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SLO proposed bag ban speeding up

September 7, 2011

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

In a presentation before the San Luis Obispo City Council Tuesday night, Integrated Waste Management Association manager Bill Worell laid out a plan in which a county ban on single use plastic and paper bags would go into effect September 2012.

Previously slated to become law in January 2013, the proposed ordinance will be drafted by the Integrated Waste Management Association (IWMA) board on September 14.

The board is currently considering three different possibilities varying in tolerance for paper bags. Two of the three possibilities would require effected stores to sell bags for a nickel a piece to customers who do bring reusable ones.

If the ordinance becomes law, it will be rolled out in two stages. The first stage, beginning September 2012, will ban single-use plastic and paper bags in all grocery stores and in retail stores consisting of over 10,000 square feet and containing a pharmacy. Beginning in January 2013, the second phase will include all pharmacies, convenience stores and retail stores without pharmacies.

Following Worell’s presentation, a long public comment period ensued in which most speakers voiced their support for the proposed bag ban.

Two San Luis Obispo residents, however, took strong objection to the proposal.

“This is not a single use bag ban. That’s ridiculous,” said Kevin Rice. “What comes in every box of cereal? A plastic bag. What is in every trashcan in this building? A plastic bag. There’re plastic bags all over this world.”

“Are we going to have bag police?” asked Gary Fowler. “Are you going to go around in the stores and issue citations if they don’t comply with the size of bags and type of bags?”

Despite the proposed inconsistencies in enforcement, other San Luis Obispo residents were quick to shrug off any and all reasons to rethink the bag ban.

“There’s gonna be some grumbling,” said Brian Engleton. “But, it makes sense.”

Echoing the need to act on the issue, the city council voiced unanimous support for the IWMA enacting some sort of ban on single-use bags.

One member of the council, vice mayor John Ashbaugh, represents San Luis Obispo on the IWMA board.

“I think [the proposed ordinance] is important and symbolic,” Ashbaugh said. “It may make a difference in just the way people approach the way they go about their daily lives.”

Once crafted on September 14, the county ordinance will be scheduled for readings on November 9 and January 11, 2012.


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Project Green Spam… Perfect example of corporatism in action. Knock out the competition by making the other guys’ products illegal. We’re going to see more & more of this as the economy fails.


Btw, I ran projectgreenbag.com through a DNS (domain name server) lookup & the website was secretly registered through Domains by Proxy, Inc. This is typically done when the organization wants to hide who they’re connected to… Speaking of hiding, I also searched through their “About” pages & they list “supporters,” but nowhere do they list who actually runs the thing, no contact names, faces, nothing. Completely anonymous. They do, however, have a lengthy “Terms of Use” page (wha-huh?) where they admit that Project Green Bag, LLC has a legal department… (Project GreenBag, LLC Legal Department, 1188 Mission St. San Francisco CA. 94103 Attn: Project GreenBag), which means there’s definitely $$$ behind that bad boy & all the secrecy & legal posturing is pretty typical of how Rockefeller-funded parties roll…


I also happened to run across another website:


http://plasticbagbanreport.com/category/grassroots-efforts


Which tracks plastic-bag-banning progress by country. So if you think this is just a local phenomenon, think again. It’s worldwide.


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We must ban plastic bags. Many people will never change their habits otherwise.


Project GreenBag is the sustainable, eco-friendly alternative to plastic bags. 100% organic cotton, biodegradable, and made in San Francisco California.


http://www.ProjectGreenBag.com

http://www.facebook.com/ProjectGreenBag

http://twitter.com/projectgreenbag


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Alien Greenspam


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Oh, so you’re selling something? OF COURSE we must all change our “habits” and buy your product, right? You even use loaded language like “habits” as if having a simple means to carry groceries home is a bad habit! How much $$$ has your company donated to the anti-bag movement and our local IWMA board? Was it your company that bought the entire board the gifts that were handed to each member at last month’s meeting? Does the executive director of the IWMA know you by name? Have you bought him dinner? You DO realize the proposed ordinance doesn’t ban plastic bags at all, right?


