Growing up in the deep blue state of Illinois, I thought I was prepared for the idiocy that Democrat-run states bring. I’m currently learning the ropes in my captive state of New York, but nothing could have steeled me for the stupidity that this state continually oozes. From aborting full-term babies to outlawing the declawing of cats, New York holds the title for brain-dead legislation. In the last session, our assembly passed 900 bills. Governor Cuomo signed all of them. Hidden in that towering stack of government intrusions into our lives was a plastic bag ban.
The way the Democrats talked about this bill, you would have thought that plastic was the greatest threat to humanity, second only to letting babies be born without killing them first.
According to the New York Times, Governor Cuomo opined that “these bags have blighted our environment and clogged our waterways.“ Cuomo said the ban was necessary to “protect our natural resources for future generations of New Yorkers.”
Democratic state Senator Todd Kaminsky wanted to make sure people didn’t turn to paper and only used bags handmade out of old sheets or something. “There was a real understanding that there should be a ban on plastic,” Kaminsky said. He added, “if people go to paper rather than reusables, we are not that better off.”
This led all of New York to believe that we were never going to see another plastic bag ever again. People, including me, started hoarding every bag they could get their hands on expecting to have to find very unsettling ways to pick up pet droppings without them. I’m not embarrassed to say I’ve stocked every crevice of my mudroom with the things.
No one was happy with the ban. NY’s biggest grocery store, Wegmans, detailed the problems with the bill. The Democrat and Chronicle reported Wegman’s opposition to the bill included “unintended consequences [that] come from banning anything,” including increasing paper bag use. “[It’s] not what’s best for the environment. Paper bags are heavier and take up more space than plastic.” Unbelievably, New York Democrats ignored the extremely important facts about transporting paper bags that would impact the environment. “It takes seven tractor trailers to transport the same number of paper bags as plastic bags carried by one tractor trailer,” the retailer said. “It also takes about 90[%] more resources and energy to make and recycle paper compared to plastic.”
Nobody cared. The ban passed.
But imagine my surprise when I went to Target recently and was given a new “compliant bag” made entirely out of plastic. The distinguishing feature from the current bags taking up space in my closets is that they are three times as thick and much larger. Apparently, the plastic bag ban didn’t ban plastic at all, but increased the amount of plastic used in the bag. This is not what we were told, but who reads the fine print? According to the law, what was banned are “single-use plastic bags.” The new, thicker plastic bags are approved for up to 125 uses and are washable. New York Democrats’ answer to too much plastic is to give us even more plastic. Makes sense. No word from New York’s waterways on how they will deal with the thicker bags clogging up the works.
I made a helpful video to illustrate this stupidity.
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