[m0nty]

"For a cotton tote to have less environmental impact than a plastic bag, it has to be reused 7,100 times. So why do tote bags have such good PR?"

https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/environment/2019/07/ho...

[KozmoNau7]

That's a gross misunderstanding of what the study actually shows: https://twitter.com/arthurhcyip/status/1115749675762581504

[lorenzhs]

Turns out, because the 7100x number is based on a misunderstanding of the study it's from, and the actual number for climate impact is 52x: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20581751

[m0nty]

I was wondering about that, so thank you for the clarification.

The other issue I had with it was that plastic bags are notorious for ending up in hedgerows and waterways, so there is that secondary impact from being a disposable item, which cotton or hemp bags don't have so much.