Opinion: California stores should ban all plastic bags
This change has actually led to a substantial increase in plastic waste. This is because most recycling facilities don't recycle plastic bags, resulting in them being sent to landfills. A recent state study found that Californians' plastic bag waste has gone up from eight pounds per person per year in 2004 to 11 pounds per person per year in 2021 – at least in part due to the thicker plastic bags, which are substantially heavier.
In order to prevent plastic bag waste from continuing to grow in California, we must ensure that all plastic shopping bags are banned in our state.
In the state legislature, Democratic Senator Catherine Blakespear revealed a new bill that aims to ban all plastic shopping bags by 2026. Just as California was the first state to place any type of ban on plastic bags by banning the thin plastic bags, California should follow suit and get rid of plastic bags entirely.
Instead of using plastic bags, people could switch to other reusable bags. While the thicker plastic bags can theoretically be reused, most people throw them away after a single use, as they don't look reusable. People should get bags that they are more likely to reuse, like cotton or canvas tote bags.
In other states, plastic bag bans have worked. In Vermont, after a plastic bag ban, a survey estimated that the ban saves 191 million bags per year. California should use other states as an example and follow their lead in banning plastic bags.
Another reason the new ban against plastic bags should be passed is that the original ban allowed for a loophole . The original law allowed stores to sell bags if they charged 10 cents, and they made the bags thicker and heavier.
One of the reasons plastic bags are so harmful to the environment is that they never biodegrade, and while they can be recycled, they usually are not. Meanwhile, other types of bags, like cotton, could be more easily reused, while other options like paper bags are biodegradable and you can easily compost or recycle them.
However, there are many advantages to plastic bags, which have helped them become so widespread. For example, it takes significantly less energy and solid waste to produce a plastic bag than to produce a paper bag. They are also much more convenient and cheaper, and after you use them, it is easy to just throw them away.
Although plastic bags are cheaper and more convenient, due to their environmental impacts they should not be used. California should pass the bill to finally ban all plastic bags in stores in order to prevent more plastic waste in our world. Related
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San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
California's newest invaders are beautiful swans. Should hunters kill them?
On an early August morning, it didn't take long to spot the first pair of huge white swans with orange and black bills and graceful, curving necks as they swam in the marsh along the side of a Solano County levee road. They dabbled in the vegetation as a pickup drove through the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area. A short drive later, past a herd of a dozen tule elk, two more swans appeared in the marsh alongside the dirt road. Then four more. A few hundred yards down the road, out in the distance past a thicket of swaying reeds, dozens of swans swam in the water. For casual bird watchers, the sight of all these majestic animals might be a pleasure and bring to mind swan-themed works of literature, such as 'Leda and the Swan' and 'The Ugly Duckling.' But for wetland biologists and others with a stake in the health of the surrounding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast, the birds represent the latest — and an exponentially growing — threat to the few remaining wetlands left in California. These are mute swans, native to Europe and Asia. Weighing up to 30 pounds and with a wingspan of up to eight feet, they're the biggest bird in the marsh, and they're not the least bit shy about throwing their weight around. Fiercely territorial, especially during breeding season, they've been known to drown smaller animals and have killed at least one American kayaker. They've displaced colonies of nesting native birds in other parts of the U.S. they have invaded. Mute swans also feed gluttonously on submerged vegetation, destroying the plant life on which other native wetland species depend. 'They might be a pretty, big, white bird … and they may be charismatic, but they can be pretty nasty,' said Brad Bortner, a retired chief of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's migratory bird management programs in Washington D.C. In 2008, California banned anyone without a special permit from keeping mute swans as pets or from importing them into the state. The hope was to head off yet another destructive invasive species taking hold in the state. It didn't work. The mute swan population exploded in just a few years. In 2022, state waterfowl biologists estimated there were 1,500 of them. This spring, they estimated more than 12,000, nearly double the year before. Most of the mute swans are in the Suisun Marsh, a sprawling complex of public wetlands, agricultural lands and private duck-hunting clubs on the outskirts of the Bay Area near Fairfield. 'We keep watching them climb and climb and climb,' said Melanie Weaver, waterfowl coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. A measure before the state Legislature aims to allow hunters and landowners to shoot the swans for the next five years to try to bring their numbers down to more manageable levels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and beyond. The hunting groups supporting Assembly Bill 764 essentially ask: If Californians are OK with spending more than $13 million since 2018 to kill nearly 6,000 nutria, the 20-pound, orange-toothed South American rodents that have invaded the same waterways, why not let hunters and land owners do the same to mute swans — but for free? 'If the population gets too large and out of control, it may be beyond our ability then to really effectively manage them,' Mark Hennelly, a lobbyist for the California Waterfowl Association, told the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee this spring. 