26 Replies to “And Just Like That”

  1. Makes you wonder if Aliens are the Environmentalist’s, given that all their solutions are meant to eliminate Human Kind… Plastic straws YEP! the big one… Single use Hospital Plastic & Pill containers.. Control of all CO2

  2. When some one chastises you for using a single use plastic straw saying that the straw could end up in the nostril of a turtle.
    A good comeback:
    Well they are not single use then are they.
    (Heard on YT from a Scottish comedian.)

  3. Huh.
    And all it took was a global pandemic to make sanitation a factor worth considering when deciding how best to carry groceries out of a supermarket.

    1. Where practical, I think groceries need to be ordered by phone / online for pickup. Only store employees should be allowed in the stores.

      Be nice if plastic could be configured to biodegrade more quickly. On my first trip to Africa, I landed in Johannesburg – expecting to see “Africa”, I saw plastic bags blowing in the wind everywhere. Bit disappointing.

      1. Been to Johburg three times. Plastic bags blowing around are the least of their problems.

      2. Sorry to burst your bubble, But in Calgary, compostable “plastic” grocery bags have been available at any Co-op Grocery store for at least 2 years. We use em all the time…and they end their life filled with compostable food scraps and the like as its dropped into the Compost bin here at our condo.

        Yea they cost you the back breaking sum of $ .05 ea. But, do the math and you’ll find it’s cheaper than buying a box of dedicated “compostable” bags with the added bonus of carrying handles..!!

        Win win

        They should be made available to EVERY other Grocery outlet on the planet.

      3. “I saw plastic bags blowing in the wind everywhere.”

        Proper storage or disposal would prevent that, but instead of dealing with the cause, it’s the symptom that’s attacked.

        A few years ago while hiking out in the middle of nowhere in the Adirondack Mountain preserve, I spotted a “lost” plastic bag. It appeared very out of place, considering where I was. I burned it up in my campfire and wasn’t punished by Gaia.

      4. What if the store employee has the deadly auge? Do you want some dip packing your groceries and you don’t know if has washed anything on himself in a week, or the dip that delivers them?

      5. Shoulda stayed in Africa. Sounds like you could have been gainfully employed.
        Picking up plastic bags and other refuse.

      6. That Plastic was probably collected in Canada & shipped to Africa…Don’t You know that Canada shipped Plastic Trash to the Philippines (volcanic Island without a continental shelf) and when they rejected the Shit it was shipped back to Canada… You can pickup your share of that Trash @ the CBC

  4. just have the government set up a plan were kids can collect stray “plastics” so they can deliver them to a central place, and get some $$$$ for their effort. Just as we did with pop bottles, and some adults do now, to supplement their OAP.

      1. Jeff, there are lots of “government plans” that work, because most canadians are stupid that way. A private plan would not work if there was to low of a profit margin, and in plastics recycling the profit margins are very tight. I know because I uset up and ran a company that recycled plastics. So yes GOVERNMENT plan. Government is already heavily involved in our lives, and this is not an area that would be personally intrusive. Seeing as you are probably out of your area of knowledge here , your opinion is useless, and biASSed, butt thanks for playing

        1. 666, government was is and continues to be a problem for free people. They screw up everything the touch and make life miserable for anyone with even half a brain. I know that leaves you out as your comment so aptly proves.

  5. I call the reusable bags “germ bags”.

    Steyn was ripping on these “Charlie Rose NPR reusable tote bags” last week when he was guest hosting for Rush. Totally hilarious.

    1. I paid something like $20.00 for a custom made and printed bag with the logo of my local boutique grocery store – Diablo Foods. It’s really cute and it signals my eco-elitist virtue … and ability to shop for groceries priced about 30% higher than Costco for similar items. The bag is canvas. It might as well be an agar medium for growing viruses!

      The canvas bag has gone into mothballs (after a solo washing cycle in my frontloader). Now, to signal my virtue and wealth … I use heavy plasticized totes I collected (for “FREE”) from my last stay at the Grand Hyatt in Kauai. Now … everyone can see that I am $RICH$ enough to vacation on the garden isle … at the most luxurious of $500.00/night suites (we can’t afford more than two nights every 7-years). And everyone sees that I am a virtuous $RICH$ person … who is doing the little things necessary to save our planet. Gawwwd, I’ve become that which I HATE.

      /retch on my wretched N.CA life

      Oh! did I forget to say that I am “shopping locally”, “supporting small business” (the owners are worth $tens of millions). Gawwd! I just ooze virtue

  6. Every single bit of plastic that I use at home (plenty) is put into my big blue recycling bin, collected by Waste Management … presumably sorted for recycling … and the remainder placed in a supremely high-tech landfill located in a remote corner of my County. Not a single bit of plastic I use goes anywhere but into a recycling bin. NONE of my personally-used and discarded plastic is swirling in the middle of the Pacific in a plastic patch “the size of “Texas” (cause Texas is baaaad, mmmmkay?). So what’s the problem? Ahhhhhhh … yes … plastic is made from petrochemicals. And fossil-fuels BAAAAAAD mmmmmKay?

    Sorry. I believe in the “Marketplace”. The FREE Marketplace. A marketplace made up of PEOPLE. Your neighbors, and yourself whose behavior determines outcomes. Not some supreme government entity who is going to “save us”. Not some centralized disembodied illegitimate authoritarian entity who dictates our lives to us. People use plastic because it is fkcuing damn handy and useful. And cheap. Banning its use is simply IDIOTIC.

  7. Having witnessed pallets of “recycled” items be sent to landfills because there is no market for them, I am 100% opposed to recycling. Build an effective incinerator and burn the crap and generate electricity.

  8. My incinerator looks after a whole host of goodies including plastic. It’s versatility is remarkable. I can make popcorn in it too when my better half is away.
    Kenji, maybe save some of that ‘virtual for the grandkid, eh!! He Might need some later on.
    Mine is talking already. First words? “Taxation is THEFT” Smart little guy…

    1. Growing up as a kid (1964) in my formerly beautiful suburb where I still live … I used to help my grandfather clear brush (including poison oak) and burn it in a bonfire on a low-sloping creek bank running the length of his acre+ property. It was beautiful. We never incinerated our CA neighborhood because we weren’t stupid. We burned during Indian summer … Halloween week… when trees were nude of leaves and we controlled our burns carefully.

      My grandfather also had a dedicated incinerator … a common incinerator in its day … a pyramidal concrete base with cast iron door and metal chimney top. He burned ALL his paper trash in that incinerator … in his high faulutin suburban neighborhood. Lots of people did it, and nobody complained or set the Woods on fire.

      I am sad that we cannot live like this anymore. Too many incompetent idiots overrunning my formerly beautiful city. Too many eco-hysterics who have deployed particle-counters to WARN when the particulate matter reaches unhealthy levels. Every evening in the summer when everyone starts their BBQ’s … this one eco-nag sends WARNING notices that we are choking him to death. Right !? Pity.

  9. Sign on our Coop store door today:

    ”Reusable Shopping Bags Prohibited.”

    I would have added: ”And that includes you too, Elizabeth May”!!

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