[pineaux]

Came here to say this. The production of a plastic bag costs somewhere in the range of 0.05 cents to produce. If you would factor in the impact on the environment it would probably cost a few cents. Which, given the insane amount of plastic bags that are consumed each day. Would be significant.

[Ray20]

I think still less than a cent. I mean you just put plastic bag in a garbage pile, and that's it. Near-zero utilization costs with near-zero impact on the environment.

[jplrssn]

If it were that easy there wouldn't be a garbage patch the size of Texas floating in the Pacific.

[tsimionescu]

That consists to a great extent of maritime generated garbage - plastic fishing nets and plastic thrown off of vessels, and of course lots of "recycled" plastic that was being shipped to China and ended up dumped in the middle of the ocean.

[Ray20]

Putting your trash in a local garbage dump is EASIER and CHEAPER than putting it in the garbage patch in the Pacific, so stop doing that right now.

[zulu-inuoe]

Incorrect. If I throw my plastic bags out on the road it's much easier. It'll find its way to the Pacific eventually

[algorias]

This is a problem with the (lack of) environmental laws in many countries. All things considered, landfills are really cheap.