[jahnu]

Last I read that was debunked. It was based on one study or article that made a really bad assumption and then it spread. Someone went and did the figures again and it was way off by a few orders of magnitude and in fact only a few uses of a reusable bag means it’s better. Like you I don’t have the link to hand sorry.

[mrspuratic]

Externalities are hard.

https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2020/04/30/plastic-paper-c...

By estimated impact: cotton > paper > plastic, but more constructively:

> Ultimately, the single use of any bag is the worst possible choice. The key to reducing your environmental impact is to use whatever bags you have around the house as many times and in as many ways as possible.

[coryrc]

So it's better that I need to pay for thicker bags just to put in my wastebasket to collect trash? How is that better than getting a t-shirt bag from the store to carry my items home, then use the bag to line my trash, then throwing the mess away?

By volume I throw away more diapers in a month than an entire lifetime of plastic bags. Fighting plastic bags is what the rich companies making actual pollution want you to focus on so you aren't fighting real pollution.

[nozzlegear]

> Fighting plastic bags is what the rich companies making actual pollution want you to focus on so you aren't fighting real pollution.

Why can't we fight both? Reducing both plastic bag pollution and "real" pollution seems better than just one or the other.

[pxeger1]

People have limited campaigning energy and politicians have limited political capital, so it probably does divert some attention from the bigger problems.