Bag Ban

After the insanity of the November election, most of the political focus in my circles has been on the presidential outcome.  However, it has to be mentioned that our state elections had some interesting outcomes.  California is notorious for having all sorts of propositions on the ballot each year.  All it takes to get on the ballot is 200 signatures, so a lot of what ends up on it are very narrow in scope and usually will benefit just one group (or even one person).  They are always convoluted and our ballot is enormous.  This year was the worse I've ever seen it.  Our election booklet was the size of a phonebook trying the explain the 17 propositions we were voting on.
California did legalize the use of marijuana for those 21years or older.  I will write about that one at a later time.
The state also voted to uphold the ban on single use plastic bags that was on the books from a previous election.  The ban required customers to provide their own bags or pay the store 10 cents per recyclable or biodegradable bag taken from the store.  I'm not too sure about the previous ban because some of our stores stopped using them and others didn't.  Some stopped using them and then started using them.  My regular grocery store didn't stop using them, so I didn't worry too much about it.  A yes in November's election meant the bag ban stood while a no rejected the ban entirely.  Our Earth seems to be suffocating by the abundance of trash/plastic, so the majority of California voted to keep it as it was which has opened my eyes to the bag ban.
The very next day, I am not kidding literally THE VERY NEXT DAY, every grocery store in California stopped giving out regular bags (plastic or paper) and were ready to sell the biodegradable ones.  What law ever voted on goes into play the very next day?!?!  The answer is none.  Government doesn't work that way.  Most of the ours start the following January 1 or even a year or two after the election.  This one though caught everyone off guard.  Droves of people showed up at their local grocery stores bagless (and a little irritated) that first week.  And even now, almost 2 months later, many of us still walk into those darn stores with our reusable bags sitting in the car.  Even worse, apparently the ban didn't really start the next day, but the grocery stores started it anyways in order to take the 10 cent per bag for themselves while everyone was forgetting their bags.  That was irksome.
I have been trying to use reusable bags for a few years now, but never did very well with it.  I have them, but unless I drape them over my body every time I drive the car I leave them in the car.  And since my store wasn't doing it previously for some reason, the habit never stuck.  Another issue I am having with the change is that I didn't use these single use bags only one time.  There are many uses for these bags once home, and while they eventually made their way to the trash, it was after an additional use or two.  Now we don't have them.  The new 10 cent bags are quite different - larger and thicker - so don't really work.  So now instead of lining my trashcans (or whatever) with the free store bags, I'm going to buy plastic trash bags from the store and eventually they will get thrownout.  It seems like maybe this proposition had a few business interests in mind, more so than the environment.
The bring your own bag things has slowed things down at the grocery store as well.  You send your BYOB bags down the conveyor belt and those who bag the groceries fiddle and fool with them because they don't sit up right and they fill them fuller than they ever filled the plastic bags.  The lines at the store have gotten much longer.
I've been eying these bags for awhile now, and finally broke down and bought them a couple of weeks ago.  The checkers comment on how much they like them and how much easier they are.

 They pull out and hang over the sides of the grocery cart.  You can then toss stuff inside while shopping.  Once finished, the groceries are very easy to grab from the cart.  From there the bagger (or checker or me) sets the items inside the bag without the inconvenience.

 On this shopping trip I was only grabbing some ingredients for cookies for a cookie swap and a couple of things I keep in the house.  The bags aren't very full in this case, but they are roomy enough for a big shopping trip.

 Once to the car, the bags slide right off the cart,  the handles are attached together, which closes the bag to keep everything inside.
I like them a lot!  Still leaving them in the car 50% of the time, but my percentage is growing.

While I'm almost a bleeding heart liberal, and I am very concerned about the environment, this ban has been a huge inconvenience.  It's HARD to do the right thing!