Portland bans plastic shopping bags

Portland, Oregon voted today for a ban on plastic shopping bags, effective Oct 15th.

It applies to major retailers and grocery stores. Naturally, the Randian right has been whining and complaining about big government, the nanny state, etc., believing freedom is the right to throw your shit wherever you damn well please. They never ask where it ends up:

Roughly 43 percent of all marine mammals, 86 percent of all sea turtles and 44 percent of sea bird species are found with plastics in or around their bodies,” Cummins said “Thirty-five percent of the samples of fish that we collected in the north Pacific had plastic in their stomachs.

I've been using clothe bags for about a year now, and even if they weren't banned I'd continue to use them. (I don't live in Portland anyway.) Clothe bags are sturdier and don't break, leaving your pickles scattered among shards of glass on your driveway. They cost 50 cents or a dollar.