– Opinion –
Consumer Reports has a really great newsletter, On Health, that’s full of tips for staying healthy, and one of their articles this month is “9 Surprising Ways to Prevent Food Poisoning.”
Of the nine, one caught my eye: “Wash your shopping bags.”
I thought, wow! We’ve come a long way. Food safety is now the consumer’s responsibility to the grocery store.
As a Colorado resident, I have been living with this issue since the state legislature passed HB21-116 on plastic product control in 2021. The bill replaces “single-use” plastic takeaway bags and Styrofoam food containers. The bill gives local governments the power to enforce violations and impose civil penalties.
Firstly, I don’t understand why politicians call these bags “disposable” and don’t get punished. Everyone uses these bags at least twice when they need to clean up dog waste or deal with a mess. There is more dog waste in the parks and lawns I walk through than I have ever seen.
But the real issue is how complicated HB21-116 has made life for Coloradoans: A series of dates has made Colorado a state that fully enforces this stupid act.
The law prohibits stores and food retail establishments from providing customers with disposable plastic carry-out bags starting Jan. 1 of this year, except that food retail establishments such as restaurants and small stores that operate only in Colorado and have three or fewer stores can provide disposable plastic carry-out bags.
Under the phase-in, between Jan. 1, 2023 and Jan. 1, 2024, stores would be permitted to provide customers with recycled paper carry bags or single-use plastic carry bags at the point of sale if the customer pays 10 cents per bag, or a higher rate adopted by the city, town, or county where the store is located.
Starting Jan. 1 of this year, stores can only provide customers with recycled paper carry-out bags at the point of sale and must pay 10 cents per bag, or whatever higher rate is imposed by the city, town or county where the store is located.
Millions of dollars are collected from these bag fees and distributed among state and local governments for one purpose or another.
The bottom line is that Colorado is implementing the “full monty” of these orders, and it’s making every trip to the grocery store complicated. Before, you might pop in after work, but you never did without a bag of groceries in your car. It’s constant work moving the bags around. And I’m confident in this: you’re going to the grocery store more, you’re buying less.
But let’s talk about food safety, the forgotten stepchild of this imposed system. On Health says: “Wash your grocery bags. Reusable totes are good for the environment, but they waste time tossing them in the washing machine. The problem is that juices from raw meat, poultry or fish can spread inside the bag and contaminate it. Amy Johnston says to hand wash nylon or insulated bags with warm water and soap, or you could place a disinfecting wipe inside the insulated bag. Cloth and polypropylene bags can be washed in the washing machine on a gentle cycle. Use separate bags for meat and fish to prevent contamination.”
As always, good advice from Consumer Reports, but I’m focusing on the bag of the guy in front of me: a year into this experiment, the other guy’s bag is in pretty bad shape.
We have to worry about all those nasty bags over time and what will happen if this system causes food poisoning. Are the states that are so keen on these systems going to use some of their millions of dollars to pay for the medical costs of these food poisoning victims?
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