plastic bags

"Plastic Bag in Lake" by Mr.TinDC is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0.

Why Does California’s Newest Plastic Bag Ban Make A Difference?

California has passed a new amendment that adds to its original plastic bag ban. The state banned single-use plastic bags beginning in 2016 but allowed thicker “reusable” plastic bags to be sold for a 10 cent fee. Officials there thought that the original legislative design, with a few caveats, would … [continued]

How Do We Carry Our Shopping Home Now? (Part 2)

In part 1 of this two-part series, we examined the environmental impacts of the humble lightweight plastic single-use shopping bag, and argued that simply banning them without providing a sustainable alternative is not a valid long-term solution: the large-scale use of many of the alternatives, such as non-woven polypropylene bags, would also cause environmental damage — in particular, due to the lack of sustainable production and disposal options. Here, in part 2, we’ll speculate on what properties the ideal shopping bag would have, and provide recommendations for shoppers when selecting new bags.