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Comment by lando2319 | Hacker News Reader

12 pointslando23198 comments

This is interesting and intuitively makes sense, although the actual study does not seem to be available and was paid for by an unspecified client.

The "reusable" plastic don't really solve a problem. Like everyone else, I have dozens of tote bags at home all ready. The fact that I need a bag in the first place is only because I forgot them or didn't have enough. Increasingly, stores don't even bother stocking them anymore - I've gotten used to just dumping groceries in my trunk when I forget my point.

The bag bans don't really have a clear objective. "The cruelty is the point" - as some like to say.

> The bag bans don't really have a clear objective

I’ve never seen one where this statement is accurate. The most common purpose is reducing litter and most of the ones I’ve seen are specifically focused on keeping bags out of rivers and oceans, and they’re quite effective at that goal. Our local rivers went from being clogged with discarded bags to seeing very few of them within a few months.

I also think you’re overselling the challenge here. Most people I know keep a couple of bags in their car/bike/backpack, which isn’t really harder than remembering an umbrella or coat.

YMMV - I clean up trash in my neighborhood and I still see reusable bags littered everywhere.

They are just so much heavier that they don't blow around in the wind as much and are durable enough that they get bogged down. So they end up in the bottom of puddles and packed around in undergrowth. It doesn't help that they are also much darker. Them being less noticeable is not necessarily a good thing overall.

Keeping in mind a reusable bag has an order of magnitude more material in them, so even one of them contributes more plastic pollution than 5-6 crappy ones.

Either ban plastics altogether or incentivize tote loaning or something. But the 8c "reusable disposable" bag is a complete sham.

We have this nonsense in Washington too, I made an effort last time I went to pick up takeout to bring one of my reusable bags with me to avoid the 8 cent bag fee, they had already bagged my order in a new one, the restaurant was like "Oh you have your own? We'll just take that one off your hands." Well, it wasn't one of the restaurants it was just a random grocery store one I had laying around, what are they going to do with it?

I wonder how many people even know those heavy bags ARE supposed to be reusable. I only know because I was bored and read my shopping bag.

We also have some kind of ban on fastfood giving you plastics without you asking for them first that as far as I can tell literally no one, except for a singular KFC near my house, actually abides by. It's all just ridiculous theater.

The single-use grocery bags were repurposed to my house to dispose of cat litter. we now use bigger and heavier plastic bags for cat litter disposal.

This article was on r/newjersey a couple days ago and got labeled Opinion/Misinformation by the mods. [1] Reason being it's an opinion piece by a prominent DC lobbyist and the source material is privately funded and unavailable to the public.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/newjersey/comments/19ef9vy/nj_antip...

Forbes is not a reliable source in general, but they are quoting a lot from a much better NYT article.

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