Why Plastic Bags are Great

(From Natural News)

Banning plastic bags harms humans in many ways. Plastic bags are a very useful part of our lives:

- make it easy to carry a number of small items
- they are strong and lightweight
- they are cheap and disposable, so no problem if you lose one or can't find it
- they are easy to get - the supermarkets give them out with groceries
- they are a by-product of oil, which would otherwise just be burnt off
- they fold down to almost no space in the drawer
- they are absolutely wonderful for camping and picnics, particular for stuff that might get wet as they are reasonably waterproof

Plastic bags are a small invention but they make our lives just a little bit easier. Banning them makes our lives just a little bit harder, and for no purpose at all.

I avoid Bunnings because of their silly plastic bag policy. Last time I went I bought about 12 little items, and was refused a plastic bag for them. They actually offered me a large eco-bag instead. I left the goods in the end, and haven't been back.

The mindless enviro-nuttiness that we often hear at the supermarket or see in marketing material often makes me think we have walked into a church. Imagine having Christian sermons preached to us at the supermarket? Who would stand for that? Yes this environmentalism is no different.

Plastic bags:

• don't harm animals
• take up a minuscule portion of landfills (0.2%)
• make up much less of the bulk of litter than do other types of rubbish
• are a by-product of oil anyway (note the recent oil find in the North Island where they burnt off a load of polyethylene gas because they weren't set up to capture it)
• have less than 1/100 of the material of 'eco-bags' (which are also made of plastic!)

In terms of recycling, it is much easier to re-use a plastic bag a few times than to re-use a eco-bag a few hundred times. Yet unless you re-use the eco-bag at least 100x more than the plastic bag, you are actually making things worse!

Also see a few of my previous posts on this

http://savethehumans.typepad.com/weblog/2008/04/earth-day-netwo.html

http://savethehumans.typepad.com/weblog/2008/04/plastic-bags-ar.html

http://savethehumans.typepad.com/weblog/2008/03/some-plastic-ba.html

http://savethehumans.typepad.com/weblog/2008/04/just-say-yes-to.html

Comments

[sharon]

OK - please make note that ecobags is a brand of reusable bags - actually the brand that was at the starting line and none of the ecobags we produce are made of plastic. So, it's incorrect to call a nwpp or other bag an ecobag or ecobags. It's not a generic term.

[The Optimist]

Hi Sharon - ok, what is the generic term please?

[nicola hubbard]

we shoped at alid once and had to pay for bags, i think thats wrong cause some families are struggling to get food on the table but have to by the bags i so wrong.

[The Optimist]

It is wrong. I bet if the bag suppliers started charging 10 cents for them then the shop would switch suppliers immediately. It is just hypocrisy to say that we shouldn't mind paying for things that cost basically nothing for 'environmental reasons'.

[Forex Brokers reviews]

Hi! Your blog is a different one. I think You have to change your views about plastic bags.Anyway I liked your cartoon. Than Q.

[שירות למכונות צילום]

The meaningless that I often listen to at the store or see in advertising materials often creates me think we have went into a religious.

[Kirby123]

Plastic bags do harm animals is where you are wrong. Plastic harms animals in more than just one way. More than 100,000 marine animals alone die from plastic ingestion every year, I am not saying all the deaths were due to plastic bags but some where. Plastic looks like a jelly fish when floating in the water and is commonly mistaken for food. They entangle animals restricting airways, digestion, and growth. The chemicals in plastic enter the food chain and work their way up, eventually leading to humans. Banning plastic would save humans from themselves because we are ingesting plastic's chemicals too.
I will leave citations to credible sources so you can learn up on it for yourself.
"Plastic Statistics." Plastic Statistics. Ocean Crusaders, n.d. Web. 08 Nov. 2012.
Wills, Amanda. "The Numbers on Plastics." Find Where and How to Recycle. Earth 911,
2012. Web. 08 Nov. 2012.