California: Banning Mini Bottles Of Soap Will, Like, Totally Save The World And Stuff

Not to be outdone by New York’s recent ban of plastic grocery bags (and, of course, a tax on their paper replacements), California is preparing to, like, totally save the world by banning those adorable mini bottles of soap and shampoo you get at hotels.
For the state’s stalwart population of hippies, foregoing soap might not be a big deal, but I’m guessing most California hotel guests aren’t visiting the state for hackeysack and drum circles.
CBS News in San Francisco reports:
“In California alone hotels use hundreds of millions of single use plastic bottles every year,” said Assembly Member Ash Kalra of San Jose.
Kalra is co-authoring a bill that would ban the tiny plastic bottles at almost 10,000 hotels state wide.
“We can get those bottles out of the waste stream, but also cut the production of them, which is also harmful to the environment,” he said.
Oh, California. How adorable. Nevermind the fact that overregulation and consumer product bans only further cripple your economy, do you realize—or care—that single-use plastic bans accomplish next to nothing in the way of saving the environment? Even these hippies get it.
Let’s also ignore the fact that the hilariously vast majority of plastic that winds up in the ocean finds its way there by way of rivers in the Asian continent, mostly in third world countries and, of course, China.
While it might feel nice for California to be the environment’s white knight, that ain’t quite how bans like this pan out.
Now, typically the unspoken rule of the internet is never to read the comments on controversial articles or social media posts, but in the case of CBS’ coverage of the ban, I made an exception. Big surprise: folks in CA aren’t happy about yet another ban. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by the locals there offering their valuable insight and predicting unintended outcomes for this latest plastic ban. Here are my favorites:
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