Why California's Dumbest Law Backfired

California banned plastic bags 10 years ago. Here's why this law ended up being a disaster.
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[@TheWhyMinutes]

Here is some additional info: NJ banned paper bags, and at the same time, the state banned plastic bags! You may be asking why. It’s because many stores knew that if plastic was banned, people would ask for paper bags. But the problem is that paper bags are more expensive than plastic and take up more space. So, lobbyists worked with state politicians to ban paper bags at the same time in order to make sure that politically connected businesses across the state would not end up paying the price for New Jersey’s plastic bag ban. Instead, the cost fell on consumers in the state.

[@danpenner79]

and washington state. only it cost 8 cents per plastic bag.

[@giraffezebra2698]

Paper bags take up more space on the trucks that deliver them to the stores, causing more emissions as well. In NY I can’t use plastic for my groceries, but they use them in the pharmacy. If I order curbside pickup from Walmart grocery they place every refrigerated and frozen item in its own separate plastic bag. Plus I would reuse my plastic for garbage bags, craft projects for the grandkids, dog waste, and other things. Way to go Dems!

[@BbTenn]

We still have plastic bags in Tennessee. Everyone I know uses them at least twice, whether for garbage bags, animal waste, crafts, or as carry bags for various items.

[@barbarakiewe2870]

Paper bags are inferior in every way. Very few paper bags have handles (makes the bags more expensive), so it takes more cycles to unload the groceries when I get home. That makes them more inconvenient and I'm sure in some respect more wasteful. And if they get wet... game over, your groceries are on the ground! Unless the bags are composted, paper bags end up in the same landfills as plastic bags and actually take up more volume in the landfill. What's most disturbing is that instead of learning from California's failure, New Jersey has gone and replicated all the same mistakes.

[@BbTenn]

@@barbarakiewe2870 Politicians find it more to their benefit to sound virtuous than to actually be virtuous.

[@TheNutmegStitcher]

Yet everything you buy in the grocery store is packaged in plastic. Genius solution.

[@catsupchutney]

Those plastics don't wind up covering trees surrounding landfills.

[@donnzmcmichael7450]

If the food was not in plastic it would not keep and all the people in the cities would starve.

[@TheCharleseye]

​@@donnzmcmichael7450 That sounds more like a solution than a problem.

[@FranciscaAVior]

What about disposable razors and disposable diapers?

[@1969coolchange]

And why is that so you suppose?

[@dc-rb1ui]

It only "back fired" if you thought it was supposed to be for the benefit of the people.

[@Bro-dot-]

By right it is to benefit the people, it’s a benefit for the planet. Human plastic waste and pollution is no conspiracy. It’s more real than the false flag of polar bears need ice to not go extinct. Laws however are only best when you treat the public as dumb as possible, never underestimate the laziness and stupidity of the public. Know your people is something not many others do including the global climate extremism who don’t know the first thing about saving the planet.

[@thepiedpiper5076]

Yep. For the politicians and the corporates it went perfectly well.

[@kevintackett7564]

What Cali really wants is for all the "tax paying peasants" to use burlap bags made of hemp fibers so those same "taxed bottom feeders" can convert them to clothing when worn out!

[@ohsweetmystery]

🔥🔥🔥

[@mhughes1160]

Ban paper bags Let millions of acres of forest burn 🔥 Push for trillions of plastic bags And cry about the climate . LoL 😂 oh those tree huggers

[@DavidBrannon-rp2nq]

When I was a kid most book covers were brown grocery bags and we used recycled bottles for just about everything

[@ashfordj81]

You just brought up repressed memories of sitting at the dining room table with Mom to cover text books each school year/semester.

[@bwhog]

I so remember making grocery bag book covers to protect the textbooks I had!

[@theirmom4723]

Well, today, children no longer have books to cover. They have tablets..

[@DavidBrannon-rp2nq]

@@theirmom4723 I was making the point we repurposed a lot of things when I was young

[@michaeldose2041]

@@DavidBrannon-rp2nq Yeah we get your point davidbrannon was making a different point. and when I was in grade school we didn't have porn in the library.

[@alexsystems2001]

Plastic grocery bags were one of the very few things I actually re-used. I have always used my plastic grocery bags as trash can liners in the small trash cans around the house like in the bedrooms and bathrooms. I also use them in the car as trash bags AND I used them when I go on vacation to be able to pack my dirty clothes in with my clean clothes or pack things like shampoo and toothpaste with my clothes so if they leak a little they won’t get all over my clothes. I also use them as lunch bags to bring food to work. Shame on anyone who wants to ban them.

[@lemonlupinreuben5362]

My family rarely uses a plastic bag less than thrice, either for new groceries, trash, etc. it's a behavior issue at the end of tbe day imo

[@RightURKen7]

Exactly. I' baffled everyone doesn't do this. What a waste of money to buy small trash bags.

[@MyHam-os4bq]

Couldn’t you just as easily use reusable bags or regular trash bags for all of those things? I honestly don’t see the issue with using a reusable backpack or cloth bags for most of these things or why it would be shameful to do so. It’s actually more convenient in a lot of ways I think.

[@RightURKen7]

@@MyHam-os4bq For garbage bags? That you throw away?

[@MyHam-os4bq]

@@RightURKen7 yes. Use regular plastic trash bags to throw trash away. Instead of essentially using plastic trash bags to throw away even more plastic trash bags.

[@ccmuclamba]

CA is the king of unintended consequences

[@juanito714ok]

and incapable of admitting error.

[@NogardCodesmith]

"Unintended" Someone always profits from stupid (most) regulations... ...and it is nearly always those with close ties to the lawmakers.

[@cherryleorrock8813]

@@NogardCodesmith 6

[@kevintackett7564]

"INTENDED", there fixed it for you...

[@mustang607]

Plastic bags bad. We banned plastic bags. We now we have more plastic trash? We double down.

[@TPaine1776]

In Colorado people voted no to this yet the useless governor forced it anyway.

[@Flussig1]

Here in lies the problem. Ca. voted FOR capital punishment but the Gov. went against the will of the people and said no.

[@martinnormand7458]

@@Flussig1Yep! Research CA Prop 187 from 1994. Passed with 59% for it but later declared “Unconstitutional” and voided by one judge!!!

[@mustangracer5124]

The cancer is spreading fast and the surgeon is dead.

[@TheRoamingHazard]

Forcing something to go forward that was voted down is terrible. But just because voters approved something doesn’t mean it should proceed. Look at all the stupid unconstitutional gun laws CA voters approved.

[@zerotodona1495]

They do that a lot in CA. Force votes.

[@courtjester1135]

Remember being asked 'paper or plastic?' when checking out? We moved to plastic to 'save the trees'. I thought the whole idea was to move to renewable resources. (which can also be recycled)

[@NarwahlGaming]

That always gets me. There are actual tree farms where they grow fast growing trees specifically for paper products. They're not cutting down the rainforest for a toothpick.

[@bwhog]

The solutions the so-called environmentalists propose are _invariably_ worse than the problem they purport to be trying to solve.

[@Whitehorse_crimefighter]

Save the trees was an oil company scam to sell plastic bags and everyone took a bite

[@rsacchi100]

The ironic thing is the non-reusable plastic bags are often reused.

[@curtisthomas-eg4th]

Obviously, most are not.

[@flagmichael]

@@curtisthomas-eg4th Here in Flagstaff they are not banned, so we get groceries in them all the time. When we take the groceries home we put the bags in the "bag bag" - a garbage bag we keep the food bags in. Much of the time the bag bag is empty; we use the food bags for holding yard clean-up, stinky or goopy garbage before tossing it in the main garbage bag, and so on. We have to keep in mind that there is no way of knowing how many bags skip the reuse cycle but I can assure anybody who cares that none of our garbage bags make it from the landfill, 7000 feet down the heavily forested mountain, across the 977 miles from here to the Gulf of Mexico (the nearest ocean.) I have occasionally taken household trash to the landfill, where I unload a few dozen feet from where the sanitation trucks unload. I have never seen a loose plastic food bag there; just garbage and trash bags full of garbage and trash that will be covered by dirt by sundown.

