@2
Pls. explain u r conclusory.

Sorry, I didn't know where to post this. It is a technical problem.

I keep getting the following error on my browser on the bottom of the pages when I get past the first page or two of the posts:

"The requested page could not be found.
Smarty error: [in evaluated template line 187]: syntax error: unrecognized tag 'MTBlogId' (Smarty_Compiler.class.php, line 580)"

Using Firefox 2, Mac OS 10.5.3.
Anyway, thought someone should know.

Later!
:) k.

So where am I not shopping that have these cheap(er) bags?

They are going to do it anyway, just like the ban on trans fats and the mandatory menu labeling, so what the fuck difference does this circle jerk hearing make?

Does it make anyone feel better that this pseudo democratic process is happening? "Oh, they did this, but at least they listened to us first?"

Please, we're beyond that now just pass your stupid feel good ban and move on to more important things like solving the serious transportation issues facing the region.

It seems that when I'm too tired to go down to the marina and choke innocent wildlife with them, its very easy to wad them up and drop them in a big blue recycling bin.

http://www.barynya.com/barynya/images/Joplin/Russian_Folk_Dance_Rigodon.jpg

Quit your bitching, you bunch of fucking pansies, spend $5.00 on some goddamn bags, and go shopping already. You're the same dumb sons-of-bitches who complained about switching to unleaded gas and banning CFCs. Quit being so fucking insanely selfish, and so something good.

They may be downcycled per ECB @12, but it's still better than nothing. I keep a few around to bring my lunch to work, but the rest go into the dumpster. Now I have room under my kitchen sink to actually store my Costco-sized supply of cleaning products...

Kristin Bell: Send an email to webmaster@thestranger.com. No need to post. It's nearly certain that you will be interrupting Anthony Hecht jerking off to internet porn, but there is no non-jerking off time when you can reach him. It can't be helped, and he is totally nice about it. On the plus side, he will work hard to solve your problem fast so he can get back to, you know, jerking off to porn. He's not the kind of IT guy who keeps jerking off while solving your problem, which is good to know if you ask me.

ECB, can you explain why this law won't have the unintended consequence of making us complacent? Instead of going after the big sources of plastic pollution (e.g. bottles) we're going to think we've sacrificed enough by giving up these penny-ante plastic bags.

I personally feel that we will run after we walk, but in the past your position has been that baby steps aren't good enough for Planet Earth.

50 biobags cost the same as 150 plastic bags. I buy them, but it pisses me off.

All that stuff adds up. To avoid spending more at the grocery store, I drive OUT of the city to WINCO and buy lots of my food in bulk. (There is a QFC a block away from my house, but even with more expensive gas, I can spend roughly half and get the same amount of groceries)

The produce I buy from a CSA in Fall City. Or walk to the farmer's market.

I get my milk from Smith brothers delivered for free.

But as we're looking at ways to cut our budget to survive, it's freaking difficult to justify paying 3 times as much for 2/3 less product on everything from garbage bags to non toxic laundry soap to organic food.

If the city is serious about sustainability, they should include biodegradable garbage bags at a significant discount or subsidize them with some of their 45 million dollars from the Sonics.

73 cents or 99 cents is quite cheap for a reuseable bag. Cut a few cheeseburgers at McDonalds out of your diet and your set.

Thank you for writing a great blog. I truly enjoyed reading it. Recently I spend a lot of my free time searching online, in fact I have become a health freak of some sort.. I use herbal products from http://www.youherbal.com ,they offer a collection of herbal health products. In combination with my modern medicine I have used herbal products for the last ten years. The combination has given me a better health. Anyways I look forward to all the updates, thanks again.

Jessica

illegal in this state - wait for the supremes to side with poor people

and yes, this is trivial compared to pollution by industry

guilt trip the every day people to the end of the earth, and let industry off the big hook

for once fnarf and I agree

plastic bags are VERY sanitary, and used over and over in my circle of friends, ending up full of vile garbage and dog/cat waste

go figure

the power of the state vs. education and reasoned choices

erica, take a breath, your narratives are almost top volume infantile

The city commissioned a study of the effects of the bag fee and the banning of expanded foam food service containers. The report is available (pdf) on the city's website. If you look at pp. 6-26 through 6-29 you'll find the best estimate is that the plastic ban will create a higher environmental burden as well as a higher financial burden.

The report is here.

I can't find where anyone addresses this. All the talk is about the damned plastic bags. Am I fucking crazy? Am I fucking stoopid? Well, anyway, why do we want to do this now?

The elephant in the room, though, is the overproduction and overconsumption of consumer goods, not the bags one takes it all home in.

Many people, myself included, could stand to eat less food, and buy less stuff, which would also make less garbage, and use less energy and natural resources.

Being encouraged to bring crap home in my own bag does not solve the waste that is inherent in consumer culture.

All that said, it really should be an individual choice to buy less, and to bring one's own bag to the store. Paying a bag tax to fund a city bureaucracy sounds pretty wasteful to me.

I think you'd have to be very poor to not be able to come up with this amount of money over the course of a year. Very, very poor.

Which reveals the true fault of the tax: it's not high enough. I'm not going to cut down on my consumption of plastic bags over a measly two dimes. But if you charge me $5 a bag, I'll be carrying my recyclable bags faster than you can say depleted 401(k).

I paid for my bag, and I must say I felt better for it; That tax was a reminder of the waste we take for granted... the waste that is slowly collecting into a garbage island in the Pacific Ocean. Being reminded of that, I honestly can't say I'd be adverse to seeing an (admittedly less burdensome) tax for plastic bags in Seattle.

