Reusable Bags

Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena residents may see a ban on plastic bags in the new future, which may pose a lifestyle change for some shoppers. Fear not, Angeleno Heights resident Beth Zeigler wants to help people get organized with reusable bags, the Eastsider LA reported. Zeigler has set up collection boxes at b usinesses across Echo Park and Silver Lake , according to the news blog , and will redistribute the donated reusable bags on November 12 at Vons in Echo Park and Trader Joe's in Silver Lake along with tip sheets on make the most out of reusable bags.

GLENDALE ? Shoppers will soon be pushed to forsake plastic at Glendale checkout stands after the City Council on Tuesday voted to join a county-wide effort to reduce single-use plastic bag consumption by at least 30% in two years. If the voluntary program fails to meet the benchmark, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors have left open the option of enforcing an all-out ban as a way to mitigate the damage billions of plastic bags have had on the environment each year, from choking landfills to infiltrating storm water systems.

When California legislated motorists/passengers must wear seat belts, I wasn't a big fan at first, and it took some getting used to, but it eventually became an automatic habit. The ban on plastic bags, like the seat belt law, may be a little inconvenient at first, but it's also well worth the effort ("Education Matters: Antonovich's arguments are short-sighted," Nov. 26). Plastic bags are supposed to be recycled, but many people don't bother to do that. The bags that are not recycled don't always make it into our trash barrels either.

The Burbank City Council this week agreed to move forward with a plastic bag ban that will likely start with large grocery stores. The draft ordinance will be based largely on the ban currently in place for unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, where since July 1, larger supermarkets and pharmacies have also been required to charge 10 cents each for paper bags. “The issue is at point-of-sale at grocery stores,” Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy said. “I don't think most residents will see this as a big crimp when they shop.” Not everyone on the dais was convinced, with some speakers at the meeting decrying what they said was another example of government overreach.

Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market is hosting a Design-A-Bag Contest to encourage customers to use reusable bags. The company is inviting customers to submit their original bag designs through www.freshandeasy. com/designabag through May 31. The winning design will be printed on a reusable bag that will be sold at all Fresh & Easy stores. Customers 18 or older can submit a design. From those submissions, a panel of judges will select 10 semi-finalists based on originality and creativity.

I agree with Robert Morrison that the bags one gets at stores are handy for other uses (“Those plastic bags do come in handy,” Nov. 1). Yes, bags with built-in handles should be available for sale - on a shelf near other useful items like aluminum foil, paper plates, plastic forks, etc. People who want useful items usually spend their own money to buy them. It should be that way with bags, too. They aren't free. The store pays for them and passes the cost along to customers.

Two issues that call out for further debate among Glendale City Council candidates, before the city's April election, are: the “finalized” City Council ban on plastic bags, and the seemingly ongoing plan to try and regain state redevelopment money for Central Library renovations. Two academics, Jonathan Klick and Joshua D. Wright from the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Law & Economics , recently crunched data on their city's emergency room admissionsand found that San Francisco's 2007 initiated ban corresponded with an increase in infections from the increased use of hard-to-clean correctly reusable bags.

I too dislike the new, more personally intrusive airport security procedures, but I would dislike it much, much more if a bomb-carrying homicidal maniac slipped through airport security and got aboard a plane that I was flying on. So I am willing to submit to the new disliked procedures, knowing that many others and I will be safer. We have all seen the plethora of media reports about those who vehemently object to the new intrusive procedures. Would those same individuals also object to the intrusiveness of those trying to reassemble their bodies after their plane was blown out of the sky?

I've read Paul Caroll's letter ("Government has intruded enough" Nov. 29) several times for signs of irony or humor. Can he really be serious? Surely he can't be equating banning plastic bags, to help our environment, with our 2nd Amendment rights? I agree wholeheartedly with Dan Kimber ("Education Matters: Antonovich's arguments are short-sighted," Nov. 26) that plastic bags are a menace, and I refuse to take them at the grocery store. It's not a burden to take your own reusable bags to the store; it's just a matter of changing one's habits.

Two issues that call out for further debate among Glendale City Council candidates, before the city's April election, are: the “finalized” City Council ban on plastic bags, and the seemingly ongoing plan to try and regain state redevelopment money for Central Library renovations. Two academics, Jonathan Klick and Joshua D. Wright from the University of Pennsylvania Institute for Law & Economics , recently crunched data on their city's emergency room admissionsand found that San Francisco's 2007 initiated ban corresponded with an increase in infections from the increased use of hard-to-clean correctly reusable bags.

