Readers React: California’s pseudo-environmentalist bag ban

To the editor: For years I have shopped at Trader Joe’s, always taking my groceries home in a paper bag since the grocery chain does not have a plastic bag option. During these years I have also participated in the annual Friends of the L.A. River cleanups (as well as monthly local beach cleanups), yet never once have I thought that plastic bags were the biggest problem during those events. (“Statewide ban on disposable plastic bags is signed into law by Brown,� Sept. 30)

Now, Gov. Jerry Brown has decided to sign into law a ban on single-use plastic bags (I don’t know why they are labeled single-use, since they are easily reused). This comes across as a way for Brown to make himself look like he cares about the environment.

This ban simply puts more money in the pockets of store owners and further strains those living on modest or fixed incomes. If Brown were a true environmentalist, he would address other more important issues and stop the state from bending laws to entice companies, such as Tesla Motors, to build environmentally unfriendly plants here.

Carmen Valdés, Long Beach

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To the editor: I subscribe to The Times to stay informed. With the bag ban, I have another reason: The thin plastic bag wrapped around the paper each morning allows me to clean up after my dog.

It occurs to me that Brown, a dog owner himself, must be a newspaper subscriber, or he never would have signed such a bill.

When word gets out about having a plastic bag literally delivered to your doorstep each morning along with a great newspaper, I’m sure new subscriptions to The Times will soar.

Elisabeth Bernhart-Chatfelter, Lake Hughes

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To the editor: Good riddance to an item that contributes to pollution and waste.

And, in response to those inevitable comments about how the newspaper comes in plastic, wasting a plastic shopping bag is avoidable by using a cloth bag or reusing a paper bag; in contrast, there is no other practical way to ensure the newspaper gets delivered intact and dry.

Joseph DeMello, Long Beach

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