Instead of having the intended beneficial impact on the environment, the reusable bag ban has actually backfired, data reported in the study show. Plastic consumption in the state has nearly tripled, with New Jerseyans previously consuming 53 million pounds of plastic before the ban, compared to 151 million pounds following the ban, FCR researchers reported.
Reusable bags made of non-woven polypropylene are much thicker than the typical single-use plastic bags typically found at grocery and convenience stores, using roughly 15 times the amount of plastic, the study reported. Though the bags are built for repeated shopping trips, most New Jerseyans only reuse the bags two to three times before they’re discarded.
Thicker bags getting thrown out, not being used, no environmental goals met… sounds like a perfect democrat law.
Oh please…don’t tell me that the same stupid politics that said we have to go to plastic to save the trees which has resulted in this catastrophic pollution result…have instead of fixing it, simply exacerbated the problem.
The meat I bought was packaged on styrofoam, wrapped in plastic. I put the produce items I bought into produce bags. All the beverages I bought were in plastic bottles. Bread … wrapped in plastic. Cooking oil … plastic jug. Pharmacy and OTC meds … plastic bottles.
Somehow, though, I’m saving the environment because I was not allowed to put what I purchased into a plastic shopping bag.
Interesting thing is that those supermarket bags are made with corn starch, which facilitates their decomposition, but all the plastics the supermarket items come in are not made that way.
All we need to do is grow more trees (which absorb CO2) to make compostable paper bags. It doesn’t take old-growth forests for that. Simple quick-growing pines. It’s not rocket science.
I don’t know about New Jerseyites, but I’m still using a 2007 Earth Day reusable bag from a local supermarket, among several others with many years on them.
I just pile my groceries in the trunk of my car. It’s cleaner than the inside of reusable bags with many years on them.
(Seriously, though, I have super-sturdy boxes from the Costco produce department, and I take them into supermarkets to tote my groceries now. Super strong, hold a massive amount of stuff. And there is an unlimited supply of them at Costco. For free.)
Just before that idiotic plastic bag ban took effect here in NJ, I just bought them on Amazon. You can get like 1500 single use plastic bags for about 20 bucks. I just keep a bunch in the car. I’m still not through them all.
I did pickup of my groceries at Walmart today. I don’t do it often but I didn’t feel like shopping. I got three of those plastic bags with just one small item in them. Yeah, the planet is being saved…
And the reason for this is? Do they think it will reduce accidents?
Mmkay let’s suppose for discussion sake the vehicle is rigged with a governor capping the speed at say 70 mph. Now, will the owner get a reduction in insurance? Another scenario, vehicle is rigged to make top speed of 70 and the driver pegs it then gets distracted with a cell phone or impaired with alcohol or dope and smashes into other vehicles or pedestrians at that speed. It’s happening now with un governed vehicles, at lower speeds and people are killed. What again will be accomplished other than more Dimbulbcrat control?