[@Demonslayer-dt9dl]

​@curtisthomas-eg4th they are reused more often than reusable ones since they take up no space. They are often used as trash bags and are used to carry things other than groceries.

[@juanito714ok]

The majority of CA voters will continue to vote for more of the same. It really is heartbreaking.

[@GrammaNay]

@juanito714ok The really sucky thing is, they move out of Cali and bring their crazy ideas with them!!!😢

[@robinlanyon3709]

I have 3 brothers in California. One of them told me yesterday that there was a growing movement to oust Newsom. It failed before but might pass this time around because things have gotten so bad.They are voting Republican.

[@robertschmidt9296]

​@@robinlanyon3709 I used to live in commifornia and I was at the Fresno county fair around that year. One booth was a Republican booth with two long lines, one was for resignation and the other for signing a petition to recall gruesome. Around the corner a little ways was a booth of discount books that my sister was interested in. While I was waiting for her to finish, I looked around. There was the Democrats booth, no one in line and three elderly workers each sitting there with their arms crossed and gazing at the floor in front of them, bored out of their minds. I almost expected a tumbleweed to roll by. I think I saw dust collecting there but lucky for them, the booth next to them was selling dust collectors. My guess is that the dust collector booth was keeping the dust down by using them for demonstration purposes for their audiences.

[@markknox182]

Self induced pain !

[@robertschmidt9296]

@@robinlanyon3709 I don't live there anymore but he does need to go. But, as long as he is governor, he won't be president.

[@karlburmeister1552]

Tried to take about 80 fluorescent bulbs to the hazardous waste material facility in San Joaquin a few years back. They turned me away and gave me a phone number to call to schedule an appointment since I had so many. I called that number loads of times and left messages and nobody ever returned the calls. I had to take the bulbs back to the business. I've seen loads of bulbs in trash cans ever since. California is the gold medalist of the dumb Olympics.

[@sunayakong8537]

I like that term gold medalist in dumb. 🤣

[@mrow7598]

Mercury in fluorescents which is why they don't want to take that many. As you get to a certain limit and its then labeled as hazardous waste. I think you might have broken a few laws driving around with that many with out proper licensing...

[@Customerbuilder]

Same for batteries. If retailers sell them, it's the law for them to dispose of them properly. They just get thrown away.

[@user-sm3th7ow5w]

You should have given them the number they WOULD take and make multiple trips.

[@michaelmacgeorge1082]

@@user-sm3th7ow5wWhen the same happened to me, I gave them the allowed number and told them the rest were going in the garbage. They took all of them.

[@EXROBOWIDOW]

The bag "ban" in California did have an immediate positive effect. In the nature preserve where I volunteer, we stopped getting an endless stream of plastic shopping bags blowing over the wall from the grocery store parking lot next door. The old style bags used to get caught in the trees and shrubs, and were nearly impossible to remove. Apparently people started hanging on to their bags when they had to pay for them! But the pandemic caused a lot more people to order groceries delivered, and those bags are all new, not reused like they could be when shopping in person. I much prefer fabric bags for reuse, but those are harder to come by these days.

[@bakerboat4572]

Then it still remains to be explained why plastic consumption and plastic trash increased throughout the state as a whole, if it did have a positive impact like you say.

[@stainlesssteellemming3885]

@@bakerboat4572 Because "using/disposing-of more plastic" does not equate to "throwing away all the re-usable bags" as this video wants to claim. That extra plastic could be coming from other sources * More people buying bottled water, an not recycling them * People generally not recycling their plastic containers, just throwing them in the nearest bin. * More online shopping (as the OP says) with everything wrapped in plastic The video also doesn't attempt to differentiate between the different types of plastic. E.g. Carrrier bags are different from ziploc bags which are different from hard plastics such as in the cases of electronics. Which types increased?

[@evilcake2768]

From what I've seen, people take them home, stuff them in a drawer and use them for bathroom garbage. At some point they usually have way more bags then they need, and will throw out like 80 of them and keep 20 for garbage. Then In 2 months do this again.

[@seaburyneucollins688]

@@bakerboat4572 It can have both positive and negative impacts. Positive impact is less plastic bags flying around and getting stuck in trees and shit. Negative impact is more plastic total being used on these heavier "reusable" bags.

[@reddirtwalker8041]

The saddest part of this and most California policy failures is that it could easily be seen if only it was thought about for a second.

[@robertschmidt9296]

The thought process is a foriegn concept for a liberal.

[@AlexAnder-rv1gu]

Unfortunately, they probably based their decision off of places like Korea, where similar laws were enacted. However, in Korea, they actually thought the whole process through, so you have an option at the checkout counter: no bag, or pay for a heavy duty bag (which Koreans actually reuse) or pay a few cents for a "garbage bag" - which is the old plastic bag (all household garbage in Korea must be placed in these bags, rather than large generic black bags, so there is an automatic second use for single-use bags, and also this prohibits people from using heavy duty bags as garbage bags, AND allows people to continue to have access to the original, practical, plastic bag).

[@cdstoc]

They were seen by many people, the lawmakers don't care and the media supports the lawmakers.

[@jeremyjohnson2129]

It was thought about ... thought about by the people who were going to profit from it. It was then sold to a giant group of people who have been trained to not think beyond what they told.

[@NiaLaLa_V]

@@jeremyjohnson2129 Yes. You're called carnists and you are the target audience for all of this nonsense. Because you keep avoiding the data against your meat and dairy.

[@christianadechaeney1831]

They banned “single use” plastic bags in Australia too. Just about everyone used these bags to line kitchen tidies as they were a perfect fit for most little bins. They forced supermarkets to use the heavier plastic bags, the ones where the handles rip off, and they don’t fit the kitchen bins. Same result here. The new, heavier bags are thrown out AND we now buy plastic bin liners, more than doubling plastic waste. Plus they charge for all bags. Some bright spark reintroduced the old style paper bags ( the ones we couldn’t have anymore because “save the trees” ). The trouble is that they reduced the size & strength of these paper bags so they can’t fit many groceries & they fall apart before you carry your shopping into the house. We are governed, no, ruled, by idiots.

[@sagatuppercut2960]

So why do people vote for idiots instead of smart people?

[@christinesmith3711]

Exactly, good in theory but in practicality made the problem worse.

[@Robbedem]

Maybe stop throwing away the heavier bags and reuse them as intended? Will save you money and reduce plastic waste.

[@giraffezebra2698]

Pretty sure these high ranking politicians have other people do the grocery shopping for them. They have no clue.

[@LizRealGirlBeauty]

Used them for a bunch of things, garbage bags was the last stop. And now yes, I have to buy bags to put in garbage cans, because the need didn't disappear with the ban. Target gives you "reusable" bags that rip, fall apart and don't repell liquids so they don't function as well. I'm sure whatever company is making them is getting a fortune for them.

[@henkvandenbergh1301]

Colorado here where plastic bags are outlawed. I was at Home Depot last month, bought 5 parts I needed for my sprinkler system. Each part came in its own plastic bag. The teenagers at the checkout had no clue as to what I meant saying "5 plastic bags that I don't have to pay for".

[@MyHam-os4bq]

I seriously do not understand the point that people are trying to make with comments like this. Yes, most things at the store are still packaged in plastic. So we might as well keep using even more plastic in the form of bags? Truly, I don’t understand the logic haha. Either ban none of the plastic, or all of it, but definitely do not ban only SOME of it…is that the point you’re trying to make?

[@HyperKilljoy112]

I worked at a Fast food restaurant in San Francisco. It’s a famous Filipino fusion restaurant too. One of my biggest issue as the Cashier and Shift Lead was having to charge customers 10 cents for a plastic bag, then soon to be 25 cents, for a plastic reusable bag. You would think that consumers would be wise and responsible with their trash after they’ve finished eating. The reality is that most of these customers are just soo full of it to even care.

[@rogerwagner6940]

If they cared about the cost, they wouldn't go to a take away shop.

