The Ban Mode

They are banning grocery store plastic bags here in most cities in Oregon. The ban chant is the favorite of those who call themselves "environmentalists". Though they are most often well intentioned in their chanting for their causes (both good and bad), they are more and more just plain wrong and intolerant in their pursuit of them. The plastic grocery bag ban that is soon to go into effect here is a microcosm of the problem and why so many more Americans are having a hard time swallowing their alleged "science" and their strong arm tactics in implementing what they say is best for humans.

They have banned coal, phosphate detergent, Styrofoam and on and on. Now plastic grocery bags? Environmental organizations have as their real goal the imposition of their particular view of the world on everyone. The individual causes they champion are far less important to them than that, The problem is that their world is less of a factual and more emotional one. In the case of plastic grocery bags, they have said that these bags end up in the ocean, take too long to break down and are just all-round unhealthy for the environment. Their solution here has been to lobby government along with self interested paper companies funding their campaign in order to eliminate this choice entirely for consumers and retailers.

Yep! The big lumber mills here are bankrolling the anti plastic bag propaganda because those companies stand to make a whole lot more money if paper becomes the required bag in retail stores. What those environmental lobbyists don't say is that paper bags take much more energy to produce than a single plastic bag. This definitely conflicts with environmentalist goals of reducing energy use.

Comparing entire life cycles, one paper bag produces almost five times the atmospheric pollutants and 15 times the waterborne pollutants of a single plastic bag. Ironically, the major reason why plastic bags were developed was to improve the environment. And when used properly, it does. There is an irrefutable evidence that they do when they are recycled. That is the real environmental problem, not paper versus plastic. They are not being recycled as they should be. Might a wiser policy be to stop making those polluting paper bags and instead require that the lazy shopping public bring back plastic bags and place them into a bin for recycling on their next shopping trip.

I did that in New Orleans, and it's even easier to recycling plastic here....but the environmental paper lobby instead wants to pollute more with paper bags. Odd, huh? I guess the multi millions the environmental groups get in contributions here may have some influence on their siding with paper mils on this issues. Too, I wonder why the environmental crazies (Global Warmers included) never mention banning all the other plastic products made and consumed in U.S. They overlook the fact that grocery and other retail stores plastic bags are but a tiny component of that. Why don't the environmentalists call for a ban of all plastics everywhere? It's because even the confused public can't be hoodwinked into such a preposterous idea and if they were, the world economies would rapidly crash and burn.

The only problem with plastic is littering and the lack of effort by communities to enforce littering and recycling rules. Yet, plastic bags are demonized and the mostly trendy and uninformed public believes as much of the nonsense about plastic as they believe that humans control and are changing climate in the world. Maybe the environmental extremists should point the finger where it really belongs, at the misuse of plastic. But then, that won't garner them any money from the paper manufactures who finance their wacky programs.