Bag ban repeal could reach 2016 ballot

17 Nov, 2014 by John Seiler

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Looks like a repeal of Gov. Jerry Brown’s ban on plastic bags in grocery stores could reach the 2016 ballot. Reported the Chronicle:

SACRAMENTO — Plastic bag manufacturers have poured $2.7 million into efforts to overturn California’s statewide ban on plastic bags in the seven weeks since Gov. Jerry Brown signed the historic legislation.

With signature gatherers posted outside grocery and retail stores across the state, opponents of the plastic bag ban are attempting to gather the more than 500,000 signatures needed to put the referendum on the November 2016 ballot.

The ban supposedly helps the “environment.” Actually, it doesn’t. The Wall Street Journal reported:

In 2011, the United Kingdom’s Environment Agency released a study that evaluated nine categories of environmental impacts caused by different types of supermarket bags. The study found that paper bags have a worse effect on the environment than plastic bags in all nine impact categories, which include global warming potential, abiotic depletion, acidification, eutrophication, human toxicity, fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity, marine aquatic ecotoxicity, terrestrial ecotoxicity, and photochemical oxidation.

Furthermore, the study found that the average supermarket shopper would have to reuse the same cotton tote from 94 up to 1,899 times before it had less environmental impact than the disposable plastic bags needed to carry the same amount of groceries. This wide-varying amount of reuse that is required until the breakeven point is reached depends upon the type of environmental impact, but the median is 314 times, and it is more 179 times for all but one of the 9 impact categories.

For example, a shopper would need to reuse the same cotton tote 350 times before it caused less fresh water aquatic ecotoxicity than all of the plastic bags that it would replace over this period. Given the improbability that the same cotton tote would last that long (its expected life is 52 reuses), in most cases plastic bags will have less environmental impact.

It’s typical of California’s Limousine Liberals that they have a knee-jerk reaction to plastic bags, failing to do even the most rudimentary research. Their attitude: “If it’s even remotely possible that something is bad for the environment, ban it. And don’t tell us anything to the contrary, you filthy polluter who is a blight on the planet!”

Assuming banning the bag ban makes the 2016 ballot, it’ll be interesting to see if Brown uses any of his bloated campaign war chest to fight it — assuming he isn’t using the money for a presidential run.