[@dsherman9438]

Nobody has ever really cared. I see people of all ages toss fast food trash out the windows of their cars, as well as people waling away from convenience store toss their crap on the ground, and it's been that way since the "Give a hoot, don't pollute" days of the 70s. If you talk to these same people they are all in "great support" of being green and go on and on about how plastic pollution is destroying the planet, yet they are the worst offenders when it comes to littering. In 2009 I was in college. I was in late 40s at the time. There were three cans. Paper, Plastic & Glass, and Garbage. About 85% of the people who would put stuff in the right cans were people who were 40+. 99.9% of those who couldn't be bothered to choose the right can were 18 to 30 or so. Funny how those who claimed to be the greenest and who would bully others were the biggest offenders.

[@HyperKilljoy112]

@@dsherman9438 it pains me to be part of the age demographic, that you described, and how negligible my generation can be when it comes to polluting. To add on to that I wanna say that nowadays it even stems towards kids in middle school, when they start going through puberty. Most teens at that stage already start spitting gums and sticking it at places where they shouldn’t, they start being little rebels and take pride of their behavior. While I observe other people’s actions, I frown and always wonder about the how can we ever fix this situation, and the reality is that we can’t. We can’t because at the end of the day it’ll impact their freedom. Any attempt to rectify their behavior will be met with resistance. And in the age where people like to play the victim, it’s almost pointless to even attempt anything at all, Even with the failed leadership and legislature. The older I get the more frustrating I become. It’s not because of not being able to find happiness, it’s because someone is always trying to ruin my happiness. I’m only 25.

[@nchintalapani]

I remember as a kid where the grocery stores used unbleached paper bags, the ECO warriors crusaded till they were replaced with plastic to save the forests. Now we are back to paper at an enormous cost. The government truly cannot make anything work.

[@DiogenestheGreek]

Government is an inefficient monopoly, motivated by politics.

[@nutbastard]

It's especially dumb because wood/plants are renewable and, minus production expenditures/emissions, carbon neutral or in some cases carbon negative.

[@marcussinclaire4890]

I've been bring this up.too!! What a joke!!

[@Lzzeecrkrs]

Those paper bags had many more ways they could be reused than the plastic ones. I think they were also recycled from industry paper waste in many cases (not fresh trees from rainforests as school led us to believe) as brown paper bags don’t need to be pretty. A lot of grandparents had a bucket of crayons near where they stored their paper bags to keep kids busy during visits.

[@carlcushmanhybels8159]

@@Lzzeecrkrs And paper itself is not made from embattled/ severely endangered Old Growth Timber or Rain Forests: Paper is made from abundant pulp soft wood trees. There's no shortage of pulp wood.

[@uncralph4354]

Being an old fart, and originally from California, many of us tried to tell the ecos and their sycophants in the state house this was going to not work and the names we were called were, creative as well as foul. Now who is the idiot?

[@joelmartin2549]

You because they never intended to “save the ocean” or whatever they said. This was always about corporate profits.

[@Kr0n1kTh3Kl0wn]

The people who vote Democrat. They're the idiot.

[@jopestus]

They will still call you as such. You are wrong to them and always have been.

[@johnnyvanes8352]

Gavin newsom!!!!

[@colorocko1]

More about power to the left and control of the sheep. @@joelmartin2549

[@neiltonks4627]

A charge for single use bags was introduced in the UK around the same time but it doesn’t seem to have caused the same issue here. People generally don’t buy new ‘re-usable’ bags every time they shop, they re-use the same ones over and again.

[@longtom9021]

Absolutely, reducing single use bags does seem to work here in the UK, initially I was against it but have been proved wrong, there are a lot less old plastic bags blowing around the streets these days. Maybe in the US it's a throw away mindset that is the issue, especially if reusable bags are thrown away after just one use, it's not hard to keep a few reusable bags in the car ready for the next shopping trip.

[@Cynthea_Lee]

@@longtom9021 More like we are just lazy, and forgetful. We don't bring the bags with us, thus we have to buy more, now we have piles and piles of them so we throw them away instead of unloading the groceries and then putting the bags bag in the car to actually reuse them. Most of us DID and DO on the other hand reuse those plastic bags in various ways from small trash bags, to carrying things from one location to the other, and just using them till they are no longer useful. (holes, tearing apart etc). Some of us even bag them in larger bags and remember to take THOSE to the store and put them in those barrels to be "recycled". But still can't seem to remember to bring those "reusable" bags to the store at all. I on the other hand if I am in a store like Aldi's that doesn't give out free bags, will simply collect boxes from around the store that are either empty or close to empty and take THOSE with me to carry my groceries home, then put those boxes in my recycling bin.

[@longtom9021]

Hi Cynthea, I used to reuse the so-called single use bags too, that was a major reason I originally was against the idea of the reusable bags. I have to say I too threw away quite a few of the resuable bags until I got into the habit of actually reusing them. Haha it just looks like we folks just need a bit of time to get used to changes! It certainly has made a difference re the amount of rubbish blowing around the streets though ! 😁👍

[@NitePHX]

I find it funny that you included the phrase "good intentions" in your report.

[@robertheitner1534]

I am in New Jersey. If you do not have plastic shopping bags from grocery stores to throw various waste, junk, used kitty litter away in, you end up using plastic garbage bags, which are much heavier and have way more plastic in them. That is the reality.

[@colorocko1]

unbelievable, go figure

[@dawnelder9046]

I live in Canada and that is exactly what has happened.

[@pelqel9893]

That's what I do with ours. I save every intact/hole-free one to re-use for waste; I recycle the damaged ones.

[@rthomas1031]

Im in NJ too, and there was no such thing as a “single use” plastic bag unless it ripped on the way home from the store. We reused them for all sorts of things- trash bags, lunch bags, etc etc etc.

[@dylanb1918]

​@@rthomas1031Exactly right, I'm from NJ as well, and we STILL use plastic bags that we have left from before the ban was enacted. Policies should be critiqued in terms of the incentives they create, NOT the goals they proclaim.

[@TheRozylass]

I'm old enough to remember when plastic bags were going to be the salvation of our forests--no more cutting down trees to make paper bags. Yet paper bags are made from trees from tree farms that are sustainable, paper bags biodegrade, fit perfectly into kitchen trash cans, and could be used for book covers, and wrapping packages. Let's bring back paper bags!!

[@thomabb]

I've been saying this for years.

[@richardbeckenbaugh1805]

A paper bag these days is 49% plastic, 51% paper.

[@user-do4so5wp6w]

Walmart has...just cracks me up.

[@nolegirl4god]

Then the lobbyists for plastics lose.

[@annaalva2320]

I hate paper bags. They tear, they leak, they make terrible trash bags and they take up a ton of space. I spend extra money to buy plastic and I use them as trash bags. And since they are made better now, I don't have to double bag everything anymore. And they make great bags to put stinky diapers in or pick up poop.

[@heathermeister1732]

The city of Pittsburgh recently introduced this policy despite valid arguments against. Now I am charged ten cents for every paper bag my fast food comes in at drive-thrus in the city. Even not knowing the increased plastic use impact, which city law makers should have known, the cost and efficiency of manufacturing paper bags should have prevented this policy.

[@Michael.80]

I refuse to take a bag that I will be charged for.

[@caldwellfisher5288]

UK guy here... I have been taking a kitbag (you say gym bag) to the shop for years, and /or a sometime a small rucksack, and if I need a lot in one trip I take a holiday trolley (the type you pack and pull around in airports). I never see anyone else doing either of these things. That should be the normal standard way to get food. Im not a climate freak...its actually much easier than awkward heavy plastic bags. But if we all did it , it would solve the plastic bag problem over night.

[@zekeiyf2003]

Some places here in the U.S. made it illegal for people to use things like rucksacks to shop for food. Hell, even at places where there's no laws on it, some companies have a ban on the use of gym bags/rucksacks, for the reason of preventing theft. You have to use whatever the store offers to carry your groceries. The store I work for allows reusable bags that customers can bring, we have paper bags as an option, but mostly use very cheap plastic.