'So we want to get ahead of the problem.' Animal welfare groups object That argument has so far been a surprisingly easy sell in the Legislature, despite California's passionate and influential anti-hunting activists. Similar swan-killing proposals have led to protests in other states. The measure easily passed the Assembly without any lawmaker voting against it. It's now pending in the California Senate. No group has opposed the measure so far, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database, but that might soon change. Mute swans, unlike nutria, have a dedicated group of supporters, mostly on the East Coast. Nicole Rivard, a spokesperson for Friends of Animals, said she and fellow members of the animal welfare organization believe mute swans shouldn't be treated like vermin. The birds arrived here through no fault of their own, brought by humans, and they don't deserve to be killed for it, she said. Rivard believes the California legislation is motivated by hunters looking for an excuse to have yet another bird to legally shoot. Currently, mute swans can only be killed by landowners if the birds 'are found to be injuring growing crops or property,' according to state regulations. 'We're anti-hunting, so we don't like the idea that (hunting) might be, you know, part of the reasoning behind this,' Rivard said. Arguing that claims of mute swans' environmental damage and aggression are overblown, Friends of Animals and other groups opposed killing them decades ago, after Mid-Atlantic states proposed eradication when their populations began expanding dramatically in the 1990s and early 2000s. The groups protested, filed lawsuits and proposed legislation to try to stop the killing. They had mixed success. Some states began killing the nonnative swans over the animal welfare groups' objections. Notably, Maryland was able to knock the mute swan population down from around 5,000 birds in the early 2000s to around 200 by 2010. 'Continued control and maintenance operations have reduced that number to just a handful of birds today,' said Josh Homyack, the game bird section leader for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. In Maryland, government agency employees raided mute swan nests and destroyed eggs, captured and euthanized swans when they were flightless during their feather-molting season and shot them in carefully coordinated operations, Homyack said. The state also issued a few permits to kill the birds to local landowners. In New York, the mute swan lobby got a law passed that made it harder to kill the birds, requiring state officials to 'fully exhaust non-lethal control measures' such as nest destruction and capturing birds and moving them to wildlife facilities ' prior to any lethal removal.' The mute swan population in New York has stayed steady at around 2,000 to 3,400 birds. Charisma matters with invasive species On the East Coast, mute swans have been around since before the turn of the last century. They were first imported as ornamental livestock for zoos, parks and estates. Some of California's mute swans likely came in the same way. Weaver, the California waterfowl coordinator, said others were likely brought in the past few years to chase away Canada geese that have increasingly become a nuisance at parks and golf courses. 'People were buying these (swans), and they were just throwing them out there,' she said. Weaver noted their owners didn't do the responsible thing and clip their wings to keep them from flying off. That's hardly surprising. It's no easy task to grab a hissing 25-pound swan, big and angry enough to swamp a kayaker. So with nothing to stop them, the birds flew to nearby marshlands and began reproducing. 'Here we are, not very many years down the road, with a population that is really increasing at a rapid rate,' Weaver said. So far, California's wildlife agency hasn't enacted a mute swan eradication plan similar to the one it started almost immediately — and publicly promoted — a few years ago, after nutria first started turning up in the San Joaquin Valley. Nutria are similarly destructive feeders on aquatic plants. The South American swamp rodents also burrow holes in levees, posing a threat to the state's flood-control and water-supply infrastructure. Dave Strayer, a retired invasive species expert with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York, said he's not surprised state officials haven't been as aggressive with the beautiful mute swans, given the uproar over killing them in other states. He said research has shown that when it comes to invasive animals, charisma matters. The more attractive a problematic non-native species is, the less appetite there is to wipe it out. Stayer gave an example: Few complain about killing common nonnative rats, but you're apt to get death threats at even the suggestion of wiping out ecologically harmful feral cat colonies in the same habitats. He noted that no one has ever complained about efforts to eradicate one of his research subjects, the nonnative zebra mussels that have also invaded California. 'I never had even one person stand up for zebra mussels and say, 'No, these are beautiful, elegant God's creatures' and so forth,' he said. Few wetlands and too many mute swans Supporters of the swan-killing legislation say reducing the number of mute swans should be fairly easy since the giant white birds are easy to spot, identify and kill. Their size and the color and shape of their bills also reduce the risk they'll be confused with other protected bird species, they say. California's native tundra and trumpeter swans would still be protected and illegal to shoot if the bill becomes law. Despite their undeniable beauty, Weaver, the state waterfowl coordinator, sees mute swans similarly to nutria. The swans pose too great a threat to native species reliant on the few wetlands left in California, which has lost at least 90% of the habitats to agriculture and urban sprawl. 'They don't move around the state all that much, and they really like the Delta-Suisun Marsh area, so it's still easy to handle the issue,' Weaver said. 'The longer we wait, it won't be.'
