The local, big-government apologists are at it again! This week AP announced that Corpus Christi is going to hop on the ban-wagon and consider implementing a plastic-bag ban.
The proposal was on the Corpus Christi City Council agenda back in May, but was delayed in the midst of a review of the Texas Retailers Association lawsuit against the City of Austin.
By now we know all too well the studies done by the National Center for Policy Analysis on the negative impacts bans of this nature have on local economies and businesses. We’ve seen the Keep America Beautiful studies that illustrate just how small of a portion of the waste stream is made up of plastic bags. There was also report done by Texas Watchdog in 2012 pointing out that the City of Austin severely overstated the amount and cost-impact of plastic bags.
And, don’t forget the spikes in E. Coli because of the bacteria breeding-ground that is the common, reusable cloth shopping bag.
More recently, light has been shed on a different issue arising in cities that have implemented bag bans — a spike in shoplifting.
Just last month, a New Jersey Democratic operative was arrested attempting to steal lettuce, shampoo, and protein powder from his local ShopRite pharmacy.
In July of 2012 Seattle implemented a bag ban, followed by 21.1% of the businesses surveyed reporting increased shoplifting activity.
Even the Austin ban has led to officials noticing there is a new breed of thieves on the loose that has figured out a way to take advantage of these “bring your own bag” regulations.
Corpus Christi is the newest of Texas cities to want to get in on this faux-eco-friendly fad of local-government interference in the free market, right behind Dallas. Are local-level government officials slowly-but-surely inching us closer to nanny-state rank?
