
In the interests of keeping the planet clean, I like so many, reuse plastic shopping bags. However, after reading Jim's sobering account of the life of a plastic bag, perhaps a rethink is in order. GC.Ed.
Many laws, well intentioned, have unintended consequences. They can snap like a crocodile at the arse in ways the unwary did not want – like setting high wages for apprentices which meant that apprenticeships almost vanished because tradies couldn’t pay.
Prohibiting plastic bags demonstrate that such unintended consequences can be, among other things, a bit stomach churning. For humans that is, maggots don’t mind so much.
San Franfreakshow, the wackiest town in the world, giggling on the way to bankruptcy, has been ‘discouraging’ plastic bags for six years. The reason given is that dear little sea critters choke on them and they litter the landscape. Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC ban them too, as do many green dominated and faddy little towns through the world.
THE BAD NEWS. Most alarmingly, news reports are growing linking reusable shopping bags to the spread of disease. Like this one, “A reusable grocery bag left in a hotel bathroom caused an outbreak of norovirus-induced diarrhea and nausea that struck nine of 13 members of a girls’ soccer team in October, Oregon researchers reported.” – LA Times. That would be a Seattle green bag.
There’s more than anecdote behind this. In a 2011 study reusable (green) bags in California and Arizona were examined and it was found that 51 percent of them contained coliform bacteria. The problem appears to be the habits of the reusers. Seventy-five percent said they keep meat and vegetables in the same bag.