Pet Peeve #24 - Grocery bag regulation
After several rounds of referenda (pretty sure that's more accurate than referendums although my spell checker prefers the s-version), Seattle decided to ban single use plastic bags. This has had some non-trivial impact on restaurant to-go/carryout orders, but it was really aimed at the grocery stores. Basically, the city has banned grocery bags. They grudgingly allowed paper grocery bags to continue existing but allowed (compelled?) the stores to start charging for them.
This fills me with grossly disproportionate outrage in several directions.
Just to get going, those bags got plenty of reuse. They line my bathroom garbage cans. They hold my composting bag until it's ready to dump in the exterior can. Dog-enabled neighbors use them to pooper scoop. Now, though, the supply of reusable bags has gone away. I had to buy a box of bags from Amazon so that I could keep doing crazy stuff like collecting trash and composting. So, there are just as many bags going to the landfill, but now I had to buy them... plus they're redundant waste with whatever I used to get the groceries home.
The clear intent of the law was to force us to all start carrying reusable cloth bags to the grocery store. That is simply not going to happen. For starters, I don't always know when I'm going to the store ahead of time. When I do go, I tend to buy two weeks' worth of stuff in one giant trip, so one or two bags ain't going to do it.
And in general I hate the pushy Big Hippie Government trying to compel me to switch to the cloth bags. I hate that part so much I'm seething. I want filthy, reused bags to make people sick. I want them to start a plague. I want people [I don't know] to die just so everyone can hate this as much as I do. Then we find the people responsible for the new rules, nail them to trees, and set the trees on fire.
Hey, I said my outrage was grossly disproportionate.
Going to the store is now an annoyance, too. The clerk has to pause in the ringing up and ask if I want [paper] bags. Then they want to know how many bags because they charge a fee per bag. I have to restrain myself from snapping that I want however many bags is appropriate for this amount of groceries, a number I don't actually know.
Finally, to add injury to injury, the instant the new law went into effect, Safeway made their paper bags thinner and smaller. This way you need more of them and frequently need them double bagged as well. Then they charge a pile of per-bag fees and laugh themselves silly.
Mostly I'm just trying to do my grocery shopping in the suburb towns so I can ignore all the nonsense. I'm sure the retailers in those suburbs appreciate the business.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/357516.html.
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This fills me with grossly disproportionate outrage in several directions.
Just to get going, those bags got plenty of reuse. They line my bathroom garbage cans. They hold my composting bag until it's ready to dump in the exterior can. Dog-enabled neighbors use them to pooper scoop. Now, though, the supply of reusable bags has gone away. I had to buy a box of bags from Amazon so that I could keep doing crazy stuff like collecting trash and composting. So, there are just as many bags going to the landfill, but now I had to buy them... plus they're redundant waste with whatever I used to get the groceries home.
The clear intent of the law was to force us to all start carrying reusable cloth bags to the grocery store. That is simply not going to happen. For starters, I don't always know when I'm going to the store ahead of time. When I do go, I tend to buy two weeks' worth of stuff in one giant trip, so one or two bags ain't going to do it.
And in general I hate the pushy Big Hippie Government trying to compel me to switch to the cloth bags. I hate that part so much I'm seething. I want filthy, reused bags to make people sick. I want them to start a plague. I want people [I don't know] to die just so everyone can hate this as much as I do. Then we find the people responsible for the new rules, nail them to trees, and set the trees on fire.
Hey, I said my outrage was grossly disproportionate.
Going to the store is now an annoyance, too. The clerk has to pause in the ringing up and ask if I want [paper] bags. Then they want to know how many bags because they charge a fee per bag. I have to restrain myself from snapping that I want however many bags is appropriate for this amount of groceries, a number I don't actually know.
Finally, to add injury to injury, the instant the new law went into effect, Safeway made their paper bags thinner and smaller. This way you need more of them and frequently need them double bagged as well. Then they charge a pile of per-bag fees and laugh themselves silly.
Mostly I'm just trying to do my grocery shopping in the suburb towns so I can ignore all the nonsense. I'm sure the retailers in those suburbs appreciate the business.
This entry was originally posted at http://squidminion.dreamwidth.org/357516.html.
There are
comments there. You could add one via OpenID.
Or you can comment here if you'd rather; it's okay.