People do not get food poisoning because of a plastic bag ban, they get it because of not washing their hands and also because of bad food handling knowledge. A billion+ non biodegradable bags on the planet is more important overall than the risk of getting food poisoning from their shopping bag because they didn't wash it after carrying raw chicken in it. Educate people on proper hygiene and food issues and the risk goes down.
Last edited by Chloe; 02-07-2013 at 05:55 PM.
Peter1469 (02-07-2013)
Yes I agree with the public service anouncment. But you can't fix stupid, and there will be people that get sick and they will go to the hospital and run up the insurance bills for all of us and yes we burry plastic bags, but is we went back to paper bags that would solve the problem! Trees can be planted everyday, and it we did some selective harvest in areas like california where the fires burn the forests down instead of harvesting them, we could ahve the pest of both worlds.
Renewable resources are not a bad thing. And yes those that want to use reusable bags should be able to, but when you force things on people you loose me. I actually stopped using the resuables, when some cities started making it mandatory.
Earlier I was on my cell and couldn't do justice to your initial response--it was good. But you do recognize unintended consequences, now if we could just somehow measure the costs we might say the ban was good or bad. I agree, people could be educated to take better care of themselves, but rather than a blind ban would not have educating people about the evils of disposable plastic bags have alleviated that problem as well. Unintended consequences are the result of leaping to solutions, too often government ones, when thinking things out a bit might have foreseen the solution creating or increasing other problems.
In quoting my post, you affirm and agree that you have not been goaded, provoked, emotionally manipulated or otherwise coerced into responding.
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
Mahatma Gandhi
zelmo1234 (02-08-2013)
I don't really see a negative here. We are worried about hurting the plastic bag industry but doing so will allow other more favorable industries to grow like paper bags or biodegradable bags, as suggested. Plastic bags spreading disease sounds like they are pulling at straws here. why does everyone always have to have a $#@!ing panic attack when they find a germ somewhere? Did it occur to you that these peoples symtoms were nausea and diarea? Everyone gets sick every so often and those are some pretty common ailments; nothing to worry about. These were soccer players that traveled to another region, so their immune system probably just wasn't used to the viruses their. Simple as that. Coliform is only dangerous when found in water and that's only because it's an indicator that their could be other contaminents. Since they said nothing about other contaminents I assume they found none. These are just scare tactics they use to get people riled up.
It's non-plastic leading to greater spread of disease.
Of course there is profit in it. The plastics industry employs many people. Making a product that is innimical to the environment in this day and age is a sure recipe for anachronism.
Do people want it? Try carrying something wet in a paper bag. Try carrying a paper bag in the rain. As a retailer, try putting large, heavy items in a paper bag. There is a way to make biodegradable plastic bags and I am sure that people in general would be better served and still have an environmental solution.
In quoting my post, you affirm and agree that you have not been goaded, provoked, emotionally manipulated or otherwise coerced into responding.
"The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.”
Mahatma Gandhi