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Yahoo
Pendleton community mourns death of longtime town councilman Dave Leible
Pendleton is mourning the loss of one of its own after the town announced the death of longtime council member David A. Leible. Leible, 66, died Sunday. Friends said he was not ill and his passing came as a shock. Leible's obituary was published Monday on the town website, with an unsigned preface that reads: 'It is with sadness that the Town of Pendleton announces the passing of Councilman David A. Leible. Councilman Leible faithfully served the Town for many years, and his contributions to our community will be remembered. … Thank you for your service to our Town, David. Rest in Peace.' A 22-year member of the council, and a member of Wendelville Volunteer Fire Company for more than 30 years, Leible was also the endorsed Democratic candidate for town highway superintendent in this year's general election. His designated committee to fill a vacancy will have to determine how to proceed within the next couple of weeks. Today, Leible's friends and associates are thinking about the various ways that he worked for the betterment of his community, as an elected public officer, a volunteer firefighter and a member of Pendleton Lions Club. Fellow town councilman and Wendelville volunteer Scott Lombardo said Pendleton is experiencing 'the loss of someone who works for the people.' 'He would do anything for you. He would always be there to listen. Maybe he couldn't do anything about it, but he would listen to you,' Lombardo said. 'He did that for his friends, he did that for his constituents,' even the ones he didn't know. 'He was a community networker … for the benefit of the community,' fellow lifelong resident Jim Sobczyk said. 'Dave grew up in Pendleton and his heart was always here, with and for the residents. That was very important to him,' Town Clerk Debbie Maurer said. 'His commitment and his care for our community will be greatly missed. We are all sad at his passing.' A retired UPS Freight truck driver and a past commodore of the Niagara River Yacht Club, Leible the town councilman every now and then would cast the sole 'no' vote on an agenda item, for instance a town budget that drove a tax hike or a proposed local law that he saw as infringing on residents' rights. He opposed the council's 2021 decision to restrict ATV use on the local Rails to Trails path, and when a full ban was proposed a few years later, he successfully led the lobbying against it. 'I grew up in Pendleton. Throughout my childhood I rode snowmobiles, motor bikes, four wheels, ATVs. … I won't be voting for it — again,' he told the Union-Sun & Journal in 2024. Elected and consistently reelected to the town council as a Republican, Leible ended up endorsed by the local Democratic committee in his second run at the town highway superintendent's post. He and incumbent superintendent David Fischer were in a Republican primary contest in 2021 and again this past June. Leible lost to Fischer both times. Because Leible's name is already on the November general election ballot, his appointed committee to fill a vacancy will have to decide whether to designate a substitute candidate. From the time the Pendleton town clerk issues a death certificate, the committee has 10 days to file a Certificate of Substitution with the Niagara County Board of Elections, according to election commissioner Lora Allen. Chris Borgatti, chairman of the Niagara County Democratic Committee and a member of Leible's committee to fill vacancies, said the latter committee will convene and he expects a substitute candidate will be designated, to ensure Pendleton voters have a choice in the election. Funeral arrangements for Leible are being handled by Prudden and Kandt Funeral Home. Calling hours are 4 to 7 p.m. Aug. 18, next Monday. Wendelville Volunteer Fire Company will do a closing ceremony at 6:45 p.m.
New York Times
05-08-2025
- New York Times
After 50 Years of Writing, Jamaica Kincaid Insists She's Still an Amateur
In June, I visited Jamaica Kincaid at her home in Vermont, and not long after we met, she walked me over to a bust of Thomas Jefferson looming over a shaded corner of her garden, introducing me to him like he was an old friend or a hostage. 'Very controversial, but we will explain,' she said. 'When summer is over, he spends the winter in the basement.' Then, she showed me a plant called the twin-leaf, which has one frond divided into two nearly identical leaflets. 'The two halves are not identical — is that Jefferson or no?' Kincaid asked, showing me the fraternal leaves with professorial wonder and not a small amount of delight. Its scientific name, Jeffersonia diphylla, was given to it by the botanist Benjamin Smith Barton, one of Thomas Jefferson's contemporaries, 'before anyone thought of his twin nature,' she said, of the president's duality. Kincaid is an admirer of Jefferson's writing on horticulture, so when she discovered this plant, it appealed to her; she saw that it spoke to his fundamental contradiction as both a theorist of democratic liberty and slaver. 'One has to contemplate these histories,' Kincaid said. 'And so, I find him a good person to have a conversation with.' At 76, Kincaid is both youthful and monumental, a down-to-earth person possessed of a towering intellect. Although she has shrunk some over the years, she still stands at nearly six feet. Her dark brown hair was parted down the center of her scalp, woven into two cute plaits, little commas curling near her shoulders. She wore a silver watch with the clock face on the inside of her wrist as a tribute to her late father. Her laugh, which I heard often, was filtered through her accent, an undulating Antiguan inflection that swayed like a gently rocked boat. Kincaid's sprawling garden sits on a bountiful property in North Bennington, beside a house originally built and inhabited by Robert H. Woodworth, a pioneer of time-lapse photography. Here she begins developing her ideas, influenced by the cultivated wildness outside. In an essay included in her new book, 'Putting Myself Together: Writing, 1974-,' to be published on Aug. 5 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux, she asserts that, rather than creating a garden in the conventional way — overdetermined by the gardener's expectations — she favors a looser approach. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
