Plastic Bags, Politically Provocative?

Plastic bag bans are fueling bi-partisan debate, as West Coast cities institute fees and declare outright prohibition of these environmentally devastating totes. Radical right-wingers are quick to assert that a plastic bag ban will take away jobs from thousands of American workers and that other materials will facilitate the spread of disease. Hopefully, common sense will prevail and time will heal the bruised egos of tea party journalists. The fact that plastic bags are clotting our soils and seas with the glut of consumerism is undeniable. We must acknowledge that our wasteful and negligent behaviors are the wellsprings of ecological degradation.

Enter, the era of canvas shopping bags. Though apparently harmless, these benign baggies are coming under fire from the ultra-right flank. Conservative conspirators site nonsensical facts that the production of cotton totes has more harmful effects on the environment than plastics. Let’s talk about that…A bag made of petrol and natural-gas-refining byproducts is less harmful than one that consists of cotton? A bag that’s used once and never again is less wasteful than reusable shopping bags? Only on Opposite Day. It goes to show that people can make a living on being contrarian for argument’s sake alone.

Here’s the real stats…every year, 500,000,000,000 plastic bags are used worldwide, of which Americans use 100,000,000,000, only recycling 1 to 3 percent. That leaves 3,500,000 tons of plastic bags in landfills per annum—not to mention what ends up in the ocean. 

As for taking away American jobs, neglecting American production and being generally un-American in nature by restricting our God-given rights…What’s more American than cotton? Did we or did we not fund our independence with the sale of tobacco, sugar and ugh, oh yeah, cotton? And petroleum…is that not the main export of OPEC, namely Saudi Arabia? Russia comes in at a close second in petrol production. Listen, ye disparagers of development, ye harbingers of havoc, let go of mercilessly touting the party line into territory where there need be no party line. May we all, one day, be led by reason and reason alone.