[@caldwellfisher5288]

@@zekeiyf2003 Yes, I didn't know about a ban on your own bags in some places, that's interesting. I have not seen that here...! But I can see that in theory it could make shoplifting easier. But yes all adding to the waste plastic problem. Perhaps most people take "short cuts" and dont want to carry bags around on the way to the shop, but it is easier in the end, (if you can).

[@LizRealGirlBeauty]

If you're grocery shopping for multiple people or having fewer trips (and using less gas) then a single backpack isn't going to be enough. And it isn't practical to use a bunch of them, as they'd be heavier and you can't exactly put them all over your shoulder. When it was just myself and my husband and we lived in a city and grocery shopped once a week or more often, we'd use both of our backpacks and put the rest in a cart thing that we'd walk home with. Can't do that now with 3 young kids and driving a car.

[@alexandergutfeldt1144]

@@LizRealGirlBeautyBut somehow carrying many plastic bags solves the issue with not being able to carry multiple backpacks? Flawed logic! Where I live (Switzerland) we re-use heavy duty shopping bags and place those in the shopping cart while in the store and in the trunk of the car to drive home. When the groceries are stored away the bag goes back into the car for the next shopping trip. Inconvenient at first, but habit after a short time! Plastic and paper bags can also be bought at checkout. They are not free as a deterrent.

[@LizRealGirlBeauty]

@alexandergutfeldt1144 and I'm talking about weight, as in no, I can't carry 3 full backpacks at a time, which would be the limit for me. When I used a backpack, I had exactly one, that was on my back. I'm not 20 anymore, and I've spent the last 2 years pregnant, so no, I can't carry that many in from the car at a time. I do the majority of my shopping 1-2x a month, and that's a lot of groceries coming in at one time. If your "solutions" to this are "don't have a car" (I don't live in a place where there's public transportation, and how am I supposed to transport that many groceries on a bus?) or "go more often" (I don't have the time or budget to be going to a grocery store more often than I do), you're way too entrenched into your life to see that others don't live that way.

[@sgraham4533]

It was a fake law. Not only do the new reusable bags not decompose, but the .10 cent a bag rule doesn’t even go to environmental causes. It goes directly to the retailers.

[@MrClobbertime]

That just means that the law is working as intended. It was never about the environment, that was just used as the selling point.

[@michaeld.3779]

Wrong. The retailer gets none of that 10 cents.

[@Milesco]

​@@michaeld.3779 That's not true.

[@christopher9727]

Love of money and power is sin Do you know Jesus Christ can set you free from sins and save you from hell today Jesus Christ is the only hope in this world no other gods will lead you to heaven There is no security or hope with out Jesus Christ in this world come and repent of all sins today Today is the day of salvation come to the loving savior Today repent and do not go to hell Come to Jesus Christ today Jesus Christ is only way to heaven Repent and follow him today seek his heart Jesus Christ can fill the emptiness he can fill the void Heaven and hell is real cone to the loving savior today Today is the day of salvation tomorrow might be to late come to the loving savior today Romans 6.23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. John 3:16-21 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. 20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. Mark 1.15 15 And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel. 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Hebrews 11:6 6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Jesus

[@Tragicide]

It was the dumbest fucking shit law that did nothing but extort evryone. Now evrybody just takes it up the ass as if it were the norm instead of fighting it back FUCK CALIFORNIA.

[@arkwill14]

We're doing the same thing in Colorado. I myself still need plastic bags for pet waste and other uses around the house though. So when I run out I will now have to buy some. But I will still be putting the EXACT same number of plastic bags in the landfill. The difference now is: 1. They will all now be single-use bags (With the old shopping plastic bags -- I never threw one away without re-using it). 2. They will probably be a heavier ply since those are the only ones that they sell - so more plastic goes in the landfill and it takes longer to break down. 3. The store bought ones will have their own packaging -- so more waste there (+ the extra trucking pollution to distribute them to stores). In other words, this new law does nothing to make me more "green". Rather the opposite actually.

[@colorocko1]

You got that right! Totally agree with you.

[@jercasgav]

I live in Colorado too...just went online and bought a bunch of normal store plastic bags from a retailer that sells restaurant supplies, and it was way cheaper, like a couple few cents a bag instead of 10 cents a bag like they charge now. They can kiss my keester, I am still just using the exact same bags because I always did use to reuse them for other purposes anywhoo.

[@Milesco]

​@@jercasgav I'm in California and I do the same thing, except I buy wastebasket liners from an online office supply store. So my total plastic consumption is not reduced at all.

[@satansshadow2163]

And for a while grocery stores in Colorado the people stole shopping baskets

[@rebeccaprange9310]

You paid for the plastic grocery bags, too. The cost was factored into the cost of your food. There are biodegradable bags for pet poo available.

[@Samuel_el_toro]

My favorite was during covid my local grocery store would not allow me to bring in a reuse-able bag that I bought from said store.

[@DevilTrojanChic]

Yep... And those ridiculous masks became the number one plastic pollutant, overtaking cigarette butts. But we never heard that. Makes no sense!

[@frankmacleod2565]

@@DevilTrojanChic are you people still going on about the masks? Get over it already. That was years ago.

[@frankmacleod2565]

@@DevilTrojanChic cigarette butts are the leading plastic pollutant in California? Have you been repeating that since 1957? Might want to update your knowledge from time to time

[@SenorJuan2023]

There is NO reason for MOST consumers not re use the plastic bags many times over, esp. if they are driving. Just keep some extra bags in the car at all times.

[@jeffbroders9781]

In Commifornia they passed a ban on single use plastics. You used to get a plastic straw in a paper wrapping, both of which were recyclable. Now you get a paper straw lined with Teflon in a plastic wrapping, and neither is recyclable.

[@Want2cJesus]

We ran from Commifornia 9 years ago. What a sad ruined state. We call it Nazifornia too. Don't miss it a speck.

[@TheGemar14]

@@Want2cJesus Ah yes, that famous state that is both communist and anti-communist simultaneously.

[@MamaMOB]

​@@TheGemar14how is California in any way anti-communist? They literally hosted the dictator of China.

[@Kr0n1kTh3Kl0wn]

"PROGRESS"

[@slofty]

@@Want2cJesus Which town?

[@andivalachi8247]

In Ontario, Canada, they also banned plastic bags for a few years now. I DO use the reusable bags (which are not made of plastic) but while before I was using the grocery plastic bags for garbage and other things, now I buy them in bulk. In the end the only ones who benefit from this is the grocery store who sells you overpriced eco-bags and the big-box stores who sell you the plastic bags.

[@larrylawhon51]

I am in Colorado, USA and the reusable bags here are made of plastic. The label even states it. I have seen cloth bags (assuming cotton?) but they cost an arm and a leg.

[@estiennetaylor1260]

Instead of tackling the problem with real solutions. Lets create more problems by enforcing a useless ban.

[@stuartkynoch7289]

In Ontario in the hardware store where I work we were forced to get rid of plastic bags for bulk nails and screws. They all come in 20lb plastic pails... I just shake my head.

[@KeepingOnTheWatch]

Same experience here. You’re still using plastic bags for garbage except that they’re now bought in bulk. D’uh! This law was designed just to make some people feel good about themselves.

[@cdstoc]

Yep, same in our household.

[@mirradian]

This makes no sense to me at all. My state enacted a plastic bag ban and I immediately just stock piled some plastic bags. Not the fancy reusable ones, just ordinary plastic bags. A bit thicker than the originals as the new ones cost 8 cents to buy and had to be “certified” for minimal 125 re-uses (whatever the certification even means lol). But now 2 years later I’m still using those same bags. I keep them in the car, buy my groceries, cart the groceries out to my car and just bag my stuff cart-to-car easy peasy. I used to take the bags in with me, to bag in-store but realized I could easily bag at my car and stopped. Heck sometimes if I only need a few things I just take 1 or 2 bags in with me use them instead of a cart, scan it all at the self check, re-bag and go. The real problem here is laziness and poor planning, people just not wanting to remember taking the bags with them or not wanting to clean the bags when they get just a little dirty. The law should definitely be repealed, but the law itself isn’t the real problem, the real issue is human behavior, and for that there’s no quick easy solution at all :(

[@ronaldmasters1225]

What gets me is that they ban plastic at the counter yet everything you buy comes wrapped in plastic.

