Brickbat: Single-Use Stipulation

The Napa County, California, Board of Supervisors has banned single-use plastic bags and utensils. Restaurants will have to provide dine-in customers with reusable utensils and carry-out customers with utensils and bags made from natural fibers that are certified compostable. Grocery stores, farmers markets, and others venues that serve carry-out food must also provide compostable bags. The law also requires businesses to charge customers 25 cents per bag, but customers paying with low-income welfare programs like EBT and WIC are exempt from those fees.

Comments

[Minadin]

A single use bag or utensil is still more useful than a California Democrat.

[SQRLSY]

ALL politicians are VERY plastic! They will be (or pretend to be) twatever they think will get them more power, and retain shit!

[Eeyore]

Unfortunately they are way too durable.

[MatthewSlyfield]

Considering that California Democrats have negative utility, that doesn't take much.

[AT]

Artificial overhead. Just more of the leftist attempt to destroy private enterprise.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...customers paying with low-income welfare programs like EBT and WIC are exempt from those fees.

How far into crafting this scheme do you suppose they got before realizing they needed a carve out for this most important of voting bloc.

[n00bdragon]

This way, if anyone ever tries to vote to remove the mandated sin-tax on compostable sporks, they can accuse them of raising fees on the poor.

Everyone is a sinner in the hands of an angry government.

[Medulla Oblongata]

What I want to know is why are EBT folks paying for carry-out food?

Although not all locations take EBT cards for payment, in California EBT tit-suckers can use their EBT cards at:

A & T Burgers
Ameci Pizza and Pasta
Angelo’s Burger
Arby’s
Art’s Famous Chili Dog
B & R’s Old Fashion Burger
Baby Brother Pizza
Banh Mi Che Cali
Bayou Grille
BBQ King
Big Al’s Pizza
Bobo’s Hamburger
Bonnie Smoking BBQ
Bravo’s Burger
Broadway Food Corner
Brother’s BBQ
Burger King
Burger Zone
Café Creole
California Cheeseburgers
California Steak & Fries
Campus Kitchen
Captain Tony’s Pizza & Pasta
Carl’s Jr
Carnitas Michoacán
Ceiba Restaurant
China Beauty Food Express
Chinatown Express
Cliff’s Texas Style Burritos
Corner Kafe
Covina Burgers
Cypress Best Burgers
D’s Original Take Out Grill
Daily Donuts House
Del Taco
Deli Robert’s Pizza
Denny’s
Diana’s Mexican Food Restaurant
Dino’s Burgers
Dino’s Charbroiled Burgers
Dominguez Pizza
Dominos Pizza
Downtown Catch 21
El Huero
El Merendero
El Merendero Bakery
El Merendero Restaurant
El Pollo Loco
El Salsabor
Every Table
Express Burger
Fabulous Grill
Fair Oaks Burger
Fantasy Burgers
Fatburger
Fatburger & Buffalo’s Express
Food for Life
Flames X-Press Charbroiled Burgers
Flip It Café
Fred Down Home Burger
Fresh and Meaty Burgers
Freudian Sips
Frosty King Burgers and Shakes
Garduno’s
Geronimo’s and Bamboo Terrace
Golden Bird Chicken
Golden Seafood Express & Hamburger
Good Day Donuts & Mini Mart
Goody’s Pizza
Granny’s Kitchen
Green Apple Grill
Guido’s Pizza and Pasta
Hawkins House of Burgers
Hola Polla
Hamburger Dan’s
Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken
Hong Kong Express
Hot Cazuelas
Hungry Boy Burgers
J & J BBQ Fish
Jack in the Box
JN’s Original BBQ Pit House
John’s Burgers
John’s Drive-in Hamburger
Jordan’s Hot Dogs
Kentucky Fried Chicken
Kimbob & Ketta’s Louisiana Snoballs
La Pizza Loca
La Taquiza
LA Harbor College Campus Cafeteria
LA Mission College
LA Trade Technical College Campus Cafeteria
LOCOL
Louis Burgers
Louis Place Burgers
Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken
Louisiana Fried Chicken & Chinese Food
Louisiana Fried Chicken & Fish Market
Louisiana Hometown Seafood Fish and Taco
Lucy’s Bakery
Mama’s Chicken
Mama’s International Tamales
Maples Restaurant
Margarita’s Place
Marjoe’s Soul Food and Grill
McDonald’s
Master Burger
Melo Burgers
Michael’s Super Burgers
Monster Burger
New Hong Kong Chinese Express
Original Louis Burgers
Pacific Dining East LA College
Pacific Dining LA Pierce College
Pacific Dining LA Valley College
Pacific Dining Los Angeles City College
Pacific-Dining West Los Angeles College
Pacific Restaurant
Papa John’s
Paradise Pastry & Café
Perry Burger
Pizza Hut
Pollo Campero
Popeye’s Chicken
Primo Burgers
R & J Southern Home Cook
Rally’s Hamburger
Randolph’s Smoke House
RC Burgers
Rio Meat Market & Restaurant
Roman’s Pizza
Rosita’s Panaderia and Restaurant
Sam’s Burgers & Fast Food
Sam’s Tacos
Sana Food
Smokin Telle’s BBQ & Grill
Soul Food Kitchen
Subrositas Pupusas
Subway
Taco Pete
Tai Pan Chinese Fast Food
Tam’s Burgers
Ted’s Place
The Arbor Grill
The Best Burger
The Marketplace
The Pub Sports Grill
The White House
Tom’s Jr
Tottino’s Pizza & Louisiana Fried Chicken
Troy’s Burger
Twins Smokehouse BBQ
Valentino’s Pizza
Vallarta Supermarkets
Watt’s Burgers
Wendy’s
Wienerschnitzel
Wing N Stuff
Wing Stop
Wok on the Wild Side
Yoshinoya Beef Bowl

