No Paper or Plastic: LA Bids Bags Goodbye

by Tony Lee at http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2012/04/12/no-paper-or-plastic-la-bids-bags-goodbye

Influenced by out-of-touch environmentalists, the Los Angeles City Council committee moved forward last week with plans to phase out and ultimately ban paper and plastic bags in Los Angeles.

Environmentalists would like similar legislation to pass across the nation, completely oblivious to the fact that such legislation would not only inconvenience many consumers and shoppers but kill jobs. In Los Angeles alone, 2,000 people are employed by companies that make bags, and if bags are banned, these workers would be out of jobs and the health insurance benefits that accompany them.

This week, those in the bag manufacturing industry took to the airwaves to highlight the detrimental effect such legislation would have not only on the economy but the very environment the radical environmentalists purportedly want to preserve.

Stan Bikulege, CEO of bag producer Hilex, appeared this week on Hannity to offer an update on the pending LA ban and similar bans that are being proposed throughout the country:

BIKULEGE: We have 1250 jobs here in the United States-10 plants. And we spend all of our time focused on working against the government who is trying to ban us out of existence.

HANNITY: So you have to spend all this money to protect those jobs that you have, just to stay in business?

BIKULEGE: Oh, absolutely. We've spent so much money. We could have built more recycling plants, which we actually take garbage, turn it back into plastics and put it back into products. We could be rebuilding those and creating jobs. Instead, we're spending our time fighting against legislation that's going to take American jobs out of this country."

Environmentalists believe that legislation that bans paper and plastic bags will force people to use reusable bags; however, as The Washington Post discovered after the nation’s capital instituted a fee for paper and plastic bags, reusable bags are often breeding grounds for bacteria that can be harmful to people’s health.

So while environmentalists think they are doing everyone a favor by banning bags, they are essentially unleashing a host of unintended consequences not limited to more unemployment, less recycling facilities, and potential contamination of the food put in bacteria-laden reusable grocery bags.