Letters to the Editor: Readers Weigh In on Plastic Bags, Ken Calvert - Coachella Valley Independent

Plastic-bag recycling is a feel good, misguided effort not based on facts (regarding the Indy Digest, Sept. 23, 2024). Years ago, scientific proof was used to transition us away from paper bags to plastic bags. None of those facts have changed today. Paper bags are still worse for the environment than plastic bags.

Additionally, with the newfound concerns regarding the carbon footprint of everyday products, one needs to look at the transportation infrastructure required to transport trees to mills for processing, then from mills to paper factories, and finally from the factories to the consumer. Many, many, many trucks are needed to do this. Consider for a minute that one truckload of plastic bags contains the same number of bags as 66 semi-trucks full of paper bags. The carbon footprint of plastic starts looking very favorable compared to paper. I’ll leave it there because I know you are smart enough to understand the math.

If the Bag Brigade really cared about the environment, they would be working on a disposable diaper ban. This is a product that is truly single-use. You can’t use it later for disposing dog poop; you can’t use it for school-book covers; you can’t put anything in it to be saved for later. Worse than that, it transports an untreated, urine-soaked feces-filled filth bag into the solid waste stream. When you think about it, there is not that much of a difference between homeless people taking a dump on the sidewalk, and moms stuffing diapers into trash cans, except that moms stuff many more diapers into trashcans.

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Scott Correa

There is a heavily played ad on TV about Ken Calvert helping a constituent’s son whose military ejection seat did not deploy, and the son was killed.

The man states that Ken Calvert helped him in a bipartisan way by introducing legislation to prevent military equipment from not working—like the ejection seat in an aircraft. It seemed pretty odd to me, so I looked into it. Calvert’s primary legislative efforts in his career in Congress were naming post offices. He did introduce HR 4214 the Military Equipment Quality and Safety Reform Act on June 20, 2023. It was referred to the House Armed Services Committee and has yet to have one hearing on the bill.

The political ad in heavy rotation on local TV would leave the viewer to conclude that he works with Democrats in Congress to make good things happen. That is not the case in this instance or any instance in his (too) long career as our congressman.

It is true that he voted against Biden’s Infrastructure Act (Build Back Better) as well as the Inflation Reduction Act.

Stuart W. Ackley

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