Hawaii bans plastic bags at checkout

[grumbler]

At worst this is gesture politics, at best a very marginal issue; even bottled designer water has a magnitude or two more waste involved in its sale and distribution than this.

  This could be said about pretty much every issue.

[grumbler]

Bottled water is horrific stuff for the environment.

Not so much the water as the bottles.

Bottled water bottle aren't as harmful to the economy as plastic grocery bags, though.  They are much more likely to get recycled, and even if not recycled, less likely to fuck up the animal life in the environment in which they are left.

[Darth Wagtaros]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XijqRo180fw

What would Mother Earth say?! 

[Darth Wagtaros]

Bottled water is horrific stuff for the environment.

Not so much the water as the bottles.

Bottled water bottle aren't as harmful to the economy as plastic grocery bags, though.  They are much more likely to get recycled, and even if not recycled, less likely to fuck up the animal life in the environment in which they are left.

I believe the bottles can be shredded, processed, and used to make carpeting and such.

[CountDeMoney]

Well, at least they're not strangling waterfowl like the old six-pack rings.

Then again, if a duck is choking himself out with with a water bottle around his neck, well, that's a pretty retarded duck.

[Eddie Teach]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XijqRo180fw

What would Mother Earth say?! 

She's probably horrified and offended that Bette Midler got cast to play her.

[grumbler]

I believe the bottles can be shredded, processed, and used to make carpeting and such.

Plastic bags can be recycled as well, but one doesn't find the recycling containers for bags as common as those for bottles.

[DontSayBanana]

I believe the bottles can be shredded, processed, and used to make carpeting and such.

Or my cell phones- a couple of ones I've had over the last couple of years: Motorola W233 Renew, Motorola Citrus

[Ed Anger]

Or clothing.

[The Larch]

At worst this is gesture politics, at best a very marginal issue; even bottled designer water has a magnitude or two more waste involved in its sale and distribution than this.

It's not marginal at all. Plastic bags are amongst the most quoted items in beach cleanup campaigns all over the world.

[The Larch]

So they are gonna force people to bring their own bags or they gonna use paper and fuck up the forests some more?

At least you can reforest; you can't replastic.  You see the size of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch lately?  Twice the size of fucking Texas.  And there ain't no trees trunks floating there.

Ugh, didn't know about this 'till now.

Fucking horrible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Pacific_Garbage_Patch

Its been in the news for years dude.

Yup, it's been floating around (pun intended) for the last five years or so, even if the first reports regarding garbage patches come from the 70s.

[The Larch]

Btw, it's not random that Hawaii is amongst the pioneers on action regarding marine litter, as it already has a tradition on awareness on the issue due to being right in the middle of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Some beaches there get regularly drowned by debris from there, check for instance Kamilo Beach:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamilo_Beach



It was no wonder that Honolulu was the place where the global plastic industry made a formal declaration last year to search for solutions for the issue:

http://www.plasticseurope.org/documents/document/20111215093052-2011_12_13_joint_declaration_marine_litter.pdf

[Ed Anger]

I want to know why this garbage patch hasn't been annexed yet and resettled with Mexicans.

[The Larch]

I want to know why this garbage patch hasn't been annexed yet and resettled with Mexicans.

It's not really suitable for colonization. :p

[Ed Anger]

I want to know why this garbage patch hasn't been annexed yet and resettled with Mexicans.

It's not really suitable for colonization. :p

After the Mexicans get dumped on it, it would be the garbage and oil patch.