[Medulla Oblongata]

Speaking of which, many years ago, I was debating someone on another forum and proposed that their embrace of

"To each according to his needs” = Funding social programs and entitlements

I responded:

I suspect part of the disconnect will lie in the definition of “what they need”. Humans all around the world demonstrate how little is truly required to survive. This might be one definition of “what they need”, but is probably not close to what progressive liberals mean when they say the words “what they need”, which apparently has come to mean “providing means for everyone to live a U.S. standard lower middle class lifestyle without any further requirements or responsibility on the recipients’ part”, i.e., an air-conditioned home or apartment with an assortment of electronic gadgets, cable TV, broadband internet, free cell phone, free food, reduced electric bill, reduced gas bill, a car and oh yeah, toss in some walking-around money.

I later pointed out the ridiculousness of the situation that we find that obesity is very prevalent among EBT recipients, and that they are clearly not in any danger of starving to death when they can use EBT cards at fast-food places.

I was told that my take was a "truly malicious, ignorant misinterpretation...deserves only contempt".

He did carry on to prove my point about what "progressive liberals mean when they say the words “what they need”, which apparently has come to mean “providing means for everyone to live a U.S. standard lower middle class lifestyle without any further requirements or responsibility on the recipients’ part” when he ranted:

That means that there are 12.1 million households without a dishwasher. How many of your friends have no dishwasher? 10.6M have a refrigerator- meaning that over 6 million households are without a refrigerator. Can you imagine your life without a refrigerator? Almost 9 million do not have a cordless phone. How many of you relatives or friends do not have a cordless phone? 13 million do not have a computer. You dare to cite a statistic of that as evidence that these people have no needs?

My followup:

No one needs a dishwasher. It is a luxury, work-saving device. No one needs a TV. It is an entertainment device. No one needs a Playstation, it is a game. No one needs a tattoo. It is a personal choice. No one needs Big Macs, Coke, beer, booze, or cigarettes. If you can afford to buy those, you can afford to meet your basic needs, but are choosing not to and expecting others to subsidize your decisions.

My definition of “need” comes in much lower than yours, and includes minimal support–I don’t want anyone to starve in this country, and want to provide a helping hand. But if you want more than the most basic subsistence level of support, get it yourself. Of course, though, people who simply lack the basic mental or physical ability to support themselves cannot be excluded from a reasonable level of support.