I’ve got a lot of questions, as you can tell.


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Yes, this is definitely another example of Agenda 21 in action.


Do a search for “Agenda 21” & “plastic bag” & see what comes up. Most of the foreign countries don’t even try to hide the connection between plastic bag banning & Agenda 21. “Yup. If Agenda 21 say do, we do. We good global citizens. We save planet.”


Whenever you see an agenda being implemented simultaneously worldwide, you can pretty much bet that the UN will turn up on some layer of the onion (&, with the exception of the feel-good facade, every layer of the onion stinks).


This guy does a pretty good job of describing the “slippery slope” of what happens when communities blindly implement UN policies (see article below). Once the laws are in place, next is RFID-tagging the trash bins & fining people for committing trash crimes & on it goes from there. Nobody will stand for new taxes to raise revenue to pay off the national debt, so the bureaucrats go the other way around & create new crimes to fine you for. Pretty simple scheme when you think about it & most people fall for it, because they buy whatever propaganda used to sell it.


The Green Police

http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/archives/the-green-police


Here’s a really good series on what’s wrong with Agenda 21 with lots of documentation & sources:


Agenda 21 Part I: A Global Economic Disaster in the Making

http://biggovernment.com/jmsimpson/2011/01/17/agenda-21-part-i-a-global-economic-disaster-in-the-making


Agenda 21 Part II: Globalist Totalitarian Dictatorship Invading a Town near You–With Your Permission

http://biggovernment.com/jmsimpson/2011/01/23/agenda-21-part-ii-globalist-totalitarian-dictatorship-invading-a-town-near-you-with-your-permission


Agenda 21 Part III: Maryland County Abolishes Agenda 21 – Now it’s Your Turn

http://biggovernment.com/jmsimpson/2011/02/26/agenda-21-part-iii-maryland-county-abolishes-agenda-21-now-its-your-turn


And, as always, Freedom Advocates is a good place to go to get more info on Agenda 21 & ICLEI. For those who missed my other post, ICLEI is the implementing arm for the UN. Your city & county government officials sign on to ICLEI (a foreign agency – it’s illegal for city/county governments to contract with foreign entities, so we’re talking about treason here), because they get free conferences & training, free travel to exotic locations (wherever the conferences, or training, is being held worldwide) & (essentially) free money (to implement ICLEI policies & create new bureaucratic agencies, etc.)


http://www.freedomadvocates.org


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Today, before I turned KVEC off at 4:00pm, Dave was talking about this very topic… I had just come from Spencer’s (great sale on NY Strip steaks, btw) and was discussing it with the cashier… how apropos.


Anyway, I am not one to be called a tree-hugger / Sierra Club / Green Peace type person, but I would love to see LESS plastic in our environment. I miss the days of RE-USE, where we’d take our cases of empties back to the market, who would in turn give them back to the distributor to wash/sterilize and re-use.


I am OK drinking out of a DRINKING FOUNTAIN. I do not need a plastic bottle to drink water, etc.


That said, why not just mandate (liberals love to do that, right?) that all containers must be BIODEGRADABLE to a specific goal (i.e. that bag has to degrade within 8 weeks of being in the dirt, etc). Something. Establish an acceptable norm: a week, a year… whatever.


Then say, OK genius free marketers… here’s some confiscated wealth (i.e. subsidies) to come up with a bag/box/container within ONE YEAR (or 2 or 3, no more). That’s it. No more subsidizing (and that would be from limited funds, not crony capitalism type companies, either).


Then we would all be happy (well, except most on the left – they’re never happy it seems). We’d have bags, they’d biodegrade (bonus points/money for ones that add nutrients to the soil!) and we can move on.


This measure, as it stands does NOTHING for the environment. NOTHING. It stinks on ice, and is the most inefficient use of tax dollars I’ve seen since I saw the last thing the government did.


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Well, I don’t understand how you can believe that this measure does NOTHING for the environment, that simply doesn’t make sense.


