Washington’s New Plastic Bag and Utensil Laws will Break the Universe

So how are those new heavy-duty plastic bags working out for you? You know, the ones that are about seven times the weight of the old plastic bags? Yes, the ones you're supposed to reuse?

How many times have you left them in your car and just decided to buy new ones? For me, that's a lot. Since the new law on plastic bags went into effect in Washington state, I have only managed to bring plastic bags back into the grocery store with me one single time.

So what do I have now? Yep, even more actual plastic waste than I would have with the old thinner plastic bags. Some of them will get used for what I always use plastic grocery bags for...dog poop. And the others usually line our small garbage cans in the bathrooms, so they get reused a few times. But other than that, the rest get thrown away, hence destroying the Earth even faster with 7x heavier plastic bags.

And now we're supposed to do without plastic utensils, too? The new law that begins January 1st in Washington state says that restaurants can no longer hand out sauce packets or plastic utensils. You can still get them if you ask, but they won't just hand them to you until you ask. (Let's see how long Taco Bell can go without handing out sauce packets!!!)

So I guess I'll be saying, "can I have utensils and sauce packets, please? Thank you."

Just remember, when the Earth blows up because of plastic bags and forks, you can blame lawmakers and not folks who can't remember to haul plastic bags into the store or don't want to each lunch in their car with their fingers.