Yes, those plastic-bag bans are every bit as stupid as critics warned: Not only a huge pain for consumers, but a loser for the environment, too.
The bans were always based on sentiment (even superstition): The enviro-conscious feeling that they’re wasteful.
But now a California study by pro-ban study researchers proves the state’s decade-old law against single-use plastic bags has people blowing through more plastic than ever.
The smoking gun: The weight of discarded plastic bags rose by nearly 74,000 tons (the highest level on record) since Cali passed the law in 2014.
It’s not just the Golden State: A recent study in New Jersey found that plastic consumption at checkouts had nearly tripled since the Garden State banned single-use plastic bags in 2020.
Why? Shoppers suddenly saw their convenient, thin plastic bags replaced by thicker bags they had to buy at the register — also made of plastic.
Instead of keeping and reusing these bags or recycling them, as the banners wanted, lots of people bought them once, then trashed them, just as they’d done with the single-use bags.
And the thicker bags use a lot more plastic than their much-maligned predecessors, meaning more plastic in landfills even though many consumers tried to be “good.”
Too many refused to designate storage space for an ever-growing stash of thick plastic totes, and even careful planners find it tough to exactly match the amount of groceries they mean to buy to the number of bags they’ll cart to the store (if they remember to bring them at all, and if the whole trip isn’t spontaneous).
So they still throw out lots of the (heavier) bags.
But superstition doesn’t die easily: Instead of accepting that their bright idea backfired, lawmakers in California want to double-down and make it illegal for stores to sell thicker plastic bags at all.
One problem: New York tried that in 2020, banning both single-use and reusable plastic bags, but anyone who’s been in a New York grocery store since can tell you that stores are still hawking these thicker, more harmful bags.
The only thing getting recycled is bad ideas.
Will green-posturing pols ignore all this and keep on passing laws that do more harm than good?
It’s in the bag.