Hacker News Reader

Comment by s0fa37 | Hacker News Reader

I find the closing remarks around the banning of single-use plastic bags troubling - surely there are much more beneficial areas to target to reduce our overall use of plastic? Within each of these plastic bags full of supermarket groceries is likely anywhere from 5-20 other items caked in plastic packaging. How much of an impact is banning single use plastic bags, even globally, going to make really? Not saying that I'm against the banning of them, but shouldn't bans be extending much further across other products. The single-use plastic bag seems like such a low-hanging fruit, easy-win, that in my mind will make a negligible difference

View on HN

Actually everything I’ve read indicates you’re right. Plastic bags are literally the least of our trash problem. They are arguably the least resource consuming way to carry groceries, and contribute the most minuscule amount to global garbage accumulation.

This is one of those situations where something that seems intuitively bad “look at all those plastics bags!” is in no way the real problem.

The UK introduced a 5p charge for plastic bags and saw usage reduced by >80%: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/07/30/britain-banishes...

> The total number used fell from over seven billion a year to less than half a billion in the first six months of the policy, saving 40,801 tons of plastic, which is the equivalent weight of roughly 300 blue whales.

There probably are beneficial areas to reduce grocery plastic, but some of that plastic packaging is how/why food stays fresh on shelves longer. Cutting that back means increasing preservatives, throwing stuff out more often, shopping more often, etc.

Getting rid of plastic bags and other low hanging fruit (like straws) might not make a huge difference. On the other hand part of the battle is changing human behavior so starting with low hanging fruit is a good way to get people used to looking for plastic alternatives.

Glass jars, recycling, paper, refrigeration, and people bringing their own containers.

They could always start with the non food related products. Why does every piece of tech seem to come in a ton of plastic packaging anyway? Not so much the computers, but mice, printers, cartridges, etc...

Reduce or ban plastic from being used to package tech products, toys, media and random non food consumables and you'd probably cut down on a lot of plastic usage now.

To make it harder to shoplift.

It's the reason DVD cases are shrinkwrapped, otherwise people will just empty the cases.

Yeah, I know that logic. But I think the same still applies; the environmental impact matters more than a company's bottom line does, and I feel governments should start taking that into account.

I don't recall the exact figure it was significant, but the majority of human garbage is single use plastic (e.g., water bottles, plastic forks, etc.).

The problem isn't plastic. It's human nature. We're lazy and default to convenience over respect for Mother Nature.

Your post made me recall an old acquaintance of mine. Being environmentally conscious, he'd bring utensils with him everywhere so that if he ever ate out, he could use those instead of using plastic utensils.

Ha! Thanks!! That's on my TODO list. I'm hoping there's some sort of compact camping set I get buy and leave in the car, my back pocket, or strapped to my calf.

Heck! Even a reusable coffee stirrer would be a plus.

One step after another, you have to start somewhere.

So you start at the hardest to replace item around that is also the one with the smallest overall impact?

I think the change in the publics’ perception on the harm of plastic will happen in stages. This will just be a first step. In the U.S. I don’t think people are ready for major changes due to the politicization of environmental issues.

And plastic grocery bags are commonly reused. To replace plastic bags, we are talking about shipping around much more expensive reusable bags, and having people buy more bags for trash, pet waste, etc.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com