I considered labeling this write up something more mundane like - Whose bag is it anyway?, or Plastic, a way of life. But in the end the punny title won.
Let me explain what this rant brings forth. It is the whole notion of liberals gone wild. California as blessed a state as any with its majestic mountains and stark deserts, its miles of scenic coastline and agrarian valleys is also home to the lefties. Not the writers although we have our share but thinkers as in liberals or more accepting and broad minded folk that enact laws and legislation before the right side of our country does.
For the most part this type of spurs in the human mind are beneficial to society at large but at times it goes off kilter. Take the example of the Ban on Plastic Grocery Bags.
The entire state essentially banned grocery and other retailers of everyday goods to stop carrying the ubiquitous and versatile plastic bags at the end of their checkout lines. No more. Here today, gone tomorrow. What happened to the millions in the pipeline or which sat in their warehouses is a debate or subject for another time but literally one fine morning my Target store told me - sorry that milk and drain cleaner will have to either be hauled out by hand / or in your own bag or we will be happy to sell you one for $1.
Now ordinarily it was not a big deal - I had two hands so two bottles albeit on the heavy side (hey we are American - so nothing under a gallon will ever suffice - that is about 4 kg to the non American math types) was a good cardio walk back to my chariot aka the motor car's trunk. But imagine I also had a cilantro bunch and a dozen eggs to boot (literally if you are from the commonwealth).
Now I was in a pickle (without buying any). How the heck do I lug this material monstrosity to my vehicle? I need a bag or make that bags. Those convenient carriers that effectively separated my fragile from my not so, those that kept the condensate on the near frozen milk from spoiling my reading material, those that finally became my recycled trash receptacle liners once they arrived home. Yeah you heard it. These bags served more than one purpose and were perfect instrument to manage the material movement inbound and out. Now I am sure many like me were taken by this feature and happy to get them at our local grocer but the State Department of something or the other that touted environmental disaster thought otherwise.
Somehow the Alaskan Salmon were choking on it. Its not like they had a bulls-eye on them! Something smells fishy alright. Industry groups such as Hilex Poly and Formosa Plastics have criticized the ban as an unnecessary tax on low-income shoppers that will have little impact on reducing overall pollution. I would further expound that one day these scientists are going to find the pendulum swung too far left and people gagged on drain cleaner that mysteriously appeared in their 2% milk. I can see headlines like - A child in Novato was overheard asking its father why the Cheerios were sticking to each other in his milk and he could not eat them one at a time.
Consider this - the lifecycle of said Target plastic convenience carry bag -
1. Buy grocery at Target and carry it in a Target branded plastic bag to your car
2. Unload grocery at home and use said bag to line a trash can
3. Use trash bag to collect trash some of which was the other containers I just used like the milk and the drain cleaner
4. Put this trash bag and its contents into a large recycle plastic tote outside the home for collection at end of the week
5. A paid private agency will pick said trash from the tote and take it to a state approved waste sort facility where said bag will be picked apart and content recycled per the states guidelines.
6. It will take the plastic ideally to recycle for new plastic or make its way into a state approved landfill.
This path does not ideally intersect with the mating habits or travel plans for the Alaskan Salmon.
So unless there are people that are pure evil who took their candy bars and chips from Target straight to the Golden Gate - ate the contents and dumped their trash over the bridge into the chasm below where the waves took it on a journey to intersect with the above mentioned upstream swimmers I cannot see the logic. Do you?
Let me explain what this rant brings forth. It is the whole notion of liberals gone wild. California as blessed a state as any with its majestic mountains and stark deserts, its miles of scenic coastline and agrarian valleys is also home to the lefties. Not the writers although we have our share but thinkers as in liberals or more accepting and broad minded folk that enact laws and legislation before the right side of our country does.
For the most part this type of spurs in the human mind are beneficial to society at large but at times it goes off kilter. Take the example of the Ban on Plastic Grocery Bags.
The entire state essentially banned grocery and other retailers of everyday goods to stop carrying the ubiquitous and versatile plastic bags at the end of their checkout lines. No more. Here today, gone tomorrow. What happened to the millions in the pipeline or which sat in their warehouses is a debate or subject for another time but literally one fine morning my Target store told me - sorry that milk and drain cleaner will have to either be hauled out by hand / or in your own bag or we will be happy to sell you one for $1.
Now ordinarily it was not a big deal - I had two hands so two bottles albeit on the heavy side (hey we are American - so nothing under a gallon will ever suffice - that is about 4 kg to the non American math types) was a good cardio walk back to my chariot aka the motor car's trunk. But imagine I also had a cilantro bunch and a dozen eggs to boot (literally if you are from the commonwealth).
Now I was in a pickle (without buying any). How the heck do I lug this material monstrosity to my vehicle? I need a bag or make that bags. Those convenient carriers that effectively separated my fragile from my not so, those that kept the condensate on the near frozen milk from spoiling my reading material, those that finally became my recycled trash receptacle liners once they arrived home. Yeah you heard it. These bags served more than one purpose and were perfect instrument to manage the material movement inbound and out. Now I am sure many like me were taken by this feature and happy to get them at our local grocer but the State Department of something or the other that touted environmental disaster thought otherwise.
Somehow the Alaskan Salmon were choking on it. Its not like they had a bulls-eye on them! Something smells fishy alright. Industry groups such as Hilex Poly and Formosa Plastics have criticized the ban as an unnecessary tax on low-income shoppers that will have little impact on reducing overall pollution. I would further expound that one day these scientists are going to find the pendulum swung too far left and people gagged on drain cleaner that mysteriously appeared in their 2% milk. I can see headlines like - A child in Novato was overheard asking its father why the Cheerios were sticking to each other in his milk and he could not eat them one at a time.
Consider this - the lifecycle of said Target plastic convenience carry bag -
1. Buy grocery at Target and carry it in a Target branded plastic bag to your car
2. Unload grocery at home and use said bag to line a trash can
3. Use trash bag to collect trash some of which was the other containers I just used like the milk and the drain cleaner
4. Put this trash bag and its contents into a large recycle plastic tote outside the home for collection at end of the week
5. A paid private agency will pick said trash from the tote and take it to a state approved waste sort facility where said bag will be picked apart and content recycled per the states guidelines.
6. It will take the plastic ideally to recycle for new plastic or make its way into a state approved landfill.
This path does not ideally intersect with the mating habits or travel plans for the Alaskan Salmon.
So unless there are people that are pure evil who took their candy bars and chips from Target straight to the Golden Gate - ate the contents and dumped their trash over the bridge into the chasm below where the waves took it on a journey to intersect with the above mentioned upstream swimmers I cannot see the logic. Do you?
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