How rich do you want the poor people in this country to be? The onus should be on you,since you want to forcibly take money from me and other to redistribute it to those you feel do not have enough. You have not defined “enough” but your level of expectation on the word “need” seems much higher than mine.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

My concept of a social "safety net" is just that. It keeps people from dying but would be a shitty place to live.

Of course, we may have to reduce democracy to get there.

[Medulla Oblongata]

I've long been on record here and elsewhere that I believe in the "beggars can't be choosers" school of thought. While I don't want anyone to starve, neither do I think that I should be required to effectively hand over cash so that the hungry can shop for whatever goodies they feel like--from roasted rabbit with butter, tarragon and sweet potatoes (ref) even up to fast-food!

How about making food-stamp program a voucher for rice and beans and vitamins? Nutritious, filling, easy to make, but boring as hell long term.

(ref) https://www.salon.com/2010/03/16/hipsters_food_stamps_pinched/

[Rossami]

In fairness, many of the folks in those programs are homeless or in short-term housing without access to cooking facilities (hotels, shelters, etc). If you don't have a kitchen, eating food prepared in someone else's kitchen is pretty much required. And choosing a cheap someone's fast-food kitchen is not unreasonable.

[Brett Bellmore]

Purina dog chow makes its own gravy, and all you need is a container and some water.

[Adans smith]

Card board forks and spoons, yeah, that'll work.

[Minadin]

Bamboo maybe?

[markm23]

Bamboo and other woods are not homogenous or consistent materials. They require human labor to pick pieces of wood without flaws that will compromise the utensils cut from that wood, or to sort the good from the bad after machine cutting. That costs more, making wooden items more complex than chop sticks rather expensive for single-use items.

OTOH, if you grind and smash the wood into fibers and press them into the final shape, you can attain consistent quality just by process control, with no sorting of every item required. These paper/cardboard items cost about the same as molded plastic items, maybe less because the wood fiber is very cheap - but unlike plastic forks, spoons, and straws, paper and cardboard absorb moisture and oils and may become unusable before the meal is finished.

And as others have pointed out, these cardboard utensils nearly always come in little plastic bags, so the goal of eliminating plastics fails.

[Crackers Boy]

If it happens in California, I have to say "So? Who cares?".

CB

[NoVaNick]

Because retarded California laws have a way of spreading to other blue states and cities. What happens in California doesn’t stay in California unfortunately.

[Yuno Hoo]

Obviously the solution is to package each individual plastic utensil in its own plastic bag labelled "MULTIPLE USE".

[Brandybuck]

It's Napa County. The most affluent county in the state. Yet another case of extremely rich Democrats posturing by passing laws that don't affect them but definitely hinder the poor.

[Earth-based Human Skeptic]

Hey, fucktards in Napa, what about single-use wine bottles? And a few bohemian candle-holders does not count.

[mad.casual]

Do sporks count as single-use or no? What about the spoon straw you get with milkshakes and slushies?

[Winston in Wonderland]

But California's health department won't let you bring your own cup, bowl, plate, and utensils. I know...I've tried.

[Medulla Oblongata]

Was in Charleston SC recently, and was asked by a relative to pick up some straws. Wife and I were already in Walmart, so yeah, we'll do that. Couldn't find any, but asked, and was directed to an end-cap display hanger that had one back of straws. I joked to wife that Charleston probably banned straws. At the checkout, the cashier said she could not sell us the straws and confiscated them..."It's illegal. I thought these had all been removed from the shelves.".

When we got home, we had Amazon send a box of straws that arrived the next morning.

[TJJ2000]

Sadly these CA dipsh*ts will get sick of their self-made sh*t pie, immigrate to Texas, and continue to vote for Democrats.

In their [WE] Identify-as gangsters RULE polluted minds CA sucks but it's all Republicans fault. The idiocy is on display here by the leftard posters everyday who continue to needle-pick what 1 or 2 [R]s did out of 20 other [D]s did or 1[R] president with a full [D] congress did. Just because someone immigrates doesn't mean they've LEARNED a GD thing.

It's literally happening in my home city. A ton of CA immigrants move in and turned the city Blue. Bringing Tent Cities and their self-entitlement welfare/bankrupt State mentality with them.

[Eeyore]

I demand a ban on single use condoms.
I demand a ban on single use hypodermic needles.