[O_H_E]

I would also like to assert that non-western countries are very influenced by trends in North America and Europe. (Source: I am from such country in Africa, and am living in another in Asia)

Once the west establishes plastics as something for the uneducated and poor -- that they[the west] got away from, people will rush to use their fancy not-so-cheap bags.

Same with fossil fuels, recycling, carbon-related policies, ... etc

* I don't mean "uneducated and poor" literary, but just generally less fortunate people in the no-so-developed world

Related comment (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20157820)

[Gibbon1]

Opinion of mine is it takes a while for people to come to a consensus that something is bad and come up with rules to mitigate it.

Three things I think of.

One is a guy talking about visiting really poor part of South American. Used to be 'clean' because people were too desperately poor to throw away anything. And later as they became less poor there was garbage everywhere. And still later and better off, less garbage.

When I was kid in the 1960's in the US there was trash everywhere. People would throw trash out car windows, leave their trash behind at parks. Toss trash in the street and dump refuse in vacant lots. Now that is both illegal and considered boorish.

Another friend mentioned riding the bus in a country in South America. 40 years ago people just tossed trash out the window. 30 years ago they'd wait till the bus was a mile outside of town. 20 years ago the bus had a trash can and people would hold onto trash till the next stop.

I think societies are slow to come to grips with and deal with negative externalities that industrial culture makes possible. The whole thing is a process.

[jopsen]

Yeah, we shouldn't be quick to underestimate the cultural influence from Hollywood :)

Besides, if they west goes in this direction, economies of scale might simply make single-use-plastic more expensive than the alternatives..