[Plastic Bag Ban] I Traveled to San Diego And Felt Like an Adult!

Up here in Norther California, it appears that the region is embracing the plastic bag ban whole-heartedly.

Of course if a local city wants to decline "adopting" this plastic bag ban, that's OK... but the state then enforces an environmental report requirement on that city, which would cost that local municipality $100k.

So don't be fooled by the embracing of this ban.

But since it's gone into effect, it's created a new kind of lifestyle. 

You have to constantly have some kind of backpack or bag on your person and/or in your car at ALL times. At first it was pretty annoying when you couldn't just stop into any store if you had ideas about buying things, unless you had a bag on you.  Or look like a fool carrying everything out of the store in your arms.

Daring to look like an enemy of the environment, I find the "law" rather annoying and I am curious about the draconian method to employ this ban.

But then the other weekend I was down in San Diego, and the plastic bag ban is not in effect down there.  And it felt weird to be treated like an adult.

I no longer had to "pack it in and pack it out" of the store or lug an empty backpack or bag with me everywhere.  They actually gave me plastic bags with my purchase.

Along with no ban, the store was also not forced to charge ten cents a paper bag, if I chose paper.

For one all too short weekend, I felt like a trusted adult once again.

But now I'm back at home in NorCal.  I have empty bags in my trunk, in my truck cab, in my office.  Cloth bags, funny bags that collapse into small but funny shapes. All kinds of bags.

Yep, I'm back in bags-ville.

-Devil's Advocate:  Sadly, because my fellow man can't seem to actually put their plastic bags in the right place when they're done with them, these kinds of draconian measures are needed.

It's a sad state of affairs all around.

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