The NY Plastic Bag Ban

Gonna be an endangered species now.

Went into effect a couple of days ago, but today was our first experience with it.

It went exactly as expected. 

It was hard to know how many bags to take into the store. We didn't think we wanted much stuff, so we took two. Of course once you are inside the store you see a dozen things you forgot you needed......

At the checkout there was no place to put items that had been scanned except on top of a tiny little paper bag holder.

Thus while the boss put up stuff I had to bag at full speed just to keep up. Neither of us was able to even glance at the readout to make sure the right price was charged for each item. 

We took the jacket we got for Peggy's upcoming birthday out without a bag...I will not give the state their 3 cents for a paper bag....because when all is said and done this is just a tax. (Somebody ran up a huge budget deficit so somebody else has to pay....)

It is also a massive, pointless, PIA. People behind us in line were grumbling furiously, faced with the same nuisance. It took significantly longer to get out of the store for each and every person in each and every line. There is just no way to do your own bagging in your random, squashy, tippy, kinda useless, politically correct, bags and do it quickly.

Surprise, surprise.

However, I see a great opportunity for some entrepreneur, (which, alas, I am not) to print  "reusable" bags with protest slogans, (The bag ban s**ks for example) political rhetoric, and/or anything that will help us all vent. It might cause rioting at the checkout, but I don't think so. So far Facebook is the only place I have seen or heard anyone happy with the deal. Checkers and shoppers sure aren't.

Personally, I would gladly buy bags that offered an opinion matching mine on our esteemed governor's rules and regulations, including this one. Or maybe they could mention bail reform.

 I've been thinking about this concept since the ban was proposed, and I did see some bags of that sort....may have been photo shopped, but maybe someone is already making them.

If so I would like to invest....

Here is a well-researched article on why the ban is ill-conceived and probably won't work anyhow.

Bag the Ban. 

Well worth a read....

Here's an excerpt, with numbers I have seen quoted in several other places. 

"According to Recyc- Québec, nearly 78% of people reuse their “single-use” plastic bags, most often as a small trash can liner or to pick up pet waste. Research from the University of Sydney found that after California’s plastic bag ban, the sales of thicker, more resource-intensive plastic trash bags skyrocketed.Once plastic bags were banned, Californians started buying trash bags for their everyday use instead of reusing the shopping bags that they were previously getting at no charge. Coupled with an increase in paper bag usage, the research found that California’s plastic bag ban increased in carbon emissions."

In other words, the ban is not just intrusive and annoying, it is counterproductive.

Which has been obvious to anyone who actually thought about it since it was proposed.