I brought up the same point that you did though regarding degradable bags. Sun Chips makes bio bags for their chips. They degrade pretty fast, I believe reading within a few months. As I said, if a chip corp can use these bags and make money why can’t grocery bag producers. That being said you just can’t please some people. Sun Chips was going to stop using their bio bags because some people complained and want the old ones back because the bio bags are to noisy.


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The mandate doesn’t make sense because while some people will use their cloth bags, many will simply opt for the heavier plastic and paper that takes longer to degrade. This whole program as it has been implemented “STINKS” of special interest $$ , rather than sincere or effective environmental concerns.


Your second paragraph is a reasonable question . Yes, I do wonder why bag’s like the one’s Sun Chips produces weren’t considered as an alternative. Maybe it’s because ………. shall I reiterate?


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My argument regarding the heavy re-use plastic bags is that they last so long. One of my bags is a plastic type of bag, I use it for certain items because it’s so washable. I’ve had that bag for years. I’ve probably saved using hundreds of bags because of that bag. On the other hand I only have one, for the most part I use cloth.


I don’t care if there are special interest groups involved, that’s not why I use cloth bags. I use the cloth bags because I know it’s the right thing to do, it’s commensense. Besides the other points that I’ve brought up, our landfills are getting filled to the max. I feel that we should all do what we can to keep from putting things in our dumps especially things that don’t degrade. If people don’t’ have the sense or don’t’ care then we have to force them to do the right thing for the future of our children, grandchildren and our planet. Again, I don’t know about special interest groups regarding this matter and I don’t care about them, this is how I feel personally.


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SLO City Council,


You passed an anti-smoking law and yet I see lots of people still smoking many places all over town.

Now a bag law, gimme a break and enforce your anti-smoking ban first which is more important in the

health picture.


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Is somebody blowing smoke in your face? I doubt it, you see people standing far away from other people smoking and you just can’t mind your own business. You sound like the typical busy body that likes to mind what everybody else’s business until the gov is suddenly doing something to you, in this case, plastic grocery bags.


By the way, watch out for the fumes from the traffic, it’s 50 times more damaging to your health. Why don’t you work on banning cars from downtown, that’s a real health issue worth addressing.


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Cindy, I don’t know why you attacking that person, he/she sounds like she’s on your side on this one.


I disagree regarding seeing people smoke all over the place. Yes I do see people smoking on occasions but it’s so nice being able to shop and have lunch without that disgusting smell.


Geez, Cindy you are in a bad mood today,,,’typical busy body’, not nice.


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Those are probably just medical marijuana users taking their meds. Sheesh. Don’t you want people to be better? ;-)


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Wake up people the inmates are running the joint, and its getting worse, big brother doesn’t belong running our day to day lives, I don’t see seagulls with plastic bags stuck on their heads, not even at the dump and there is a lot of them there, the enviro nazis are running us into the ground with little obscure laws and rules and one day we’ll wake up and wonder where all our freedoms went. There are a lot worse things this state or county need to do, worrying about a plastic sack is not one of them.


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First the redistricting, now this… when is the next election for County Council?


Also, can incorporated CITIES vote to tell the county to shove it? I mean, should they desire.


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That is, when the county shoves it down ALL our throats (not just SLO city)


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Atascadero didn’t agree to any of this, we will still have our grocery bags. The problem with this stuff is that as soon as “we the people ” agree to correcting a problem, it always turns into over kill and before we know it, the gubment has grown again and the policies they enact generally make little sense. We can’t trust our gubment to be smart and that is a big problem.


Just look what happened with the disabilities act, small business owners get sued for hanging the TP too high or for carrying too much merchandise and the fat lady sues because her wheelchair can’t fit in all the aisles. To hell with the merchant if he has to close his business because less merchandise means less sales.


Look what happened with sexual harassment/discrimination, it’s not uncommon to layoff a female employee and have her claim that it was because she wouldn’t sleep with you or a male claim it’s because you’re a racist and all that happened is that your sales dropped off.


