[gruez]

>The plastic bag may have a lower carbon footprint, but it isn't going to biodegrade as quickly, and may end up turning into microplastics that persist for a long time.

What you described is a non-issue if the bag is disposed of properly. Presumably you, as a environmentalist can be relied upon to do that.

[em-bee]

that's only true if every plastic bag user disposes of the bags properly. part of the problem of using plastic bags is that it increases the demand. i specifically ask for less plastic bags in the produce section in order to teach the sales person that it is not necessary to have each item individually wrapped as is the custom here. i want them to apply that to other customers and so reduce the use of bags even more.

[b3morales]

Could you elaborate on what proper disposal looks like?

[gruez]

landfill (properly engineered and regulated[1]) or incineration.

[1] https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-40/chapter-I/subchapter-I...

[b3morales]

Interesting, thanks.

[akomtu]

In the future there will be an acid-like substance used to safely dissolve almost anything, except maybe metals and stones.

[hutzlibu]

We already have them since quite a while, also to dissolve most metals and stones. But producing them in the required quantities would be kind of out of proportion to use it for garbage disposal. And disposing garbage in acid means still having lots of garbage basins with acid. You might want to check out some chemistry.