About Save The Bag

Our Mission Statement:

We are a group of Los Alamos, New Mexico residents who are in favor of letting people decide what kind of shopping bag they use: paper, plastic or bring-your-own-bags. We understand it is important to be good stewards of the earth and its resources, but we also value the choice of the individual to make economic decisions free of government intrusions. When we shop it is a private transaction between the individual and the merchant, and should be free of government interference. We oppose any ban of plastic shopping bags in Los Alamos County. Please check back in the coming days and weeks to see more information on plastic shopping bags. You can also join our Facebook group, Save the Bag: Los Alamos HERE Thank you for joining us!

 Why we do this:

The day I started this blog, I woke up thinking I'd just do the laundry and run the kids to and from school.  A typical day for me.

Then there was an emotional letter to the editor of our local paper decrying the use of plastic shopping bags. (See the letter HERE).  A similar letter had been written a few months before as well. (see that letter HERE). I also get the email updates from the local chapter of the Sierra Club and have known this storm was brewing on the horizon.  The fight to outlaw and ban plastic shopping bags will happen in 2015.  I want to be on the front row and ready.

That being said, I do believe that communities have the right and actually obligation to set standards for themselves and to enforce those standards.  Case in point, last year Los Alamos passed a property maintenance ordinance.  It was very controversial and sparked a lot of online and in person debate.  Many people felt it was long overdue, while many felt it was trampling their rights to live as they pleased.  I think the dust is still settling from it, actually.  This fight will be a similar fight.

If my town decides to outlaw plastic shopping bags, that will be a choice we make as a community, however, I also have the right and responsibility to raise awareness among my neighbors, and to speak out.  For me this debate has always been about choice.  Again, the choice to live my life as a please.    There is a lot of information about plastic shopping bags, some good and some bad.  And I want to explore all of that information -- stripped of emotion and hyperbole -- before we hastily make a decision that will impact every one in our community. 

Those that favor plastic bag bans would have us believe they are always bad.  But are they really?  I have been collecting research on them for sometime now, and it's not all bad if you are a plastic bag, or a plastic bag proponent.  I intend to share what I've found here on this blog and in the facebook group I've created.

As I have already stated, this is about choice for me.  When I go into the store and shop, and then pay for my things, that is a private transaction between me and the store.  I don't think the government should step in the middle of that transaction.  Here in Los Alamos, Smiths Grocery has recycling barrels in the lobby for people to dispose of unwanted bags.  Those barrels are always full, which tells me people are taking advantage of recycling.  If you stand at the exit of the store and observe, about half the time, people are using their own bags.  People are taking the initiative by their own choice to use cloth bags.  When I look around town too, I don't see a blizzard of plastic bags blocking my view of the New Mexico true blue sky either -- so plastic bags as a pollution or blight issue is not an issue here either.  We are already governing ourselves, why get the county government involved?   We simply do not need to "solve a problem" that does not exist in this town.

Future blog posts will include: the unintended consequences of plastic bag bans, opportunity cost and choice, the difference between plastic, paper and cloth bags; uses for plastic bags, a review of the movie "Bag It", and more.  I hope you will check back in and join us in this effort to "Save the Bag: Los Alamos".