Plastic Bags: Superstition Wins

Yes, those plastic-bag bans are every bit as stupid as critics warned: a huge pain for consumers, and an environmental loser. The bans were always based only on the feeling that the bags are 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.

Plus, a New Jersey study just found that plastic consumption at checkouts had nearly tripled since the Garden State banned single-use plastic bags in 2020.

Shoppers suddenly saw 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, lots of people bought them once, then trashed them, same as they’d done with single-use bags.

But the thicker bags use a lot more plastic than their much-maligned predecessors, meaning more plastic in landfills.

Even careful planners find it tough to match the groceries they mean to buy to the number of bags to cart to the store (if you remember to bring them at all). So they still throw out lots of the (heavier) bags.

But superstition doesn’t die easily: Instead of accepting that their bright idea backfired, Cali lawmakers want to double-down and order stores not to sell thicker bags at all.

Hmm: New York tried that in 2020, banning both kinds of bags, but anyone who’s been in a local grocery since can tell you that they’re still hawking the thick 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.