05/17/10 09:28 - ID#51672
I don't want the friggin bag
How did this culture get started? It just makes no sense at all. It costs the company money to make these bags. I'm not saying that I don't think bags should be offered. I really am not an extremist, I actually am quite reasonable. Sometimes I like to have bags available because we all find ourselves needing them for unexpected purchases one time or another. I just don't get what is wrong with these cashiers that just toss a bag in the trash after I ask them to use it for another customer. Do they hate the earth and want to see it destroyed? is their bagging speed so greatly increased by throwing away the bag I rejected instead of taking the extra second it might take to use that same bag for someone else? I don't think that there really is any reasonable answer for why we do things the way we do.
Since logic and reason does not motivate us, then I believe the answer is to tax the bags. I'm not sure exactly how the logistics of it would work out but I'm thinking .10 to .25 a bag (paper included). The tax would put the burden on the customer not the business. The funds from the tax should be used for cleaning trash from our waterways. Maybe some of the money could be returned to the customer if they bring the bags back for recycling (again logistics)?
This tax I think is different from other taxes including the cigarette tax because the customer really has a choice and can very easily change their ways to avoid the tax. My proposed tax would also benefit us all without being a huge financial burden for our government or even the people who choose to pay the bag tax by opting not to use re-usable bags. If there was a bag tax everyone would win except the plastic bag workers. I know some people want to live in anarchy and don't want the government taxing things but I really think that this would be a good move on the federal level. I think, as evidenced by the oil spill in the gulf, that what we are doing is not working and we are all going to suffer for it. One person's right to throw away a plastic bag is infringing on another person's right to live in a clean and healthy environment.
Permalink: I_don_t_want_the_friggin_bag.html
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05/15/10 06:29 - 53ºF - ID#51634
Illusions grand opening~4 REAL~
Mike and I think we will be going. Anyone else want to join us?
Permalink: Illusions_grand_opening_4_REAL_.html
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04/24/10 10:20 - 65ºF - ID#51448
The Plastic Crisis
This isn't exactly plastic but oil which is what plastic is anyways. There is some type of fish, maybe salmon, which are spawning here. People will eat these fish.
I plan on alerting you all to the next river clean ups which really do a great deal to combat this crisis. They clean up the nation's waterways twice a year but the amount of trash being added outmatch the amount of volunteers needed to clean it all up. The worst thing about all of this is that most of this could be prevented. So much of this trash is from ignorance and complacency. We all need to wake up.
Permalink: The_Plastic_Crisis.html
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04/24/10 03:22 - 66ºF - ID#51446
Try not to look so illegal
Permalink: Try_not_to_look_so_illegal.html
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04/20/10 09:36 - 50ºF - ID#51432
420 Bike
Here it is, a Jamis Satellite...
Permalink: 420_Bike.html
Words: 111
04/17/10 11:55 - 40ºF - ID#51410
Buffalo Niagara River Keepers
It is hard for me not to hate the fisherman. I got to remember that not all of them litter but so many do. So much of the trash is clearly from them, mostly Styrofoam containers for their night crawlers. There are also tons of plastic and glass bottles, plastic bags, balloons, plastic combs, take out containers, shoes and fishing line.
I didn't pick up too many of the plastic tampon applicators that girls flush away. These end up all over the shore line. We really need some public service announcements. The amount of trash thrown about is so overwhelming. I definitely want to do it again. They do this bi-annually and now I'm on the mailing list so I will let you all know when the next one is. It is actually kind of fun and a great workout.
Permalink: Buffalo_Niagara_River_Keepers.html
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04/13/10 10:10 - 49ºF - ID#51395
What they are trying to tell you
Permalink: What_they_are_trying_to_tell_you.html
Words: 2
04/11/10 01:01 - ID#51375
Kill it, kill it, kill it @#&!#@
The dinner with Mike's parents was really nice. I made southern fried Chicken (ya'll), collard greens, macaroni and cheese, corn bread and banana's foster. Would have been nice to have the bro in laws over too but (e:paul) is super allergic to Coco which sucks.
I went to the bike auction with (e:mike), (e:jill) and Steve and that was interesting but we left with no bikes. I couldn't believe how much those bikes were going for. People could buy new bikes for the amount they were paying for them. We stayed for most of it but we gave up at the end. There were a lot of people there. I'm thinking about making a bid on (e:bay) for one. It has five days left of bidding so I am waiting it out to see if anyone bids first. This would be my first bid on something if I go through with it. ebay seems safer than bidding at the police auction because at least on ebay you have time to look at it and ask questions.
