[THJr]

If I'm understanding the article correctly the problem the author has is that single use paper bags, which are biodegradable and more easily recycled, are being banned in favor of reusable plastic and cloth bags which are considered significantly worse for the environment due to the required amount of use before they have a 'neutral' environmental impact compared to current practices.

The source they get their info from is interesting, though. (Linked below.) According to this, depending on which study you're looking at, it may actually be impossible to reuse any bags enough times that they become worth it compared to ditching them in general.

The lowest possible seems to be paper bags with 3 reuses, followed by plastic bags at around 10, then if you have a durable enough cotton bag to get through 130 uses it becomes the better option environmentally speaking. I've never known anyone that could reuse any of those bags enough to get through that many uses before they tear to the point of uselessness though.

I wonder if it would be advantageous to encourage stores and individuals to start using crates or woven bags again, which may be able to withstand the number of trips necessary to make their environmental impact neutral compared to plastic bags.

Their source: https://www.lifehacker.com.au/2018/08/heres-how-many-times-y...

[sydbarrett74]

Single-use bags are no more biodegradable than multi-use ones. They photodegrade when exposed to sunlight, and fissure into smaller pieces due to weathering, but their chemical nature is not altered. (I'm ignoring certain niche conditions under which microbes have evolved the capacity to biodegrade certain plastics.)

[THJr]

Yeah, the biodegradable part of the article is more about paper vs. plastic in general rather than single vs. multi-use.