Two Californian cities, San Francisco and Malibu, have completely banned plastic grocery bags of which only 5% are reused. Some other cities are considering similar measures, while the CA legislature is reviewing bill AB 1998, which would ban all carry out plastic bags and make only paper bags available at grocery stores. Opponents of the bill argue that paper bags are much worse for the environment than plastic bags because manufacturing and distributing paper bags releases three times the greenhouse gases of plastic bags.
Both the "ban plastic" and "ban paper" contingencies make compelling arguments for doing away with carry out one-time use bags. Which leaves us with the only logical solution - ban paper and plastic to make way for reusable cloth bags!
My husband took this picture at Balboa Park aka Sepulveda flood basin on a Sunday morning after heavy rains ... the white specs hanging on tree branches are plastic bags .... this is where they end up after the basin floods. I hope this picture will give you the impetus to dig up or DIY some reusible canvas bags to carry out your groceries!
The only practical solution is to discontinue production of both plastic and paper! You are spot on as usual! :-)
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