Old Bags & New Charges

Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 22998 – 1062

Here’s the haps:

Well, 2023 has brought with it changes this year already. Colorado’s Democrat-controlled government has passed CO HB21-1162, Management Of Plastic Products which has gone into effect and is guaranteed to be costly and outright annoying.

Retail stores will now be charging ten cents per single-use bag or you can bring your own reusable bag. This is supposed to help reduce litter and fight pollution. So all the stores in our state are required to stop using single-use plastic bags and make people use reusable bags. This first year they can still provide you a single-use bag for a charge of 10 cents. Interestingly to me, the 10-cent charge is divided up as 60% going to the municipality the store is in and the store is able to keep 40% to use as they see fit. No store offers a 4-cent refund, however, or sells a bag for 6 cents.

Oh well, such is life, I suppose. Gone are the days of tying a string to one and letting your kid fly it like a kite. Gone also are the days of free trashcan liners. My granddaughter would iron them and make them into scrapbook pages somehow. Gone also are those halcyon days of yore when you were asked, “Paper or plastic?”

I can recall when there were no plastic bags. Long before the days of Tetris, being a grocery store bagger was a skill. A lot would fit in those paper sacks if packed just right and believe you me the average customer could tell you how to do it if you messed up. And God forbid you should put a bar of soap in the same bag with a box of cereal! Calls for the manager, complaining that you were trying to poison their babies, would ensue. The paper bags were perfect for cutting apart and laying on the kitchen counter and putting hot chocolate chip cookies on. You could, with more effort, make kites out of them, as well. And use them for trash. Biodegradable and compostable. Costumes for skits, book covers, cat habitats, and something to put over your friend’s head who just looked better that way.

Of course, many retail grocers have gotten away from bagging groceries for you at all or even cashiering for you. No more friendly (or pseudo-friendly) face-to-face interactions with other people. Shopping becomes more and more of a chore as now I also have to remember the bags or pay the price when I get there.

Not only that, but now I have to start buying garbage bags, too. And let me tell you, as a cashier I would cringe when a customer had their own bags. I hated to touch them as they were often covered in dog or cat hair and whatever other dirt and grime was brought with them from people’s houses. I would have never allowed them if I had a choice.

Choice? A person used to have several choices and if reusing or reusable was something they believed in, they could do it while I chose paper. But the government doesn’t want you to have any choice.

In a comment on a different post, J.P. said, “How true about our fathers getting wiser as we age. Mine said that congress should only be allowed to be in session for 30 days a year. That would be enough time to do the necessities and then they would leave us alone.”