[@microyetigus]

I remember when California banned BROWN PAPER bags to save the trees...

[@dt81819]

Exactly! Equally, i remember the “experts” saying plastic bag use was a better alternative than the brown paper bags!

[@j.michaellanaghan6225]

Never fully happened, you can still get paper bags to this day.

[@debracisneroshhp2827]

@@j.michaellanaghan6225 , Yes, and all you have to do to get one is pay a fee. 😱😒

[@Thirdbase9]

To save trees that were being farmed to make the bags and other paper. Bags that were almost universally reused at least one time.

[@LiarNobody]

It's that mentality of acting like the paper industry's out chopping down thousand-year-old redwoods. The paper industry plants the trees, the paper industry chops down the trees. Farming in a big part of what they do.

[@Omnivorous1One]

Ban plastic bags at grocery stores yet the majority of products you purchase are packaged in plastic that gets thrown away.

[@colorocko1]

Right! The whole green freak movement is just about power of the sheep. Thank you greenies, I'm way to the right now lmao!

[@NiaLaLa_V]

The fishing industry is still dumping plastic into the ocean at a rate so high we couldn't catch up if we tried. But we can't talk about that. Environmentalism always has to fall on the consumers. And we can't even mention big beef and dairy and the havoc they wreak.

[@colorocko1]

@@NiaLaLa_V How is the fishing industry dumping plastic? Are they bringing their grocery bags with them when they go on the boat fishing?

[@colorocko1]

@@NiaLaLa_V That's the dumbest s*&t I ever heard.

[@jamesmulvihill6856]

@@colorocko1 Nets measured in tens of thousand square yards, miles of ropes, buoys and other rigging all simply tossed overboard if they become too damaged or tangled. It's happening hundreds of times a day all over the the worlds oceans.

[@robstravelsadventures]

I remember as a kid in the late 70's how they said paper bags were bad, banned them, and we were told to use plastic instead. Now they have a lot bigger problem then they did with paper bags seeing that paper bags naturally decompose much quicker and efficently.

[@jimhundrup3829]

Also in Washington, the Wannabe California State. It has helped others to decide to take home delivery from Amazon and Walmart where they underpack the boxes and fill them with… inflated plastic bags. We sometimes get deliveries of items weighing less than the packaging they are sent in, sometimes delivering a single item weighing less than a pound. Ecological insanity.

[@robertkarp2070]

California also charges extra for the plastic bags.

[@cristinabutasimon9159]

So do many countries overseas. The charges are to discourage people from using plastic bags. Think ahead, have a bag in your car, on your bike....

[@marcdunivan2436]

@@cristinabutasimon9159 It did not have that desired "discouragement" effect in California.

[@robertschmidt9296]

10 cents per bag. At least they were heavier duty than the ones that you hope will make it to your car before it rips. They quit charging for them during the plandemic because they didn't want contaminated bags in stores.

[@stevesmith756]

Just go through self checkout and select 0 bags. I don’t ever pay

[@nickbrutanna9973]

Lot of places do, nowadays. NY has places that do it.

[@cptcurk192]

Chicago has a 7 cent tax on each and every bag used in the city. Not to mention a bottled water tax, a sugar tax, a cell phone data tax that no one seems to know about or even care about.

[@bryan81584]

Some bullshit they wouldn't have stood for in 1776

[@markdorn8873]

You will own nothing [because we took all your money] and you will be happy [because we won't let you dream of being anything else since we also control the media you consume].

[@tongsllc]

When you pay your cell phone bill, they charge you EXTRA if you pay in person. They call it a convenience fee!

[@mustangracer5124]

Lots of welfare and govt. employees to take care of.. keeping the blue in power.

[@paranormalwheelers]

I’ve been saying this since it passed here in California 😮. Good to see it in a video

[@allison.guy6673]

I keep bags in my car to use at the grocery store. Guess where I still forget to use them.

[@sharkbaitj]

California is full of nuts and fruits. Every fruit is a little nutty and every nut is a little fruity. - A. Bunker

[@jamjardj1974]

😂

[@WayneBraack]

Those where the days.

[@mountainghoti1671]

Granola cities

[@Billy-ye3ge]

Those fruits and nuts live in our big city's, the rest of our fruits and nuts feed the country

[@victormorales3604]

Yup, an if you ain't a fruit or a nut, then you're a "Meathead".

[@Not_Sure-2020]

Rhode Island just passed a similar law. I used to use those plastic shopping bags as small trash container bags. Now I have to buy trash bags which are heavier duty and puts 2-3 times the amount of plastic into landfills due to their thickness. But hey, as long as they feel superior and I have to dole out more money, everyone's happy, right? And Stop & Shop is now SELLING the paper bags they use to replace the plastic.

[@robertschmidt9296]

We used to use paper bags but switched to plastic to save the old growth forests from being cut down to make the paper bags. Plastic bags was the environmentally friendly solution.

[@billycox475]

​@@robertschmidt9296 I could be wrong but I don't think they use old growth to make paper. They just farm rapid growing soft wood trees

[@NoGlockTrucker]

@@billycox475your not wrong, but the switch to plastic bags from paper was partially marketed as saving the trees.

[@brianmccain8818]

And...plastic grocery bags are made from...corn starch. Plastic garbage bags are made from petroleum.

[@robertschmidt9296]

@@billycox475 your right, it was just a marketing scam.

[@Sh4rK280]

Here in Canada plastic bags have been banned across the country (even though our Courts ruled that it was “unconstitutional” over a year ago). The ridiculous thing is that while they claim that “single use plastic bags” were banned, all of our produce, items from bulk bins, and bakery products are all put in single use plastic bags. The kind that’s super thin and have no handles. Ironically the “single use” bags that they banned are actually not single use at all, because everyone I knew growing up had no less than a THOUSAND of those bags stuffed under their sink, whereas the plastic bags that we still “allow” for all of the aforementioned items are useless after one use and are immediately thrown away due to their impracticality for almost everything else.

[@JohnKendall05]

Oregon has done that same stupid ban, then on top of that they charge 5 cents for every paperbag you use.

[@pace1195]

That's to subsidize the logging industry in your state. They can't make enough money selling paper bags. 😉

[@rodterrell304]

it will go up in price

[@RomanticPopPunk]

Less plastic bags on the street and less clogging. Think about it

[@kypparmstrong2775]

It is just so ridiculous. I go to the supermarket and purchase meat in plastic, berries in plastic, shrimp, French fries, tater tots, frozen vegetables all in plastic, they even still provide the thin plastic bags for fresh fruit and vegetables, and premixed salad comes in a plastic bag. But I CAN'T have a f'n bag to get it all to the car?! Plus I reused the grocery bags for other things. Brilliant!

[@RomanticPopPunk]

@kypparmstrong2775 Have a bunch of reusable plastic bags in the trunk and then push your cart to the car. Do you guys not know how this works?

[@craigwinans1948]

I live in California and said on day 1 that these thicker bags would make things worse. They don't degrade as fast as the other bags and people were not going to change their habits over basically a 1 cent per item increase in costs not to mention an increase in illnesses because the bags won't be cleaned properly between uses. What it all amounted to was a tax by another name. Something the Government loves doing.

[@glennwelch5122]

Australia introduced the same law. Here it was pushed by the big supermarkets as a positive step to reduce waste. I believe the motive was simple, to avoid the possibility of a class action lawsuit for offering “free” single use bags that in most cases are later used as garbage bags and end up in landfill. If the reusable bags still end up in landfill it’s no longer their legal issue because they were purchased by a consumer, the same goes if you purchase a roll of single use bags.

[@davidgray2845]

Yes, the supermarkets are using this to steal from people. I live in CA and a common occurrence I’ve found is when I pay for 2 bags, I’m charged for 5 to 8 on the receipt. It’s only an extra .50 cents or so, but across every customer for a year, it’s a massive windfall.

