Oregon Bans Retail Plastic Shopping Bags

[NOVA Green]

Not sure if this is the best place to post it, but I couldn't find anywhere else so apologies if the Mods need to shift the thread elsewhere.

As of Today, Paper and Plastic bags are officially banned from retail stores in Oregon, unless consumers choose to pay the extra 5 Cents....

This is the Modern Day equivalent of the Oregon "Bottle Bill", and although there were already many Cities and Counties that had passed similar policies it is now the law of State....

Personally I don't mind it, even although I live in a +20% Trump County.

We already have canvas bags in the trunk or backseat of the car, but never remember to bring them into many of the places we shop in what was a "non bag ban county"....

Not sure about all of you other Atlas Posters out there, but if you don't live in Oregon and are simply visiting, be prepared to BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) so that we don't deal with all of the litter and trash that comes with disposable shopping bags....

https://www.oregon.gov/deq/mm/production/Pages/Bags.aspx

[NOVA Green]

...this isn't a ban. Unless literally every product that has a tax on it is banned, which means hotels and cars are banned in all states.

The non-recyclable plastic bags are banned,  the ones you commonly see at grocery stores.   The "ban" applies to plastic bags thinner than 4 mils,  a standard grocery store plastic bag is about 0.5 mils.

Paper bags are not banned, they only have a recycled content requirement and an associated tax (or fee..?) added to them.

Thanks Nyvin for clarifying to BRTD / "I am Talking to You", who clearly didn't read anything on the link which I posted.

Apologies if I didn't clarify further in the OP for those simply "doing a seagull".... since I can certainly understand how some folks might have interpreted it as meaning not a "plastic bag ban" but rather paying the extra 5 Cents (or more depending upon municipality for 40% post-consumer paper bags) that are commonly sold at retail stores....

Let's put it this way, a few days before New Years I walked down the street to my local neighborhood corner market and was told that I would have to carry my items since they had run out of their bags and didn't reorder because the law was changing....

A few days before X-Mas, we went "big food shopping" at our local discount Supermarket (No... not Walmart), and were informed that as well, but they did have a stockpile of cardboard boxes that we could use to load up our $100+ grocery bill....

Technically not a ban on "paper bags", and the law allows purchases of plastic bags of certain thickness for items such as garbage bags, lawn care bags, etc....

I'm sure when I have to go back to work this coming Week after the 2 Week furlough at the Factory, we'll get some folks gripping about it, but whatever.... (Rolls virtual eyes).

I am curious if this might help promote what is left of the Paper Pulp Mill Recycling Plants in Oregon, where we have still seen jobs lost, while Oregon is literally exporting recycled paper products to China, only in order to see them reprocessed and then sold back to America as recycled TP or what have you.....

Now it would be interesting to see a US State / Global Map of places that have similar "Plastic Bag Ban Bills" in effect.....

[NOVA Green]

how is this different than a five cent tax on bags? Calling it a ban seems overly dramatic and counterproductive.

^

From what I've read,  it's plastic bags that are thinner than 4 mils (0.004 inches) that are actually banned.   

The 5 cent tax applies to thicker plastic bags (think turkey bags) and paper bags.

Please tell me measuring that is someone's full-time job. 

I believe there is a reporting requirement for businesses, so presumably that means that merchants simply verify their "Bag Men" and affirm they are compliant. Additionally, I understand that there is a $250 Fee per violation, so I can certainly imagine that citizens reporting businesses that are not compliant will quickly make it economically unfeasible for businesses that choose not to comply....

It's a bit different from when Oregon passed the Statewide smoking ban, where in theory you could have (50) smokers in a bar lighting up in civil disobedience, but the bar would only face one fine per incidence, basically a $250 fine for failing to enforce anti-smoking regs vs per individual smoker lighting up....

Although I consider myself good at math, at 0.4 MM might be much harder to distinguish than for example between 6' - 8'   

[NOVA Green]

The thread title: "Oregon Bans Plastic & Paper Bags"

Not "Oregon bans a certain type of plastic bag" or "Oregon taxes some plastic and paper bags while banning one type." No the title clearly states per English grammar that all paper and plastic bags are banned. It's incorrect.

Thanks BRTD.... glad I have a Seagull keeping me honest, that doesn't want to choke on plastic bags flying over our beautiful Oregon Coast.

Revised the thread title, and certainly was not trying to post *fake news*, despite the fact you could have easily looked at the details had you so desired.

Appreciate your update, and please advise if my thread title still is incorrect....   

[NOVA Green]

Before I clicked on this, I only saw "Oregon Bans Retail P..." and was wondering why OR would want to ban retail politics.

Naturally because Oregon is extremely strong Centralized Party State from both the 'Dems and the 'Pubs, as opposed to a State with a traditionally weak centralized State Party Structure....


The ghosts of Hatfield and McCall are still alive and well in Oregon....   

BYOB next time you walk into a grocery store in Oregon....   

[NOVA Green]

Before I clicked on this, I only saw "Oregon Bans Retail P..." and was wondering why OR would want to ban retail politics.

Naturally because Oregon is extremely strong Centralized Party State from both the 'Dems and the 'Pubs, as opposed to a State with a traditionally weak centralized State Party Structure....


The ghosts of Hatfield and McCall are still alive and well in Oregon....   

BYOB next time you walk into a grocery store in Oregon....   

I read that has Hatfield and McCoy and I was confused about why 2 feuding families are so powerful in Oregon

Well, certainly that is not the case, although Hatfield's Mom did come from Tennessee, who I believe was a "blacksmith" on the Southern Pacific Railroad Lines back in the dayz....     

Here's a brief intro to legendary Republican Governor and Senator Mark Hatfield, as well as legendary Oregon Republican Governor Tom McCall.

(This was way way back in the time where we actually had reasonable Republicans running for elected office in Oregon).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Hatfield

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_McCall

[NOVA Green]

how is this different than a five cent tax on bags? Calling it a ban seems overly dramatic and counterproductive.

^

From what I've read,  it's plastic bags that are thinner than 4 mils (0.004 inches) that are actually banned.   

The 5 cent tax applies to thicker plastic bags (think turkey bags) and paper bags.

Is a thin plastic bag worse for some reason?

They're used more in mass numbers, and also recycling machines that process plastic waste can't process them and they frequently cause jams.

If the thinner plastic bags are banned, stores will use more of the thicker bags instead.  And any plastic bags I don't think are normally recyclable in curbside recycling whatever their thickness.

So we went to do "big shopping" today and spent roughly $150 on groceries to last us a few weeks worth of food.... we had 4-5 Canvas bags in the Car that we brought into the store, and ended up spending $3 for three more bags (Buck a Bag), which will certainly come in handy in the future, although in reality we only needed to buy one bag....

Not a big deal, although folks will likely bitch and complain about it, but honestly actually was much easier for the "Pack Mule" (Husband) lugging heavier sacks of canvas versus trying to grab all of the plastic bags, many of which will likely fly away and kill migratory birds and ocean life....

It's all about a mental reset... BYOB, let's get rid of the plastics, just like we used to clip the six-packs knowing that birds would die on on the Streets of America...

It is great to see the return of American Eagles after the massive death caused by DDT, as written in by Rachael Carson's book "Silent Spring"....

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=silent+spring+by+rachel+carson&crid=2N28GWK9BP1SX&sprefix=silent+spring%2Caps%2C230&ref=nb_sb_ss_i_3_13