Bye Bye, Plastic Bags?

It seems they may finally be going, or, at least, their numbers may be dwindling in our fair hometown.  So reporteth the New York Times.  A plastic bag ban might become reality yet.

Took long enough.  Although, indeed, it IS a much bigger deal here than in other cities, even San Francisco.  The car is still king everywhere else.  New Yorkers walk, and carry stuff, and having easily available bags does facilitate that.  Hopefully there will be solutions in place to not penalize the poor.

Not to toot the ol' horn too much, or pat the ol' back too too much - just a little, but reusable bags were part of daily life in these parts way before that was in vogue - going back to the late 90s.  Back then, the only bags around that fit the bill were the indestructible ones from dollar stores, the ones homeless people often used to carry around their belongings.  Those bags made for great grocery bags.  Not cute, but they did the job.  Supermarket clerks in Cville were impressed.  They survived the return to New York, and live on as defacto clothes hampers.

The OG reusable bag.

On the other hand, to dampen the ol' horn, a collection that had gotten out of hand did not survive the last move, and, alas, went to the landfill.  Even with the general intent not to take plastic bags, it is hard.  They got carefully stored, with the goal of becoming the stuffing for padded hangers made with upcycled dry cleaner wire hangers (yes, a very late 80s/90s idea, admittedly).  Somehow, all that spare time to sew and craft never materialized.  Those first few years at a BigLaw firm are rough.

Anyhow, the current collection is much better managed.  Slow learning.