What Do You Think About Banning Plastic Bags? (page 3)

Simon

Apparently, plastic bags are less environmentally damaging than re-usable cotton ones. Some countries recycle the plastic bags, using them for power in incinerators.

But facts rarely get in the way of environmentalist panic.

Xanthippe

A lot of places outside the USA, already don't offer plastic bags and force you to bring your own bag or make you buy one if you don't have it.

That's what we do in England. We also have collection points at supermarkets to recycle the plastic carrier bags people buy. I agree with creating less waste that takes 500 years to biodegrade and is harming our sea life.

The amount of dead whales, dolphins and turtles that have been washed up with stomachs full of plastic is shocking.

It's not like it's difficult to take reusable bags shopping, I keep them in my car. I'm an intelligent life form, I can cope with that.

LoveUniHateExams

Plastic pollution in the sea is a serious issue so, yeah, I'd like our use of plastic bags to become less.

The problem doesn't lie with the consumer. Supermarkets give us/used to give us free plastic bags.

When we're talking about law, I hope it's not gonna target ordinary people. It's up to supermarkets to provide us with sensibly-priced, environmentally-friendly, bags-for-life.

RubaDub

I was somewhat shocked when I moved down here to Florida from NY State. We generally had paper bags in the supermarkets there and you would generally try to fill it reasonably full. I come to Florida, go to a supermarket and buy 7 items and end up with 5 or 6 plastic bags. They seem to only put 1 or 2 items in a plastic bag. It just seems counter-intuitive to me.

Rub a Dub

tiki

I like wtwizard's response....there is way too much cheap useless junk in this world. Leather shoes last, are more comfortable and look better than cheapo plastic ones for sure.

Regarding the Massachusetts initiative, I have been using my reusable shopping bags for years. What I wonder is if this ban includes the rolls of plastic bags you put your produce into.....if so shopping for fresh fruit and produce not already packaged is going to present a problem....or are they going to provide small paper bags? I am 100% for doing everything in our power to live naturally and lessen our carbon footprint....but I am not fanatical about it. Reasonable care...and a very big problem imho is the excessive wastefulness that has enveloped our culture...fomented by greedy corporations perpetually finagling to find ways to cheapen goods and hike prices....things don't last so we are on a hamster wheel of buying and trashing. That waste is not conducive to a healthy environment.

LV101

Who can live without plastic bags?! Have to buy (inexpensive) ones for the individual trash containers throughout house and what would we throw our garbage into - can't depend on the trash compactor or disposal for everything. Need to have my groceries bagged into something that's sanitary and hasn't been sitting around like those goofy pictured self-owned bags. I don't like those stupid owner-shopping bags - they get dusty and yucky carrying food in them and need to be sanitized. I even use plastic bag to line the cup holder area in my car so it stays clean and dust free and the car wash people aren't spraying weird cleaning/dust chemicals into them - can't live without plastic it's fantastic!

Doctor Who

I use plastic shopping bags for everything. They are my waste bags in the house like some have previously stated, I use them for "organizers" in my truck, and anything else I can think of. I have even made cheap kites out of them in the springtime for fun.

punkofnice

I do think we can do things better ecologically.

But who are the main culprits with this pollution (if you wish to call it that)?

My over-arching concern is that this is just the latest trend from certain political types that want to use it to virtue signal. Ooooh, look at us. We're so progressive. Buy into us. Buy our product.

Perhaps they want to use the whole climate alarm thing to bring in taxes to screw the working class even more.

I don't trust that this is genuine ecological concern by them, just a means to an end.

Meanwhile, the sheeple get on the bandwagon as the champagne socialists hide their hypocrisy.

Cadellin

I think if you are committed to a cause, do it 100% or 1000%. But don’t cherry pick what you will do for the environment.

I absolutely disagree. It is far better to do something for the environment (or for a cause) than do nothing. Simply cutting plastic use by half would make a huge impact. If a family just started eating vegan for two days a week, that would have impact. The fact of the matter is that life on this planet is about to get dramatically disrupted within the next few years if humans continue the status quo. As a species, we are burning through the limited resources our planet offers at a rate that is unsustainable and unconscionable.

What Do You Think About Banning Plastic Bags?

JeffT