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Comment by klodolph | Hacker News Reader

I’m just personally frustrated by the disposable shopping bag ban, because every time I go to the store, I typically come back with a bunch of different food items in single-use, disposable plastic or glass packages. What is the point of banning bags, if I still buy mustard in a plastic squeeze bottle?

And stores will happily sell me a cheap HDPE plastic bag, which happens because from time to time I forget to bring my own bag, and then I buy an extra package of LDPE garbage bags because I don’t have grocery bags I can use for small garbage cans any more.

It just seems like this is not even a step forward, and there are big sources of plastic we just don’t even care to deal with because it involves too much money.

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Plastic bags have a special place in our hearts because of their unique characteristics as litter.

With a small effort we cut our plastic use so low that sometimes on trash night I find the garbage can is still empty.

It's not that we don't buy single use plastic (good luck with potato chips), but we make an effort. Buying bulk and reusing plastic bags is key. If there's a glass option, buy that. And does the plastic garbage can need a plastic bag, really? Or can you use the same bag multiple times?

But it doesn't matter if I do it. Or even if 10% of the people do it. Won't save the world. Large scale bans are the only answer, and good luck with that.

> If there's a glass option, buy that.

Is that better? Or is it worse?

From estimates that I’ve seen, the glass bottle has 5x the carbon footprint of the corresponding plastic bottle. Glass can be recycled but it takes a lot of energy. Most products are not available in anything but single-use packaging.

I’m all for large-scale bans, but the large-scale bans should be designed to have a positive impact, one large enough to justify the cost in some sense. I am concerned that the ban on single-use plastic shopping bags has, perhaps, had a negative impact on the environment.

Good points... which devil to choose...?

The single use plastic bag bans are a drop in the bucket compared to overall plastic waste generation. In my view, plastic grocery bags have become a popular point of regulation because they are notorious for accumulating in public spaces, notably parking lots, parks, and other places that city leaders are pressured to keep clean. So long as plastic items end up in waste receptacles, it’s out of sight, out of mind.

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