I agree with Robert Morrison that the bags one gets at stores are handy for other uses (“Those plastic bags do come in handy,” Nov. 1). Yes, bags with built-in handles should be available for sale - on a shelf near other useful items like aluminum foil, paper plates, plastic forks, etc. People who want useful items usually spend their own money to buy them. It should be that way with bags, too. They aren't free. The store pays for them and passes the cost along to customers.

Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena residents may see a ban on plastic bags in the new future, which may pose a lifestyle change for some shoppers. Fear not, Angeleno Heights resident Beth Zeigler wants to help people get organized with reusable bags, the Eastsider LA reported. Zeigler has set up collection boxes at b usinesses across Echo Park and Silver Lake , according to the news blog , and will redistribute the donated reusable bags on November 12 at Vons in Echo Park and Trader Joe's in Silver Lake along with tip sheets on make the most out of reusable bags.

The Burbank City Council this week agreed to move forward with a plastic bag ban that will likely start with large grocery stores. The draft ordinance will be based largely on the ban currently in place for unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County, where since July 1, larger supermarkets and pharmacies have also been required to charge 10 cents each for paper bags. “The issue is at point-of-sale at grocery stores,” Councilwoman Emily Gabel-Luddy said. “I don't think most residents will see this as a big crimp when they shop.” Not everyone on the dais was convinced, with some speakers at the meeting decrying what they said was another example of government overreach.

A personal thanks to outgoing director I was sad to read the article ("Parks director heads south," Dec. 15) about Glendale Community Services & Parks Director George Chapjian leaving for a new post in Long Beach. This will be a huge loss for Glendale, and he'll leave some big shoes to fill. But I certainly understand the desire for someone as capable as Mr. Chapjian to take on new challenges. In my capacity as head of the Historical Society of the Crescenta Valley, and my self-appointed role as local rabble-rouser, I've had plenty of chances to work with many local officials and department heads.

I appreciate the follow-up story by Veronica Rocha about the Halloween night car crash ("Teen's joyride ends in wreck, police say," Dec. 10). Too often, we never hear any details after the day of a story. (This story concerns a violent crash of a Mercedes SUV into four parked cars on Maryland Avenue, after which the driver ran away.) The story reports that the police traced the ownership of the Mercedes and discovered that it had been taken by a 15-year old child of the family that owned it. What about parental responsibility?

When California legislated motorists/passengers must wear seat belts, I wasn't a big fan at first, and it took some getting used to, but it eventually became an automatic habit. The ban on plastic bags, like the seat belt law, may be a little inconvenient at first, but it's also well worth the effort ("Education Matters: Antonovich's arguments are short-sighted," Nov. 26). Plastic bags are supposed to be recycled, but many people don't bother to do that. The bags that are not recycled don't always make it into our trash barrels either.

I've read Paul Caroll's letter ("Government has intruded enough" Nov. 29) several times for signs of irony or humor. Can he really be serious? Surely he can't be equating banning plastic bags, to help our environment, with our 2nd Amendment rights? I agree wholeheartedly with Dan Kimber ("Education Matters: Antonovich's arguments are short-sighted," Nov. 26) that plastic bags are a menace, and I refuse to take them at the grocery store. It's not a burden to take your own reusable bags to the store; it's just a matter of changing one's habits.

I too dislike the new, more personally intrusive airport security procedures, but I would dislike it much, much more if a bomb-carrying homicidal maniac slipped through airport security and got aboard a plane that I was flying on. So I am willing to submit to the new disliked procedures, knowing that many others and I will be safer. We have all seen the plethora of media reports about those who vehemently object to the new intrusive procedures. Would those same individuals also object to the intrusiveness of those trying to reassemble their bodies after their plane was blown out of the sky?

LA CRESCENTA — La Crescenta shoppers will soon have to stick to paper or reusable grocery bags after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday enacted a sweeping ban on the use of single-use plastic bags. The board voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to approve the ban for unincorporated areas and encouraged the 88 cities across the county to follow suit. Currently, only Malibu has a similar ban in place. Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents the La Crescenta area, voted against the ban, which he said would cause additional financial burdens on small retailers and consumers.