Plastic Bags: Does it Have to Be So Hard?

Okay, so I'm innocently scanning environmental news headlines and run across this dilly! In Defense of the Plastic Bag.

Well, that'll get your attention, won't it?

So ... I took a quick look. Here's some of what it said:

Pity the much-maligned plastic bag.

Plastic bags are being banned or taxed in cities and counties across America–just this week in Seattle, before that in San Francisco, Portland and Washington, D.C. Beginning in January, Montgomery County, MD, where I live, will impose a five-cent charge for carryout bags at all retail stores. Like most of my neighbors (median household income in the county tops $92,000) I can afford the extra nickel.

But I’m not persuaded that plastic bag bans or taxes makes sense. Here’s why.

They’re not based on science. Independent studies show that plastic bags are environmentally preferable to paper. Other suggest that, when they are reused, they are preferable to the reusable plastic or cloth sacks that many of us tote around.

Some of the arguments put forth for the bans don’t hold up. That plastic waste waste in the oceans you’ve probably read about? No, it’s not the size of Texas. Nor is it made of plastic bags.

Getting rid carryout bags won’t lead to a long-term solution to the problem of plastic waste. Maybe instead of banning or taxing bags, we should be recycling them. That’s the argument being put forth by a company called Hilex Poly, which will recycle tens of millions of pounds of plastic bags, sacks and wraps this year, and would like to do more.

You may disagree but after digging into this subject for a while, I’m certain about only one thing: It’s complicated.

Oh, goodie. Complicated, huh? Just what I needed. More complications in my life.

So ... if you want to read the whole blow-by-blow explanation, just click the link. It even alludes to the old "sh*t crap in the bag" argument against using reusable bags. Dear God!

But wait ... there's more. A rebuttal. In Defense of Plastic Bag Bans. Really!