The Austin city council’s ban on plastic bags isn’t really a ban on plastic bags.
It’s a scheme which, while it apparently encourages some people to bring cloth bags (Ann Coulter calls them portable bacteria colonies) to the grocery, actually allows groceries to sell plastic bags rather them give them away.
In fact it encourages the use of plastic bags since our local H.E.B. charges more for paper ones: $1 for paper vs 25 cents for plastic. Our local CVS pharmacy not only does not sell plastic bags, they give paper bags away for free.
Now you may say the ban on plastic bags is actually a ban on the old, free plastic baggies one occasionally sees blowing end over end down a two-lane Hill Country highway. (Only occasionally, mind you. Central Texas roadways are remarkably clean.)
And we’re not likely to ever see one of H.E.B.’s red-with-white-handles plastic bags so enlivened by the breezes of passing cars. Ha, say I. Give it time. Give it time. Because it’s obvious that was/is not the issue here. Charging for plastic bags is the issue and that’s working out just fine.
UPDATE: Hey! The Translucent plastic bags are back! At H.E.B.! Yes! And they are free!
But you need the password. The password is “meat.” When you buy some meat (or fish) they give you a free plastic bag, just like the ones that were banned. Somebody is listening to Ann Coulter. Besides me,that is.
THE TEXAS SCRIBBLER 