It's the only planet we have folks!

We really are the people with the greatest sense of entitlement in the world, aren't we? These bags have never been free; the cost has been factored into the cost of doing business. But obviously the costs are going up, and rather than spread the pain around to everyone equally, they've decided that those who use, get to pay for them.

And this is a problem because people don't get every damn cent back. I hate our society sometimes.

When I was in Germany almost 20 years ago (and I still haven't made it back, and now it's a different country, sob), bags cost 10pf. at the grocery. Everyone there (except the stupid American, who kept forgetting to reuse her damn bags) brought their own bags. It was No. Big. Deal. No discount for having brought the bags, merely a penalty if you didn't. Whoops, your bad, so you pay. I can't remember if this is Europe-wide—I think Denmark did the same thing. And in the article it mentions six nations—Australia, Bangladesh, Italy, South Africa, Taiwan and Ireland—levy taxes or have enacted bans on plastic shopping bags. It says that in Ireland, plastic bag usage dropped 90 percent in the first year after that nation imposed a fee of 15 cents per bag….”

Read the rest of her blog here http://www.nobody-knows-anything.com/2005/01/grocery_bags...

The interesting part is that every single comment she’s got (and she’s got plenty. Wonder how she does it) agrees with her that plastic bags ought not to be given away free.

Many of them talk about how expensive it is to get reusable canvas bags. In actual practice cloth bags are very economical. See how economical they can be at http://www.badlani.com/bags specially when an entire community makes a concerted effort.

The city of Fitzroy Falls in Australia did it. So have many other communities in Australia. They’ve bought calico bag in bulk and are distributing them amongst citizens at a really low cost. Some are even giving them to citizens free.