Posted by FactChecker, a resident of the Cuesta Park neighborhood, on Aug 2, 2012 at 3:46 pm Of COURSE business does not oppose this - they get all the cost-savings of not having to pay for bags.
Clearly Palacio is advocating for a policy rather than being an honest broker. Her response about cross-contamination is pure politics, avoiding the question.
Reusable bags have MUCH higher bacteria counts than plastic bags. Does her EIR give actual quantitative measurements of bacteria levels found in bags of average consumers, and of how often the average person washes their re-usable bags? How many people have EVER gotten food poisoning from bacteria in a store-provided plastic bag, versus how many from a re-usable bag?
As to that supposed 3-5% recycle use of plastic bags - is that how many bags get turned into a recycling center, or how many get used (thus recycled) more than 1 time? I use my plastic bags for my trash-can liners. So they get used twice, then are disposed of properly. If stores no longer give out plastic bags, I will be buying liners to use - so ZERO net environmental savings.
There is very poor cost/benefit analysis here - it's all about feeling good, just like the lobbying for ethanol that now turns out to have horrible environmental/economic side-effects.
This should be handled at the state level, and it should be based on real data.
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