[Summit] Plastic Bags

Thu Mar 29 14:51:27 UTC 2018

Mikaila,
Excellent points. Far too often with environmentalism, as well as other
areas, people of means try to push reforms without a second thought for how
it effects people without the same means. The thought process seems to be
if its for a good cause, easy for me, and not an inconvenience then others
can just manage. Yet how many of the people saying its not a big deal and
lets help the planet are driving around in gas guzzling luxury cars and
SUVs, and have multiple cars parked in their driveway. Doubt they will ever
give those up because it does not fit their lifestyle. They don't want to
make any real sacrifices, just token ones. But since they have the
political capitol to push things through law we get everybody focusing on
something like plastic bags instead of trying to do things that will have a
more substantial impact on our environment without the negative impact on
people who are getting nickel and dimed at every turn.

-Jonathan Hernandez

On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 8:09 AM, Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur <
mmlarthur at gmail.com> wrote:

> From reading the discussion here on plastic bags, it seems to me that very
> few participants actually have a personal experience living as part of the
> population most impacted by this ban. And humans, it seems, are not very
> good at understanding experiences quite different from their own. So I
> thought I'd share, because I actually spent six years living as a
> low-income apartment resident reliant on walking and public transit for all
> my shopping and commuting needs. In my typical daily schedule, I left the
> house in the morning with everything I needed for a whole day of work,
> school, and other obligations, and did not come home until evening after
> completing all my errands. Give the books, papers, tech devices, umbrellas,
> lunch, and other items I had to carry to get through my day, I really did
> not have room for more than maybe one reusable bag in my piles. This meant
> that even though I did own a few reusable bags that I had been gifted or
> obtained for free, I could not use them for my regular shopping. I would
> use them when I made a special trip to the store directly from home, but
> that was not how the bulk of my shopping happened. I'd also point out that,
> in the small apartment I lived in at the time, I would not have even had
> space to store the quantity of reusable bags I routinely use now.
>
> I was not in absolute poverty, so I assume I could have handled the 10
> cent fee without going bankrupt, but it would have cut into other things
> eventually. But there are other cost factors you may not be thinking of.
> First of all, I reused every plastic bag I got, except the ones with giant
> holes. Most frequently, I reused them in my kitchen garbage can to collect
> and dispose of my trash. Buying trash bags can easily cost more than 10
> cents a bag, especially for those who have transit, space, or income
> limitations preventing the purchase of large quantities. If you are using
> even one bag a day, which I would think is pretty typical (those caring for
> kids, elderly people, or the disabled who use diapers and other similar
> products may go through many, many more), that's going to cost you about
> $40 a year, maybe more. You may not think that is very much, but for people
> living in poverty, a $40 increase in costs could affect their ability to
> survive.
>
> Second of all, the hygiene issue does mean that reusable bags need to be
> laundered frequently, especially for people who buy meat and seafood. When
> you live in an apartment and are dependent on pay laundry with small
> machines, extra laundry can be another really significant expense. It can
> be well over $3 per load of laundry, plus more for the dryer (if your bags
> are even the type that can go in the dryer--and having to hang dry things
> you wash in a laundromat is extremely difficult to manage). If you actually
> followed the recommendation to wash bags after each use, that might add
> several more dollars in cost every week. It's also worth pointing out that
> grocery delivery services, which are the only way I could manage to obtain
> bulk or heavy items when I did not have a car, often package items in
> plastic bags (and are unlikely to stop due to hygiene reasons--the proposed
> ordinance did not, as someone pointed out, cover produce bags, or for that
> matter any bags other than those used at checkout).
>
> Continuing to permit free paper bags with handles would reduce some of the
> problems with the ban. Paper bags do eventually biodegrade, as I've seen
> while raking up the winter's leaf piles in my own yard this March. They can
> be made of recycled paper and easily recycled themselves, and can easily be
> carried. However, they are not a complete solution. First of all, they
> cannot be reused as trash bags, at least in normal kitchen garbage cans or
> in any circumstance where you need to tie your trash closed. Second of all,
> they fall apart in the rain quite quickly, and people do still need to shop
> in the rain. Finally, as someone who grocery shops by bicycle pointed out
> to me, you can't hang them from your handlebars (or tie them to your
> child's stroller). It seems to me in an age of forks and cups made from
> corn or sugar cane that you can throw in the compost, we ought to be able
> to produce an alternative to plastic bags that still fills people's needs.
>
> If your response to this is that I just don't understand and need some
> education and skill building, then you need to learn some empathy. As I
> said, I owned reusable bags when did not have a car, and used them when I
> could manage. What changed for me? Well, now I own a house, with enough
> room for an entire hamper to store my bags. And I have a laundry machine in
> the same room as that closet. And I shop via car. I bet I contributed a
> whole lot less to the destruction of the earth when I shopped on foot and
> got plastic bags which I reused in my trash than I do now burning gas stuck
> in traffic in a city which does not provide convenient point-to-point
> public transit.
> --
> Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur
> mmlarthur at gmail.com <mailto:mmlarthur at gmail.com>
>
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