shifting the blame onto the consumer and away from the actual polluters, functionally improving almost nothing while simultaneously making everybody's lives less convenient.

Nah. Plastic bags are absolutely everywhere in nature because they're lightweight and blow everywhere. They're a fucking blight on the land.
There's more to environmentalism than Co2 costs during production.

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Bad_Mojo posted...

Ban self service and give people jobs

Ban jobs and give people money

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This feels like one of those really annoying things that will get easier once your brain gets used to it.

Like at first you'll be tripping over yourself because you forgot to bring your reusable shopping bags with you when you go shopping but eventually it'll sink in and it won't be a big deal once you're used to the routine.

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scar the 1 posted...

Great now ban oil next

BUT MY STICK SHIFT CAR.

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Solid Sonic posted...

but eventually it'll sink in and it won't be a big deal once you're used to the routine

Or, you know, just end up with a car full of the damned things, because you still keep forgetting.