Plastic Bag Bans Are Expensive, Ineffective, and Kinda Gross

You know what’s gross? Reusable grocery bags. Think about it:
You put a leaky package of chicken in your cloth or plastic tote.
Then you empty the bag, crumple it up, and toss in the trunk of
your car to fester. A week later, you go shopping again and throw
some veggies you’re planning to eat raw into the same bag. Ew.

And that’s just the yuck factor. There’s also an ongoing debate
about the environmental and economic impact of these increasingly
popular bans and taxes. Luckily, Reason Foundation, the nonprofit
that publishes Reason magazine, issued a
new report today that looks at the issue from just about
every angle. 

The report addresses my pet peeve, the health impact of reusable
bags, quoting one survey in Arizona and California which found
coliform
bacteria in half of the bags tested. But that’s just a
small part of the report

A few more fun facts:

One common justification for bans is that using
less plastic means using less oil. But the lightweight plastic
bags we are accustomed to using—high-density polyethylene bags—are
actually made almost entirely from natural gas, not oil. Meanwhile,
a popular kind of reusable totes—non-woven polypropylene (NWPP)
bags—are derived from oil. 

Municipalities seem to be in a contest to claim ever-increasing
percentages of their litter are attributable to plastic bags. As
the report notes:

A 2006 report by the California Coastal Commission claimed that
plastic bags comprise 3.8% of beach litter. More recently, a Dallas
City Council memo claimed that 5% of all litter comes from plastic
bags. Most dramatically, a study from the California Ocean
Protection Council claimed that plastic bags of all types make up
about 8% of all coastal litter. 

But the definitive American litter study—yep, such a thing
exists—finds figures that are closer to 1 percent or even
lower:

The Reason report also takes on storm drains, the infamous
“garbage patch” in the Pacific Ocean, cost to consumers, and much
more.

A complementary report released today by Reason
Foundation looks
at the impact of a proposed ban in California as well.

And here’s a blast from the past: Yours truly in a live
broadcast at The Huffington Post debating
two adorable school children and some sea turtles about
plastic bag bans.