Ok, so time to let off on a little rant - one of the things that has been kicking around in my head for the last month: Grocery Bags!
When I was a kid, we always had those brown paper bags. The ones we would scavage for every September to turn into covers for our school books. I grew up in Maine, a state that has always been a big logging state. Between lumber mills, pulp & paper mills, lumberjacks and truck drivers, I have seen what a big contribution to my state logging is to its economic survival. I have worked in the woods and in paper mills, so I have been able to see first hand the 'forests massacred' and even the same mills that actually recycle the paper trash into brand new paper to be reused for something else. I have also been back to see the sites of deforested areas, regrown into a new forest. (I can hear people say that we are running out of trees and forest, but I don't believe them - sorry, just my perspective).
Well, back to the bags. Somewhere in the 90's, there was the invention and propellation of reduce-reuse-recycle. It began as voluntary, common sense initiatives to make better use of our planet and in theory begin to make it cleaner or at least preserve the thing a bit longer. I have no problem with people wanting to recycle, make the planet the best we can, I just don't base my existence on and feel called to make it law for everyone else.
Well, the plastic grocery bag was born and you remember the constant question "Paper or Plastic?" I would always ask for paper because I knew they were made from recycled paper and probably manufactured by some of the same mills I had done work in all over our country. Well, nowadays - some 15-20 years later, at least where I live, there is no question "Paper or Plastic?". It is just plastic and originally the big push on plastic bags was that they were easier to recycle, saved more trees and were just the way to go.
So I am riding up from Florida last month and on the way, I purchased a USA Today for reading on the trip. One of the stories I ended up reading was about new fees or taxes being implemented on plastic grocery bags. San Francisco enacted a new $.02 tax per bag fee for each plastic bag you use at the grocery store. The kicker is that in 2015, that fee will be all the way up to $.12 a bag. The article went on to share about the same legislation being passed in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, an almost identical tax. I swear I am not making this up.
So my initial reaction was like - pfff, damn Californians and there outrageous and ludicral laws, taxes, fees, etc. and of course, Mass would be the next to jump on the band wagon of the newest yuppie craze. The reason for this tax/fee (this is great): plastic and recycling the plastic is still harmful in the long run to the cosmos and environment! A percentage of this tax will go to the government for it to waste and another percentage is suppose to further 'educate the public on reducing-reusing-recycling those plastic baggies.
After stewing from time to time over the last month by the discouragement this type of news, I think its just another little step to more overtaxation and ultimately another shining example of the total void of common sense by the general American (or voting portion of) people.
Why can't we just start opening some of the Pulp & Paper Mills back up and start reusing our paper trash a little more? The jobs lost over the last 20 years (mostly from 1998-2003) in the logging industry are still needed and wanted by hard working Americans. Wait - then the government wouldn't have that tax revenue on the plastic bags to further educate us on the proper use, reuse and disposal of our consumable goods.
Well, all you plastic people, give yourself a bow! Hillary thank you for single handedly destroying the economy of Maine and other logging states with your grand North American Free Trade Agreement, maybe you should have included a clause in that one that actually required Canada to buy from us with some proportion to what they sell us?!?
I don't think I will be able to stomach the day that I have to pay another $2 bucks on my grocery bill to help the planet by being forced to use plastic sacks. Give me back the PAPER!!!!

(Urge to rant satiated.... feel much better now!)

Peace and Please do put litter in its place!