So, that being said- the only remaining concern I have is the tax on paper bags; I know they consume trees... but it stands to reason that because they can be recycled, that the monetary burden (as a reflection of environmental damage created) would inevitably be less then that of plastic.

I'm far more comfortable thinking about people shopping with paper bags (if canvas is not an option for whatever reason) and as you stated in your post, I think there should be monetary incentives to achieve this goal.

Enough with the the self-righteousness.

Isn't there a way we can get this without the Enviro-Nazi commentary? Something UNbiased, perhaps?

Paper bags have no fee, right?

Seattlites -- are they really this dumb?

Dear, I didn't know you were homebound! I would have put you on my weekly list of invalids that I make Blanc Mange for.

I can certainly understand, dear TheMisanthrope (can I call you Misty?) how aggravating it must be to sit there, stuck in your house, unable to attend public meetings in person, and having to listen to Enviro-Nazi commentary from known Feminist hippies like Erica.

But there are other websites, you know - or has some awful liberal "caregiver" limited you just to The Stranger?

1) This really isn't going to be an economic burden for ANYBODY. Don't use an economic excuse when you are really upset because you are forgetful, or lazy, or stubborn. Even if you bought 10 reusable bags and stored them in your trunk, that would be around 10 dollars. If you can't afford a 1.00 bag at the grocery or department store, why not pick up one of the 10 million totebags floating around at thrift stores or garage sales for 10 cents? Isn't part of the push to ban plastics and other non-biodegradable objects to create a kind of public awareness about what kind of shit we've done to our environment? So, wouldn't like, having to think about it kind of accomplish some of that?

2) Furthermore, what kinda backwards ass grocery stores do you have out there? Here, they've been charging a nickel per bag (plastic or paper) for as long as I can remember, and have waived that fee if you brought your own reusable bag. This works on the premise that you bringing your own bag saves them from having to buy bags.

3) Haven't you fancy West Coasters ever heard of Sam's Club, the store of the Beast? They don't give you any bags- they make you carry it out in a box you've rummaged from their leftover shipping containers. If you can't find a box, you are left to carry your mass quantities of Post-Its and Cheetos out in your bare hands.

4) Why are you getting so up in arms about the idea proposed about getting more expensive environment friendly trash bags. If you get 50 for the price of 150 earth destroying ones, might that encourage you to, oh, I don't know... throw out less shit in the first place? Or you could go completely batshit like my dad (self described "environmental whack job") and refuse to put your garbage in a bag. Sure, it makes your garbage can all gunky, and it maybe pisses off the garbage man, but in 25 years, he hasn't bagged his garbage on garbage day. If you figure 2 bags a week, times 52 weeks, times 25 years, that's kind of a shit load of plastic he didn't send to the landfill.

5) Plastic water bottle bans are a great idea. Reusable water bottles are awesome. Plastic water bottles are just ridiculously wasteful, in addition to the fact that the type of plastic they use for them is putting off all kinds of dangerous shit into our water. First they came for Seattle's plastic bags, next I hope they get your water bottles, too!

Please realize that I was directly quoting ECB from one of her comments in a previous post of hers. Now, please, move on with your unironic bad self.

Fuck you,
TheMisanthrope.

Here is the comment for reference, in case you were bitchy enough to challenge that fact. See comment 18.

Or you could just bring a back pack or large purse.

Using "biobags" for garbage doesn't make much sense - they are made to be composted, not to rot anaerobically in a landfill and contribute to methane harvesting.

Most of what we buy comes in plastic. If your garbage is so wet that you can't use a paper bag to carry it out to your bin (which it shouldn't be if you're composting your food waste), can't you put your trash in one of the other plastic bags you've thrown away? Like a cereal bag or produce bag.

Clint @10 wins with the special olympics comment by the way.

The reality is that the amount of packaging in products we buy that are specifically designed to not be recycled has GROWN since WW II. You used to be able to buy a box of cereal without a bag inside it - but the box could be recycled. Now the bag is not recyclable.

This will all lead to a consumer revolt in Seattle as most of us, who think ECB and you freaks are getting in our face too much replace the current dysfunctional city council and file and pass overwhelmingly a citizen's initiative.

Mark my words - there will be blood.

@44, in response to your comment about never having heard of people up in arms about plastic bags, well, that is what we do here in the beautiful Northwest. People get up in arms about, well, just about anything. A change occurs, or is suggested, everyone freaks, we spend 2-3 years discussing, and either kill the proposal with inaction or end up with a namby-pamby solution that satisfies no one. It is our way. Why, just in the recent memory the people of Seattle have gotten up in arms about townhouses, condos, bike lanes, a third runway, plastic bags, styrofoam containers, mandatory food scrap composting, transit, buses, bridges, a streetcar, a monorail, building height restrictions, a viaduct, plastic bags, a Denny's, a bowling alley, plastic bags, a children's hospital, a basketball team, a tent city for the homeless, pit bulls, plastic bags, nightclubs, the tear-down of a decrepit rat-infested crack house, urban density, and plastic bags. Come to think of it, with all the outrage and hand-wringing, I'm amazed that anyone here can get out of bed in the morning. I know I'm exhausted.

@42, paper bags will also be subject to the 20 cent fee. Which is good because they're not much better than plastic (and some would argue they are even worse, since making and recycling paper bags creates twice the air/water pollution that making/recycling plastic bags does).

Erica, I'd like to know where you got the info about the City of Seattle NOT actually recycling the vast majority of plastic bags that we put INTO the recycling bins. You're saying the City takes "most" of the plastic bags we've bundled together and put in our recycling bins OUT of the recycling and puts them in a landfill instead? Can you please cite a source for that? If that's truly the case, I think that's really important information!!

Like with pop bottles in most states?