Save The Trees, use plastic?
grocery shopping bags?
Everything you buy in the supermarket is wrapped in some type of plastic; plastic trays of meat in plastic wrap, plastic jugs of milk, plastic bags for the fruits and vegetables, plastic jars of mayonaise; and yet you can't get a plastic shopping bag to put it all in?? For nearly twenty years you couldn't get a brown paper bag to put your groceries in either. I thought we were supposed to Save The Trees by using plastic bags.
It was the New York State government that made plastic grocery bags illegal three years ago, signed into law by governor Hochul. There was never a great clamoring for this law by masses of ordinary people; it was a tiny group of loud voices that pushed it through, and have been pushing this type of ban across the country. It was the same type of enviromentalists who pushed for plastic drinking straws to be banned in other states. These bans have an insignificant effect on the ennvironment, but they inconvenience people a lot. How many times have you decided to pick up a few items at the grocery on your way home from somewhere, only to realise that you haven't brought your reusable hemp-cloth bag. Now you've got to either stuff your purchases into your pockets, or spend fifty cents on ...wait for it... a PLASTIC BAG!
If this law had been put to a vote, it would have been rejected by a huge majority of New Yorkers. Maybe that's why we weren't allowed to vote; they can't have the people expressing their view of common sense.
The important part to remember is, it was a tiny group of loud voices that pushed it through, and have been pushing this type of ban across the country. We see this over and over again, a small group of activists with loud voices push for some agenda that the majority of average people don't want, or don't care about. Whether it's making it illegal to sell guinea pigs in petshops, forcing ice cream trucks to be solar powered, banning wood-fired pizza ovens, banning plastic bags, prohibiting restaurants from giving you a glass of water, forcing you to compost your garbage, the City and State government is always bowing down to these activists, limiting your freedom, limiting your choices.
You voted them into office, and now they do things that harm your interests, cost you money & time, cause aggravation. Because they are beholden to an ideology, not responsive to what voters want. If the current City Council members are re-elected, they will continue to do this.