[@ScotttheCyborg]

According to a study by the University of Wales, an organic cotton reusable bag would have to be used over 200 times WITHOUT washing it in order for its carbon footprint to equal one single-use plastic bags. That name is a lie because very few of the ones I get are used only once. A paper bag would need to be used about 7 times. The total pollution chain for a so-called single use plastic bag is a tiny fraction of those cotton reusable ones, the legislature is reacting to the visible end product and not the total chain and of course making the problem worse as a result. It's affirmative action for pollution.

[@mustangracer5124]

It's PROFITABLE.. for the insider traders (pelosi).. do your commyfornia math.

[@tomhubbard353]

SAME with all the electric vehicles, they are only "Green" if you paint them green!

[@antilogism]

@@tomhubbard353 Be careful where you spread science or you could get canceled.

[@captainz9]

I used the "single use" grocery bags for my 3-4gallon bedroom/bathroom trash cans, as well as occasionally using them as packing material mailing things out... All banning them did was cause me to have to start buying even thicker small plastic trash bags for my room bins.

[@foonzelde]

Between walking the dog and lining the small trash cans in my house, I have a reuse for every plastic grocery bag I bring home. If they ban those bags here, when I go the grocery store to buy plastic dog-waste bags and plastic trash bags, I will have to bring them home in something else.

[@HaloInStereo]

We are only flooded with plastic bags at the stores in the first place because the people now screaming about them are the same ones who fought to get everyone to stop using biodegradable, recyclable paper bags "to save the rainforests!!!".

[@evilcake2768]

I live in California and work as a maintenance for apartment. I can tell you that when I clean out an apartment there are usually like 200 to 1000 bags stuffed under the sink, in back drawers, in those high spots no one uses in the cupboards. They never take them when they move and I always have to throw them away. This is 100% of the time. No one knows what to do with them other then bathroom garbage, and no one remembers to take them back to the store to reuse.

[@dustymojave]

The only store I EVER saw bag recycling receptacles was one of the 4 local Walmarts. Never saw it anywhere else. That 1 didn't last long either. Not profitable. There is no other means to recycle such bags. Now the "reusable" bags are 2-3 times as thick. My wife and I use fabric bags. All stores other than grocery stores, from fast food to hardware to auto parts still hand out the plastic grocery bags now banned from grocery and convenience stores. Convenient recycling would do vastly more to fix the problem. I vote for recycling politicians. BTW Nick, California laws are NOT made in San Francisco. The capitol is Sacramento. Although almost all of the California Ruling Elite come from San Francisco.

[@Tinker3504]

Baltimore county MD just passed the same ban so I now pay 10 cents per paper bag that takes me 2x as long to unload at home(no handles) Hey look, a new tax. Shocking.

[@MuffledSea]

Why aren't the plastic bags inside of boxes (cereal, crackers, etc.)banned as well?

[@ohsweetmystery]

Disposable coffee pods or plastic water bottles should have been first in line if you want to ban things.

[@andrewacree6233]

Because you wouldn’t want stale food items.

[@kimberlymiller59]

Don't give them any ideas!

[@userequaltoNull]

Hygene, obviously.

[@pace1195]

Corporations have much better lobbying and financial allocation methods to politicians than your average grocery shopper. The problem is you the consumer pay either way. You pay higher prices for the corporation's higher taxes for their plastic, the corporation's lobbying efforts, and the corporation's financial donations to political interests to make sure your cereal is sealed for your protection. You want to be protected by government, don't you???? 😶

[@davidvavra9113]

I live in the Pacific Northwest, where they hand you a paper bag and send you out into the rain

[@robertschmidt9296]

😂

[@brienq]

I'm here too and i agree paper bags don't make sense in our climate especially for those who use public transportation - they didn't think that through. Burlap would possibly hold up better in the rain and is biodegradable, but not totally water proof.

[@Capohanf1]

@@brienqAND GERMS AND MOLD GROW BETTER IN BURLAP BAGS! Stored in a car's trunk or back seat and see the Science Fair Project they become in just a week!

[@Jay-od8zf]

My only option in the Seattle area at my Walmart is to buy one of their reusable bags or take the stuff out in the cart.

[@zac_in_ak]

Anchorage did the same thing and it gets mocked daily where I work. As these people walk around places where everything is in a plastic container

[@JOEZEP54]

I usually do not do the shopping. But here NYS when the stores started charging for paper bags & I did the shopping I refused to pay for the bags. I just used the empty boxes they have & rolled the groceries out to the car.

[@kengrow3992]

Hawaii did the same thing. They also do the federal government incentivized recycling drives, but they never write into the Grant that the recyclables collected need to be actually recycled so they are stored at the dump. I tried to purchase the cubed up aluminum cans, thinking I would ship them off island and was told they actually belong to the federal government so they can’t sell them to me. Now they’re destroyed by salt air ,unrecyclable.

[@bertwhetstone3173]

Bureaucracy in action. There's always that one clerk in the line who can't connect two dots.

[@DarkVoidIII]

I'm from Australia and in my region I see the exact same situation. People are still using plastic bags as garbage bags, they don't care if it's reusable or not, it still gets put into whatever bag is handy at the time and then takes up space in landfill. The problems are caused by a company that said they'd recycle all of the plastic bags but instead did *nothing* with them! Yes, they collected the bags until they had warehouses full of them and then went out of business. Since the scheme failed, the customers just started using the plastic bags to store whatever they needed to store in them, and a lot of the time it ends up being garbage so into the wheelie bin it goes. The garbage truck operator doesn't care what goes into the bags, with the exception of a few prohibited items, as the compactor just packs it all into the back with the rest of the garbage. I don't know who pushed for the reusable bags, but apart from being stronger, there is still the lack of consumer know-how in that they don't care whether they're reusable, they just need something to store garbage in. It's a cyclic problem, and only made the landfill fill up faster!

[@deansthedevil1]

The plastic bags are themselves a solution to a problem that didn't exist, deforestation for paper bags. Now we have plastic bags clinging to all bushes and branches throughout the majestic desert landscape.

[@maxcloutier5285]

You are right about this move was about making money. I was reusing the little grocery plastic bags as garbage bags. Now I must buy boxes of larger garbage plastic bags at Costco. When the grocery stopped to give the plastic bags for free, they also stopped to offer the paper bags that were more "planet friendly". It was a move purely for making money.

[@little1942]

Bingo!

[@unbreakable7633]

Unintended consequences are a big reason I am conservative. Better often to live with the problems we have than solve them and create worse problems.

[@zonked1200]

Or even let technology solve them rather than try for a government decree.

[@Dargonhuman]

Never trade the devil you know for the devil you don't...

[@unbreakable7633]

@@zonked1200 Technology is part of the tyranny being foisted upon us. It's as much a curse as a blessing. No thanks.

[@unbreakable7633]

@@zonked1200 My reply about tech being part of the tyranny and as much a curse as a blessing was censored.

[@irahenderson7840]

Some politician's family member owns a reusable bag factory

[@GabbyMcGabberson]

My former employer paid 10 cents per bag when the customer brought in their own bags for groceries in early 2000. Gosh- was that nasty! Truck candy, spilled liquids, mud, hair, smelly,… all reusable bags in front of the groceries on the conveyer belt. For hygiene purposes, I had to disinfect the belt, the scanner and my hands. More disinfectant, more paper towels, more time effort. Same for reusable coffee cups. Just disgusting and probably unhealthy. To think that fruits and veggies were just happily rolling around in that filth- yuk!

[@davidcovington43]

This guy finally said the truth about plastic bags . The retail industry just turned a loss into a profit item in the name of saving the environment. I said it from the beginning.

[@devinpol4258]

Did you David? From the very beginning you said it? 😂

[@sola4393]

They should invest in cutting down over packaging instead but no they can't make money out of it.

[@IcicleFerret]

If the gov is going to force someone to do something, they may as well make money off that something to make it worth their while.

