Hacker News Reader

I’m not sure how any program to recycle plastic bags (etc) is supposed to show 60% recycling-compliance without labeling instructing consumers to recycle the bags. Wouldn’t it just be simpler to ban the plastic?

View on HN

It would also be simpler to just ban cigarettes and alcohol and all of those things that the State of California knows to cause cancer. Complete prohibition is not the only policy tool we have, and indeed it's usually a pretty bad tool.

Right now, recycling (at least, of plastic) is a lie. This law is about forcing companies to stop lying. Seems appropriate to me.

Glass containers were far more common when I was growing up. Manufacturers and retailers prefer plastic because it's cheaper to ship and has less breakage. At the consumer end of things, glass is a minor danger but I remember when sidewalks and parking lots used to frequently have glass shards. Nearby grassy areas ended up with them too. And if you dropped a glass jar at home, it was a challenge to find every little bit of glass that flew off across the floor.

Plastic has done away with many of the problems that glass containers created, though it has a ton of issues of its own.

There's a lot to be said both for metal, and for cardboard.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com