8:15am Reporting by Greggory Moore | On a Facebook discussion thread concerning Long Beach’s ban on plastic bags, Signal Hill Councilmember Edward H.J. “Ed” Wilson has suggested that chagrined Long Beach residents protest by bringing large amounts of groceries to the checkout counter and then refusing both to provide a reusable bag and to pay for a paper bag.
Here is Wilson’s posting in full:
Here’s a thought to protest, load up your cart to nearly full and when you get to the register and they say you need to pay or have your own bag just say you don’t want to do either and leave the items at the counter. If enough people do so the corporations will push back against the city. Food for thought!
“I was joking, I was being a little sarcastic,” Wilson laughs when read the comment he posted on July 31, the day before the ban went into effect.
Wilson claims he was responding to the tone of the thread, and that such a protest action is not something he actually wants people to do.
“Personally, I think the ban has a purpose,” Wilson says. “But I don’t know that the long-term effects are going to be what we want them to be.”
Wilson says he is ambivalent about Long Beach’s ban. “I do, with tongue in cheek, tell everyone to shop in Signal Hill,” he says, referring to the fact that Signal Hill has no such ban.
Wilson says he has talked with many people “on both sides of the fence.” He also notes that the City of Signal Hill has a Sustainability Committee, of which he is a member, and that this topic “is something that we’ll be discussing probably in the near future and may be making a recommendation.”
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