Tamara Lush recently wrote a very interesting article on plastic bags in the Miami New Times. It seems that Commissioner Marc Sarnoff is planning on floating "four green proposals before the commission: ban all leafleting in the city, ask county leaders to require that all taxis be hybrid vehicles, stop city government from buying bottled water, and prohibit grocery stores from using plastic bags."
What do I think? I love it. I love that it will be at least discussed.
The article mentions the use of paper bags and eludes to the fact that they are biodegradable…seeming to insinuate that paper bags are a better option. I beg to differ. Data tells us that paper bags take MUCH more energy to create, recycle, and due to current landfill situations, nothing biodegrades.
I love the idea of a ban on plastic bags. But are we talking about a ban on bags, or will people just wind up using paper bags, which is no better whatsoever.
I promote the first step as "pay-per-bag". Start charging customers 25 cents per plastic bag and see how many people start to bring their own. It may not sound like a lot of money, but it should do the trick.
Read the entire article…what do you think?
13 Responses to “A Ban on Plastic Bags in Miami?”
charging people per bag is definitely the way to go. miamians seem not to be able to go green out of good conscious, awareness. so taxes should do it.
Hello, I am an italian girl now living here in miami. I hate this waste of plastic bags here in miami!! And it sounds so weird to me that people don’t bring bags from home! In Italy we pay them, and probably tht’s why everybody re-use plastic bags! But I am wondering… do normally people throw them away? I try to re-use them but at the end I have to throw them away.. I have so many…
ps: nice site! G
A bag deposit is a terrific idea. Toss in a bottle deposit and can deposit to boot, and would cardboard deposits be too much to ask? I agree with “anon” – slogans and good will are not going to make enough people change their habits for the better, but cold hard cash will, unfortunately.
Paper or plastic? Neither. Bring your own bag. Cloth bags are durable and stylish. Publix and Winn-Dixie should give YOU a discount for supplying your own bags. That’s how you really save the environment.
Just need to add one more thing…
If you don’t think you’re paying for the bags, think again. The supermarkets pay big bucks for plastic and paper bags. Is this a free service, you may wonder? NO. They just add it on to your food prices. So if you don’t use their bags, you’re subsidizing other customer’s destruction of resources. Again, tell the supermarkets to pay YOU to bring your own bag. After all, you’re paying for everyone else’s.
Yeah, I’ve lived here all my life, and I think the surefire way to get people down here to quit the plastic bag habit is to charge for them too. There’s a lot of us who “get it”, but unfortunately, most South Floridians don’t – YET! =D! I have tremendous hope for our beautiful part of the world though. It’s just a matter of raising awareness and educating people as much as possible. =)
The article says: “Publix offers bag recycling outside its stores.”
The latest Co-Op America Quarterly “Getting to Zero Waste” mentions that very often this “recycling” consists of baling the bags and sending them to Asia where they are either incinerated or landfilled. It would seem that they are not turned back into more plastic bags.
I am totally with you, lot’s of hydrocarbon in those bags, and I am ordering urban haul bags right now from Marmot. No more plastic bags. When I live in Switzerland, we had to pay for each bag at the store and each trash bag. It worked!
-bill
I agree that it’s a matter of time and raising awareness. I have a fabric bag that squishes down to nothing and in it’s little pouch hangs always ready from my purse. But this is good for a small purchase. I need help with this myself. I’m attempting to make small changes that will last and lead to bigger changes. I think charging per bag would definitely curtail their rampant distribution.
It’s about time that someone in our government said something about being a greener Miami. It is easy to say that I will be a responsible green consumer but if the majority of the public is being mislead about the truth of recycling it makes it really hard and expensive. I think we should start writing or calling our representatives so they can realize how important it is for us to have options.
Hi there,
We’re trying to take a number of steps in greening the office, but I’ve been having an awful time trying to even find people to give me estimates for solar hotwater, green roofs, solar pv. Is there a database somewhere or people that are recommended as quality and reliable? Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks,
The plastic bag issue isn’t going to go away..the ground swell is beginning, just like it did 30 years ago with bottles, can and newspapers…the grocery chains don’t want to make a big deal out of it, because it highlights them as pollution contributors…but many such as TESCO of the UK have taken pro-active Green positions, as opposed to having legislation force their hands. Yes many US groceries carry the .99 cent tote but they don’t offer the typical shopper any “convenience”. Personally I dislike having to carry 8 canvas totes with me every time I went shopping..plus the canvas/cloth bags aren’t really safe for food items because they harbor mold and mildew. So I went on a search and finally found the perfect shopping tote @ http://www.eco-totz.com.
This tote is expandable and clips onto the shopping cart to load the. The best part is that all I needed were 2 of them , which fit perfect in the cart. $160.00 worth of food in 2 bags!!! They have a folding flat bottom so on the drive home they don’t fall over…and once home…1 trip to the kitchen…I even got their beverage bag which is great for wine or soda bottles and heavy cans.
So there you have it….make a product with great features and people will use them…maybe if the grocers just gave them away for a month..just like they give away coupons and everything else..they would start seeing them back in the stores on return trips…not to mention the free advertising they would get by putting their logos on the bags.
I agree with all comments. Every time I go to Publix I feel that they bagger puts one item in each bag! This really has happened…not exaggerating. As a Floridian store, they should have a responsibility to help protect the environment of our state and perhaps they should take an initiative to train their employees not to be so wasteful.