Yesterday, I watched Vera Drake as Mike slept next to me. It was about a woman in 1950s England who helped women terminate unwanted pregnancies. She eventually got caught after more than 20 years and sent to prison. We did both watch The Fluffer. This movie dates to the VHS and pager era. An aspiring film maker accidentally rents a porn when attempting to view a copy of Citizen Cane he instead finds a copy of Citizen Cum featuring "gay for pay" pornstar Johnny Rebel. He instantly becomes obsessed with "Johnny" and goes for a job at Janus Studios where Johnny is an exclusive. The film maker becomes Johnny's fluffer boy on set feeding into his obsession and causing him to go great lengths in order to full fill it.
In case you were wondering what a fluffer is:
(fluff*er, n): One who offers ego reinforcement; one who provides the necessary stimulation for a male porn star to perform.
Permalink: Kill_it_kill_it_kill_it_amp_.html
Words: 489
03/31/10 02:15 - 44ºF - ID#51299
Sammy the Squirrel says...
I think (e:james) posted a youtube video in case you are in need of assistance.
Permalink: Sammy_the_Squirrel_says_.html
Words: 31
03/21/10 02:55 - 42ºF - ID#51239
Thanks e:metalpeter!
Buffalo Police Bicycle Auction
Saturday, April 10th, 2010, starting at 9am.
Buffalo Police Headquarters Garage, 74 Franklin Street
There will be approximately 250-300 bicycles for sale.
At the last auction, bicycles sold anywhere from $1 to $100.
For more information contact 851-4567
I definitely plan on being there. IF any of you (e:peeps) bid against me, I kill you.
Maybe just maybe my bicycle will be there! I kind of doubt it but it would be awesome.
Permalink: Thanks_e_metalpeter_.html
Words: 78
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I am a horrible planet destroying monster.
I am absolutely certain that even the poorest of the poor would not be burdened by this bag tax. They simply will not take a bag. Poor people know how to live without spending a dime. A re-usable bag costs .99 and often is given away. If you want to help the most poor the best way is to give them an incentive to pick up plastic bags they find carelessly tossed into the wind. Paying them per bag or per pound of plastic they retrieve will motivate them to return to be recycled.
Banning plastic bags all together has some disadvantages. First, people would not be able to consume as much being bad for the economy. I will use a disposable bag when I do not anticipate that I will be shopping. If I had no way of carrying home any of my impulse buys I would not be able to make the purchase. Much of our economy is based on such impulse purchases. Second, we would have the inconvenience of not being able to bring home our impulse buys. Some of my best purchases are of these kind. Third, you would have an immediate lay off of the entire bag industry. They need to be found jobs elsewhere first.
The other reason this tax will help the poor is that they will find that many of the re-usable bags available to us make it much easier to carry what we are consuming. Poor people walk, bike and use public transport. There biggest benefit of the tax is surely being enticed to find out how much easier it is for you to carry your items in a re-usable bag. With a reusable bag you utilize your shoulders, where as the plastic and paper force you to use many more muscles to carry the same items.
Mike carries re-usable bags in his car. I almost always have a back pack and sometimes I keep a cloth bag inside of it.
(e:jenks), you would have helped the environment more if you didn't obtain your re-usable bags and then not use them. Most of those bags are often made of plastics and synthetics anyways. By not using them you are doing twice the damage.
In Terms of taxing bags, I think that is a bad idea. I think that it is up to the consumer to pick what kind of bag they want. Often times taxs just wind up being a tax on the poor. Let take the sterotypical poor family or single mother with multiple kids. Is she really going to go buy a bunch of nice bags (so her kids can destory them and mess them up at home) that she doesn't have the extra cash for. So that tax gets put on her and the people with more money buy the nice bags. My other problem with the tax is would it be on both plastic and paper, if you have heavy stuff would you then have to ask for double bags and get taxed more. Also what about places like price rite where you pay for the bags how much would those go up.
