Your Legislation in Action – Part II

In a recent posting, I shared an email I sent to my State Representative Ann Williams. She responded rather quickly with what I considered the usual platitudes but I admit I have some bias in the fact that I was predisposed to have an attitude regarding anything she would say.

The most interesting thing I found was the continued willingness, even after the fact, of her and probably many of the other legislators to misdirect the facts around the new bag bill in the State of Oregon.

She refers to the bill as other have as a “plastic bag ban”. While on the surface, this is partially true in that it does ban the distribution of single-use plastic bags it is not a “plastic bag ban”. It is the banning of retailers to give out bags, period. Oh yes, there is a caveat that they can sell you a “reusable” bag for a nickel. I know that this does not even cover the cost of the bag, but even so it is a ban on the distribution of bags, replacing it with the sale of “reusable” bags. Not a “plastic bag ban” at all but a bag ban, period.

In case you are wondering why I am putting “reusable” bags in quotes, I have two reasons.

First is the most common “reusable” bag you have to pony up a nickel for is the age-old paper bag that you used to get for free. Yes, the same one that you hoped would make it home without falling apart. The same one you wanted double-bagged. The same one you eschewed for plastic because it was so flimsy. Yes that paper bag has now been reclassified as a “reusable” bag and they charge you a nickel for it.

The second most common “reusable” bag may in fact be reusable, truth be told. But here is the rub. It is a heavy-duty PLASTIC bag. Several stores are providing reusable plastic bags at a nickel apiece at what I would imagine is a considerable loss ever since the new law went into place. So much for the plastic bag ban.

Oh, and another new item that stores are starting to provide at a nominal fee: totes. For your shopping convenience, several stores (Safeway and Albertson’s specifically) are selling totes which are stackable boxes.

I am sure that there may be a reduction of garbage with the new ban. I am willing to bet it may be significant. I will not even bring up the argument about how the single-use plastic bags were 100% recyclable and that the garbage collectors were the biggest proponents of their ban.

I am even be willing to concede that a plastic bag ban would have probably been supported by the majority of Oregonians. The thing I will not concede is that the ban on paper bags would not have passed. And State Representative Ann Williams and her cohorts know it. That is why they found it necessary to be less that truthful about what they called the law and still do.