Thanks for proving my point about plastic bags. The only argument I've heard goes like the one you implied: Plastic is bad, it ends up in the oceans and kills turtles, which isn't really an argument. It's more like a concatenation of evidence-less assertions.
This from Science Magazine by way of National Geographic,
In 2010, eight million tons of plastic trash ended up in the ocean from coastal countries—far more than the total that has been measured floating on the surface in the ocean's "garbage patches."
From the Earth Policy Institute:
Currently 100 billion plastic bags pass through the hands of U.S. consumers every year—almost one bag per person each day.
A plastic bag weighs 4 grams, let's say 8 for the sake of argument. 8 x 100 billion = 800 billion grams, which is 1.7 billion pounds, which is 850 thousand tonnes, or 10% of total plastics ending up in the ocean IF EVERY SINGLE BAG ENDS UP IN THE OCEAN. Not hardly.
So sure, ban bags. But I think it's moral preening, not a realistic policy.
Bill
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