I'm not sure what the best way to do it is. I think plasstic and Paper bags should have incentives to recycle them. I have heard that you can do it at tops and Wegman's but not sure how many people know about it. Maybe all stores should do that. Or maybe they should just have a cart system where you push a button and it says put Items back into cart then you take it out to your car (if you drive) and put it in that way. Or maybe there is some law that says all check out isles have a button you push and it tells the cashier who in most places is the bagger now, those used to be 2 different jobs, what way you want it bagged.
In the absence of a provision in the ABC Law or in the Authority’s rules specifically addressing this issue, I am of the view that the seller is under no legal obligation to place the purchased item into a bag." :::link:::
(e:jason) - to answer your question (e:leetee) and I keep reusable bags in our cars. I start out with 4 or 5 Wegmans bags and end up with zero. Since I rarely remember to put them back in the car until they are all gone.
I am one of the evil monsters that uses plastic bags. Sorry everyone.
(but I don't throw them away... they get stashed in the kitchen cabinet and reused as lunch bags, etc.)
And along the 'bag tax' lines- some places offer refunds for every bag of your own you bring in- but it's only 5c. So if I brought in 20 bags, I'd only save a dollar? I'm sorry, but that kind of money is not going to motivate anyone.
At first I thought "25c per bag?! that's a ton!" But then I realized that even on a 'big' grocery shop, say 8-10 bags, it's still only a couple bucks... Not unreasonable.
I'm not sure if it's legit, or for that matter a federal bag tax, but the gov't could compel stores to charge for the bags. Maybe the government could take a piece. Honestly I don't think 0.25 per bag is really going to change the behavior of most people anyway, regardless of who gets the money. You would have to make it really punitive, like a buck a piece or more.
If someone put a gun to my head and told me to make a choice, I would prefer an all out ban on plastic bags to a tax. It's more honest, and it doesn't cause government to become dependent in some way on that tax. If the government is making free money on plastic bags will they want those bags to go away? I'm not so sure about that.
Good, constructive thought Libertad. In the end I would rather see the plastic bags go away as well but I don't have any good ideas.
I share your frustration on the amount of plastic we get when shopping. Even though, we recycle the bags, it would be better not to have them to recycle in the first place.
The reason that I mentioned complaining to the Wegmans management food chain is because I have learned talking to cashiers at Wegmans over the years that they are trained to put certain items into plastic before placing the item in another bag. If a cashier is still under probation, the cashier could get into trouble for not doing it. The newer the cashier the more likely he or she is to follow the rules.
I'll end by quoting Neil Young, "Take my advice, don't listen to me." <g>
To avoid problems, I place my reusable bags at on top of my first item or at the beginning of my stuff depending on how much I am buying. Sometimes the cashiers have a hissy fit but my stuff always ends up in the bags I brought.
If you have problems with cashiers at Wegmans ask to speak to the front end manager. If that doesn't work ask to speak to the Manager on Duty. If that doesn't work, call Wegman's corporate. Keep your receipt. Try to remember or write down who you spoke with. They will eventually listen if you have documentation.
(e:james) that is awesome that you are doing what you can. Good to know about the county. Maybe we can convince our "government should be run like a business" Executive, Chris Collins, that this would be good for business and the county? Thanks for the link to the article about the sucess of Ireland's bag tax.
Sometimes at Wegman's I give them my cloth bags right away but they still wrap my items in plastic before they put it in the bag. This includes non toxic cleaners, stuff as harmless as baking soda.
This is something I have been trying to implement in the city, but it seems we don't quite have the authority to do it without the county on board.
I shop a lot in Pricerite and at Guercios. Pricerite doesn't give anyone any bags unless they request it and at Guercios, they listen to me, smile and then help load stuff in my bag! :-)
I think there is a trick to getting your request across in other stores (eg. walgreens, weggers etc.). You need to make eye contact with the checkout clerk way before your turn comes. That way, the clerk looks at your before automatically tossing the first thing into the waiting plastic bag.
I don't wait for them to start the "how's it going" checkout small talk. I start it while the customer before me is swiping their credit card or in the process of paying. It works every time without fail. You smile a great big smile and they have to look at you and smile back (I expect it will be really easy for you, since you are a natural headturner. ;^)) And then you say something pleasant - anything, so they can place your voice when you give them another huge smile and say "Please, no bags for me!" next.
Seriously, try it! I call it the P-BAR (Plastic-Bag-Avoidance-Routine).