The Right to Bear Bags
I happen to live in a city (Austin) that passed a bag ban, but not without pushback from the American Chemistry Council, the benignly-named lobbying arm of the nation’s chemical manufacturers. The group has a penchant for meddling in local efforts; it also successfully fought California’s attempt to list BPA as toxic.
Here in Austin, the transition went smoothly, and commerce continues as usual. Not that you’d know that from the bloviations of a Texas politician (R, natch) calling for a Shopping Bag Freedom Act. Speaking for myself, I have enough canvas tote bags for a year’s worth of groceries.
More on New York’s unsuccessful efforts to reduce plastic bag usage here.