Don’t get angry with your spouse or even your x-girlfriend/boyfriend and throw a hotdog or something. You’ll get arrested for domestic violence and won’t be allowed to own a firearm any longer because you throw hotdogs when you’re angry.


Don’t spank your child especially in public, the CPS (perhaps the most dangerous and out of control) will take them away from you. Then the next thing you know, they will claim you have been sexually molesting them!


There’s a whole lot more and none of this is exaggerated, I’ve seen it all happen to people I know personally. We need to do something about our messed up gub and all their baloney. People need to take a stand and get them out of our lives. It’s only going to get worse.


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Cindy, in all due respect, it is thinking (or not thinking) like yours that is causing so many problems with this country.


I agree that some of these laws are over the top. I feel it’s terrible how that guy sued all those businesses and some even had to close over the ADA requirements in their businesses. We need commonsense with the ADA requirements but that doesn’t mean that we should throw the whole thing out. Your party wants to shut down the EPA. Yes the EPA can be over the top but we need balance, we need the EPA. There will always be silly bills brought to our legislators ie the bed sheet debacle. But you like our govt. take everything to the extreme. Why can’t we just have laws with commonsense,,,because people like you exaggerate and go to the extreme, for people like you it’s all or nothing, no balance. You won’t get arrested for throwing a hot dog, you are allowed to spank your children (in most states), it’s not that easy for CPS to take your kids. If given a complaint then yes they have to make sure the child is safe but CPS doesn’t just take kids away for nothing, I don’t want to say why but I have knowledge in that area.


You people want to throw away the baby with the bath water. The govt. is you and me and all of us, we have the power to vote who we want in. The problem is that people like you let big corps and money buy our politicians and you want people like Perry, Bachmann etc. in office who want us living like militias with no laws packing guns shooting off guns at weddings like they do in the middle east and your party doesn’t want our kids learning science you want us to go backwards. You don’t want any middle ground. There needs to be balance and that seems to be getting more difficult to find. I will bet (friendly bet, I’m broke) that the Repubs have already without even hearing Obama’s plan have written their opposition speeches and decided a weeks ago that no matter what Obama says that they won’t work with him or agree on ANYTHING he says tonight.


We need to start thinking of our children and their children. You may not like the idea of the bag thing but it’s really not that difficult once you get used to it. You must see that these bags are really bad for the environment. You can’t be that blind. You must know that they are made from petroleum, do you really want us to do nothing to help make us less dependent on oil? Why, why do you not care that one day we will run out, you must know that there is only so much oil in the ground, your party hates science and they won’t plan ahead you must see that we can’t go on like this. We can only take so much for the earth before it has nothing left to give.


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“Your party wants to shut down the EPA”

My party(?) and who would that be, please let me know who my party is, since I don’t belong to one.


“You people want to throw away the baby with the bath water”

Where did I say that? Who is “you people” ? It’s so interesting that you know what I want to do about these problems or how I would vote when it came to “taming” the issues I addressed.


Typoqueen knows everything, just ask her.


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“Typoqueen knows everything”


I’m glad you can see that, I hate having to tell everyone.


Cindy, I know I know, the new thing with the extreme right is ‘I’m an Independent’ or ‘I’m not a Repub’. But your actions speak loud and clear. Call it what you want, you are extreme right. ‘You people’=extreme right or perhaps even a Bagger. In reality ‘your type’ are too extreme to be true Repubs. Doesn’t matter what you call yourself your actions speak much louder than a party title. You don’t’ appear to balanced in your political views, not at all. I’ll admit to being a bleeding heart but at least once in awhile I see the other side and flop over to a more con side of things (although not often) but you never ever ever see anything other than very right wing extreme view, at least you certainly don’t write it up here in this forum.


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In the 2008 election, I voted 85% Democrat. I can be as far left on some issues as I can be to the right on others. Now why don’t you explain that to everybody since you know.


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I’ll believe it when I see it. I don’t need to explain anything to everybody because I don’t feel that they really care.


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