The movement to ban plastic carryout bags is growing as more and more California communities enact single-use bag ordinances. These ordinances are very similar to one another and go beyond banning plastic carryout bags to implementing a very specific solution. This solution attempts to change the shopping paradigm where shoppers supply their own reusable bags rather than receive store supplied disposable bags to carry their purchases. To ensure that consumer behavior is changed, retailers are required by the local ordinance to charge a minimum fee for each paper bag issued.
By implementing a specific solution, mandated by the government, innovation is stifled and businesses are no longer free to pursue alternative solutions that are in their best interests. Government officials and their staffs simply do not have the expertise and time to investigate alternative solutions to solve the underlying problem or have the motivation to improve retailer customer service, therefore the government mandated solution locks an inadequate and antiquated solution into place. Furthermore, freedom of choice on both the part of retailers and consumers is unnecessarily sacrificed, restricted, and infringed.
To read more, click on the following link: Bag Bans – Market Driven Solutions Superior.
Related articles
- City Discussing Plastic Bag Ban, Plan Would Mandate 10 Cent Charge (sandiego6.com)
- SD plastic bag ban moves forward (utsandiego.com)
- Citizens of Homer, Alaska Overturn Plastic Bag Ban (fighttheplasticbagban.com)
- Bag Bans: A Failure – Not Success As Claimed (fighttheplasticbagban.com)
- San Diego passes plastic bags ban ordinance (shinebrighterblog.com)
- Another View: Statewide plastic bag ban is good for business and the environment (sacbee.com)
- Cupertino bans plastic bags (jadywei.wordpress.com)
Fight The Plastic Bag Ban 
Wow, I love the Homer, Alaska story. Did you send this to the City Council? I think if you do you should write a little note saying, “Make sure you read about the unhappy recipients of the ban, and the Council’s decision to respect the citizens over environmentalists.
You want to watch this movie: http://www.plasticbagmovie.com
The plastic bag ban and paper bag fee are bad for:
– businesses: Bagging a customer’s purchases is the least of customer services that retailers should provide, especially when it come to discretionary shopping, which is for fun. If it is not fun anymore, why shop?
– residents: Many of us use plastic bags for trash and pet waste. Without them, we will have to buy thicker and bigger trash bags. Why is the latter better?
– for the environment. Plastic bags are made from the waste by-products of natural gas refining, and not oil. And they take little to make. Verses paper bags which come from trees. From logging, debarking, chop & dice, add water to make pulp, squeeze water out and flatten to make paper, the whole process takes more resources and energy and creates more greenhouse gases than manufacturing plastic bags. Why is paper better?
Save a tree! Use a plastic bag!
Buy 1000 plastic bags from Amazon for $20 if you have to.
Be sure to visit: http://repealbagfee.blogspot.com