[@NiaLaLa_V]

And what are your thoughts on subsidies? Are you cool with 85 billion of our tax dollars getting handed to dying heavy polluting industries every single year? Would love to hear your thoughts, since you are an expert on this topic.

[@jimwerther]

Here in New York, it's the same story. Incredibly irritating. Now when I go to Walmart, I bring garbage bags from home to put my purchases into.

[@captglenn100]

We were doing that in California also. But since Covid came around we cannot bring our own bags anymore.

[@jimwerther]

@@captglenn100 Really??! Insane.

[@joelmartin2549]

@@captglenn100, wow very smart of them, one more thing the “COVID” scare was good for! I wonder if they allow you to just put your groceries back in the cart and take them to your car without any bags? I’m sure if enough people are doing that they are working on a “solution” to that too!

[@jimwerther]

@@joelmartin2549 Allow? Not allow, but demand. While some people - those who don't buy much - place their purchases into reusable bags, the rest of us are supposed to - and do - put everything right back into the carts, and then place them, unbagged, into our vehicles. It gets really annoying when the bottles of soap, or packages of sugar, open up and spill into the car.

[@Chicken.Lips...]

Why dont you keep the bags in the trunk of your car & fill them with the food you just bought....​@@jimwerther

[@damionkeeling3103]

Used to use the shopping bags as bin liners, now have to buy extra plastic bags for liners. Also more comes in plastic packaging than used to including brand stickers on fruit which can be made from thin plastic instead of glossy paper.

[@mikepaulus4766]

I have a friend in Michigan who sees huge throw pillows that she stuffs with plastic bags. All her friends in the area bring her their plastic bags from shopping, and she gives the pillows to friends because she already has plenty.

[@aoscott]

Mark my word. In the near future we will see a video similar to this about how the California EV Mandate backfired.

[@claudiahowell9508]

They are already piling up in the lots, lack of buyers.

[@tobagotom]

That’s for sure!

[@aoscott]

@@claudiahowell9508 That's what happens with something on the market that is too expensive and not reliable.

[@E4S65]

All those battery packs are going to be a disaster at end of life. They aren't easy to disassemble and some of them will even be welded to the frame of the car.

[@aoscott]

@@E4S65 What I understand is, EV batteries are actually very hazardous and as. you stated not easy to disassemble. This is one of the many issues I have with EV's. The longevity on these batteries to me is not good. I hear after 6 years of use they do not perform well and the cost of replacing them is extremely high.

[@rholmst]

Washington state has done the same thing. My solution? I just bought a box of single use plastic ‘Thank You’ bags online (very cheap, free shipping and no sales tax!), and I use them exactly like I used the ones I used to get from the store, for garbage trash and ‘other’ waste then right into the bin! Nothing has changed except the stores don’t get any extra money and the state doesn’t get any extra tax. Just yesterday, I bought a couple of items from a local store. It would have been inconvenient to juggle the items out to my car. Clerk asked if I wanted a bag and started to reach for one. I said, “Nah, I got it.” Whipped out my brand new ‘Thank You’ bag, dropped my items in and walked out. When I got home, I unloaded the bag and tossed it into the trash.

[@IcicleFerret]

Another unintended side effect was a rise in cases of food poisoning. Meats are packaged separately (or are supposed to be separate) to prevent contamination of other foods. If everything is tossed into one big bag, it sometimes creates unsanitary conditions that lead to illness and cross-contamination. (Meat packages don't always leak, but when they do, it can be very bad.)

[@FictionalPersonality]

Where I live in Seattle they also ban the single use bags. Initially I ran into that issue of either forgetting to bring my bags or finding myself buying new ones every time I visit the store. Nowadays I either bring my own bag or none. It actually works… for me at least. I know lost people aren’t responsible; so i wouldn’t be surprise there is more waste now.

[@taofledermaus]

Those plastic bags in the produce section are also no longer there in CA. Now you have to just find a spot in your cart to put the wet produce as it rolls around over your other groceries.

[@user-vu3ds5kj1g]

Not true. They're in all the supermarkets here in Redding, California.

[@frotobaggins7169]

Those produce bags are like 4 times the size they need to be.

[@GeoRedtick]

Let me tell you about us here in Little California (Oregon). We waited for years after the California single use ban so we could see it wasn’t working and then joined them in the plastic bag ban. Then when it didn’t work we banned all plastic bags and mandated that stores charge for paper bags. Funny thing is when I was a kid stores in Oregon used paper bags, but environmentalists wanted to shut down the timber industry in Oregon so they lobbied against the renewable resource paper bag in favor of the plastic bags. These people really aren’t very smart.

[@debracisneroshhp2827]

That's a whole other can of worms. 😒

[@johnbeck3270]

Sounds like the “global warming hoax, doesn’t it? I remember in the ‘80s these same wackos were worried about “ global cooling”m caused by what? You guessed it, too much CO2 in the atmosphere! They will definitely find a way to mess things up, and kill all of us to “save the planet”

[@ryanelectric6377]

The day that plastic bags were banned, i found reusable bags blowing around in the parking lots. They traded plastic that dissolves over reusable bags that dont.

[@robertovazquez8512]

The same happened in Puerto Rico in December 2016. The light plastic bags were provided free by the supermarket prior to the ban. Now we customers have to pay 10 cents for heavier plastic bags. So, it was good for supermarkets.

[@thepiedpiper5076]

Banning plastic itself isn't a proper solution. Instead the government should focus on properly collecting, reusing and recycling the plastic waste. Many countries' governments are already doing that.

[@bertblue9683]

Fallacy is giving government any control.

[@pace1195]

90%+ of all plastic is not recycled. It is extremely cost prohibitive to recycle 5 out of 7 types of plastic. The other 2 types of plastic lose effectiveness the more times they are recycled, so new plastic must always be added to the mix. Most "recycled" plastic used to be shipped on barges to Asia pre-pandemic. Countries like China and Bangladesh do not take American plastic waste anymore. Their very cheap labor was the only way costs of sorting, shredding, and remanufacturing of plastic could be lowered enough to make a small amount of the correct kinds of plastic worth recycling. Now, it goes into landfills just like the rest of the trash. If someone won't pay you for your plastic, it is not a resource. It is trash.

[@brienq]

Why aren't we using what our ancestors did? Burlap bags for resuable and also biodegradbale, and wax paper for food wrapping or cereal in cereal boxes.

[@FastlaneProductions1]

most plastic is single use and not recyclable.

[@laurie7689]

The US Government is not in the business of business. Private enterprise and corporations take on that role. Recycling in the USA is not a public service. The US Government is limited in what it is allowed to do with taxpayer money.

[@danashumway7090]

Blind leading the Blind indeed. Colorado just passed a ban on plastic bags as well. I guess these politicians are incapable of learning from other state's mistakes.

[@pace1195]

And, CO's ban will still be in effect a decade after CA repeal's their ineffective law.

[@rodterrell304]

They are investing in this stuff and the plastic industry if contributing to them.

[@colorocko1]

It's all about power of us sheep! and we follow along sheepishly lol!

[@martabachynsky8545]

They are not. They think to themselves "maybe _this time_ it will be different". Of course, it could also be intentional...

[@travishill6733]

I sperged out on this during the pandemic. According to a Scandinavian examination of the classic Carrier Bag to the 'reuseables' is that you need to use the new bags 7 times before it breaks even pollution-wise to using the Carrier Bag for groceries once, then using it as trash the 2nd time. Has ANYONE gone out of their way to use those bags SEVEN times? It's not just "more plastic" its literally multiplying the amount of pollution caused by grocery bags....for the environment.

[@jeanniestaller797]

Most people refused the plastic grocery bags multiple times already. Now we buy plastic garbage bags.

[@trublgrl]

And of course, the plastic bags were used by millions of people as "free" trash bags or storage bags. Since the ban here, I've been buying way more trash bags and using large bags (More plastic) when a small shopping bag would have done the job.

[@NiaLaLa_V]

I thankfully have ADHD so I had like a thousand of them in the trunk of my car waiting to be recycled. Just pulled them back out to use, but I am about to finally run out and have to start buying the damn things.

