You would be surprised to what happens in a landfill. I used to work for a major paper manufacturer. They did several archeological digs in landfills as they were catching flak for their products and the environmental costs. They found meat that was 20 years old that was still technically edible. Newspapers that were still readable after 30 years. Landfills take away water , oxygen and UV. It preserves things nicely. Chuck a paper bag out of the window , it will break down when exposed to the elements in months. A soy-based plastic bag will do the same in a slightly longer time frame. Of note , on these digs they found about 23% of landfill space was composed of leaves , they didn't break down too.

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Sounds more like a people problem than a plastic bag problem.

Charles that's sad and believable. Seen it all the time in Tel Aviv, Israel. Saturday morning beach crew was out with heavy equipment cleaning up bottles solo cups fast food trash etc...

For many years here in France they have done a few things differently at grocery stores that make sense to me.

You bring your own shopping bags to the store. They sell them for about a buck and they last for years. Most stores will give you a free one if you wear out the old one, and I've got some that are 6 or 7 years old. They're also great for carrying other stuff for fishing, etc.

All the bags for produce or meat are non-plastic.

You bag your own groceries at the checkout. No big deal and you pack them the right way.

When you take a shopping cart, you put in 50 cents or a Euro coin and take the cart. When you are done, you put the cart back and get your coin back. No carts rolling into cars or left by lazy idiots to block a parking spot. Alot fewer homeless pushing around shopping carts too.

Everything has a cost, and these things make groceries cheaper here.

Pete

Our society needs to punish lawbreakers and leave decent people alone.

It's illegal to litter. Punish litterers. Don't take away items from people that could potentially become litter thereby punishing non litterers too.

It's illegal to shoot people without a legally justifiable reason. Punish people who shoot people without a legally justifiable reason. Don't take away firearms from everyone because they could use the gun in an illegal manner.

Keith

Its about prevention,not about reacting after the fact.
Also about fiscal responsibility-cost of one over the other.
Makes more sense to eliminate plastic bags than spending a bunch of money to prosecute people throwing away a bag.

The cost is not higher if you heavily fine litterers and force them to pickup litter. We should always punish the guilty, not restrict and thereby punish the innocent.

Keith

There are already fines for littering-you would have to spend millions on bag police to catch half of them.No amount of fine is a deterrent if you cant get caught.
A better option for the greater society is to eliminate the plastic bags.In a democratic society change is inevitable when demanded by the majority of the people.

You only have to punish a small percentage of litterers to make most stop. People don't want to pay fines or pick up trash. A community could make a huge amount of revenue targeting litterers until littering is no longer a problem. A normal $500.00 fine for littering would pay more than a law enforcement officers whole salary and benefits for a day. In a target rich environmetrasfor instance like the one Charles talked about with vacationers, a law enforcement could easily catch several litterers an hour by just observing in a store's parking lot.

Keith

Honestly hard to believe plastic bags aren’t banned yet. It’s really not a inconvenience to just carry in some reusable bags.

Plastic is going to be the end of us, it's everywhere in the environment, plastic water bottles should be ban along with the bags. You can't fix stupid with a fine, everyday I pick up trash along my road.
The responsibility for plastic should be put back on the manufactory.

My daughter recently returned from Austria and said that is the same way it is done there. She also said that, in Vienna at least, they rush you through checkout. If you don't have your stuff bagged quickly the cashier will just start sliding the stuff belonging to the customer behind you into your stuff.

She said it took some getting used to since her groceries had been bagged for her most if her life her in the US. Once she mastered it she now becomes annoyed with the slower customers. LOL

But plastic bags are the problem.....

Same kids voting Democrat to save the planet. Greta would be there if she were more tolerable.

With all of the end of the earth predictions it seems plastics get a pass for the most part today. If you follow the money it will end up in DC they are not avoiding such a easy target by mistake.

It's nothing new.. Humans have always been drop and go.. With younger ones being more and more event trained it's just gotten worse. Go look at some of the old pictures from after Wood Stock.. People came there by the 100s then just drop things and left them for others to clean up. Is like that now with everything. Go to a movie drop your drink cup popcorn bag on floor and leave, same at ball game or big concert. So why would any one think people going to beach for day aren't going do the same thing. Carry in items use them once drop and go. Fishing, Hunting, Camping, Concert, Ballgame, Balloon release for a rally..Probably some leave junk in church pews even if simple Kleenex. Just human nature it seems.Drop and go..It just my one little cigarette butt how bad can it be.

Mac

I guess we just have to ban everything. Then no one is accountable for anything. Yep, that's the answer.

We have tried for years to get people not to litter, it's time to shift the cost back to the producer, we have a huge problem with roadsides, and anywhere else people go. States that have deposits on water bottles and pop cans don't have near the issues as ones that don't. We have big problem here in Ontario with South Asia truckers, they dump everything in their trucks at any roadside stop, then to boot they will crap right there on the ground, they are turning the roadside into the third world country they came from.