[@clearviewmoai]

They did this in Australia too, even though the federal government has no constitutional authority to ban plastic bags, and the results were the same.

[@brentjohnson9210]

Same in Canada

[@zephsmith3499]

When a law or policy is created in response to ideology or feelings rather than based on rational assessment, it should be no surprise that it's not very responsive to negative real world feedback. It was about feelings and impressions and beliefs, and those haven't changed just because the results turn out to be counter-productive to the nominal original goals.

[@Stratfordtrucker2811]

We did the same thing up here in Canada and the initiative worked just fine, because we weren’t stupid enough to throw out our reusable bags. We have reusable bags that we’ve use for years.

[@P010010010100101]

It was proven that regular plastic bags use less plastic over the lifetime of a reusable plastic bag. And they break down easier.

[@devinpol4258]

Was it proven? Or are you just saying this?

[@P010010010100101]

@devinpol4258 I'm not just saying it.

[@user-be8nj1xu2y]

@@devinpol4258Trust me bro!

[@colorocko1]

proven, do your research sheeple!@@devinpol4258

[@roses9339]

When i was a kid, we used "string bags." These bags lasted many, many years, and no one threw them away. Ours was repaired several times and used again. Cheers Rosemary Western Australia 73yrs

[@wildbillbegleyjr.3523]

I've got one now Best bag going it stretches if one puts more in. It can hold so much I have trouble it's nylon string.

[@wildbillbegleyjr.3523]

68 cali.

[@joyfulhomemaker8053]

Not the mention the fact that the old plastic bags were great for lining trash cans or on road trips, etc. Now you HAVE to buy plastic bags to use as trash bags anyway

[@tuck9799]

Here's what a lot of people miss. Most reusable shopping bags are made of nonwoven material, which is derived from polypropylene. If that sounds familiar, it should - it's plastic. If you see a reusable bag with a very tiny diamond or oval pattern in the material, it's made from plastic. I spent fifteen years in the nonwoven industry, so I have intimate knowledge of this material. The energy needed to run the machinery and raw materials needed to create this "fabric" would blow your mind and is far more than is needed to create a common plastic bag. Reusable bags are also anywhere from 5-8 times heavier than a traditional plastic bag, meaning you would need to use them that many times just to break even on weight difference; even then you haven't even begun to scratch the surface on manufacturing impact. Nonwoven materials also do not hold up well to washing, meaning you will either destroy your bag keeping it clean or you will have a nasty bag. If you want to go the route of reusable bags, do yourself and the effort a favor and purchase canvas bags. They're tougher, washable and make far more sense.

[@Jim-fe2xz]

When the communists in CA first started this BS, I bought the cheap reusable bags for $.50 a bag. Immediately the checkers started complaining that the bags were dirty and some even use for dirty diaper bags. Then I saw a much younger and smarter in TX suggest buying a plastic tub big enough to hold my groceries and that worked great! It could get a little heavy but manageable and saved all those trips with bags. Then head communist little gavin newsom made it illegal to use reusable bins due to covid. Now I self check, put my groceries back in the cart then transfer them to my bin in the trunk. Buy their bags at check out? Hell no!

[@connorm3457]

Just like CA’s obscene gun restrictions have absolutely no effect on lowering gun violence.

[@61rampy65]

That is true for all non 2a abiding states, not just Cali.

[@harrymiram6621]

Those gun restrictions F-A-I-L...From Sea to Shining Sea!

[@1969coolchange]

and... They are ALL unconstitutional: 2nd Amendment "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed." SHALL NOT BE INFRINGED

[@user-be8nj1xu2y]

@@1969coolchange A WELL REGULATED MILITIA. A thing which you as an individual are not.

[@1969coolchange]

@@user-be8nj1xu2y It is important to understand historical context when reading our Constitution. At that time, the Colonists were being oppressed by the British who, among other things, tried to confiscate their guns. In fact, if the Colonists did not have guns, they could not have fought off the British Empire and there would be no United States. The 2nd Amendment was put in place to prevent a tyrannical government from EVER oppressing them again,r as it protects (not grants) the right to bear arms to all US citizens. There are no limitations on weapons nor on the citizens mentioned in the 2nd Amendment OR in the writings of the Founders who wrote the 2nd Amendment. We were born into a corrupt system that is trying to dissolve the Constitution and replace our sovereign government with an unelected group of elites and corporations. This information is readily available but you actually have to research which we all need to do.

[@judykessler9658]

I think was a great idea. Here in Baja California, we have a ban too. It really eliminates a lot of plastic bags flying in the wind.

[@TheArcturusProject]

I try to explain a simple concept to people: when presenting a new idea to adopt, the onus is on the creator to PROVE why it will be BETTER overall to adopt it. This will stop the left in its tracks. We can’t just try new things for the sake of trying them, that is the definition of chaos

[@georgetarbutton2141]

Delaware did the same. I recently moved down to your state, Virginia. I still have my reusable bags from Delaware in my truck. Lol

[@rickintexas1584]

I’m so glad I live in Texas. I spend a lot of time in California on business, but I’m so happy to go home to Texas when my trip is done!

[@vinceruland9236]

Same here. I lived my first 23 years in Cali, and the last 26 in Texas. You couldn't pay me to go back.

[@andrewlutes2048]

I used to re-use “single use” bags as my garbage bags, so they were actually always double use. Now I have to buy extra plastic bags because of a plastic bag ban.

[@ausbare140]

We here in Australia have done the same thing banning plastic bags, plastic straws, and many other plastic items. I work in a super market and just about every thing comes in single use plastic. It was all about money for the super markets.

[@douglasw9624]

Lifelong California resident and the story is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to stupid ideas enacted by state legislators. For one thing, in my area, starting in the 1980s, they first banned paper bags, then plastic bags, and then made stores charge for the paper bags to try and force folks to reusable bags. Other stupid ideas: 1) glass recycling program where the end result was almost no reuse of the glass, it was simply trucked to a place in NV called Mount Glassmore. 2) In the 80-90s they got the bright idea to install decorative flowers and birds on walls along freeways, because of course we need something to distract us when we are going 80 mph on a busy freeway. 3) Also around 2000 they installed thousands of digital traffic signs in the state to warn of upcoming traffic issues...good idea in busy cities but I drove from OC to Bay Area and they installed them in the middle of farming areas. Passed probably a hundred of them and they all read something about buckling your seatbelt. 4) Another good one is their law on accessory dwelling units (ADU). To combat homelessness and the high cost of housing in CA, they passed a law which prohibited local govts and HOA from stopping the building of an ADU in a persons backyard or garage. The primary problem with this was that they didn't consider parking (or didn't care). So you live in an HOA condo where parking is tight and an owner can convert their garage into living space without regard the increased parking demand. As you can guess it didnt do anything for housing.

[@daveporter9222]

Another one Gavin’s laws hurt California more than help it? Surprise surprise. So glad I left that state about 27 years ago. I have been enjoying freedom ever since. ☮️🇺🇸

[@brucescherrer1581]

Washington State here. Same thing. Banned single use plastic grocery bags. They charge us 8 to 12 cents in tax per bag for the thicker plastic AND paper bags, even though paper bags were never the problem. The thing I can't wrap my head around is I've never seen a "single use plastic bag" in all my life. Best I can reason is that it was never about the bags, but a way for the government to get the simpletons to agree to being taxed more than they already are under the guise of environmental protection and plastic reduction, which, by increasing the amount of plastic per bag by 2 to 4 times, totally makes sense I guess? But what do I know?

[@ryanburbridge]

I have definitely contributed to the increase in plastic waist in and around SoCal. When the plastic bag ban went into effect i started buy boxes of single use plastic bags and throwing them out while driving. I never realized how cheap they are and i always have a case on standby. I’d say about a hundred bags a week for years now.

[@filster1934]

Colorado," Hold my small batch craft beer."

[@paulpetersen6539]

Exactly. It was obvious on day one this was the devils doing. [I'm Aus, they did it here too; the world probably] Finally now, i know why they let it happen. ...Millions of dollars is a hell of a drug.