Hope Over Reality

For John, BLUF:  Not every good idea works out when it meets reality.  The groceery store plastic bag ban is an exaample.♠  Nothing to see here; just move along.

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Research suggests plastic bag bans may be backfiring in a way that makes complete sense once you think about it

Here is the sub-headline:

From Not the Bee, by the NTB Staff, 30 Mrch 2022 4:30 pm.

Here is the lede plus one:

Plastic bag bans are fairly irritating—they're paternalistic, preachy, and they deprive countless homes of the endless usefulness of the all-purpose plastic bag—but more than that, it appears that they might not actually, you know, work:

Researchers at the University of Georgia suggest that banning the sale of plastic bags may come with a side-dish of unintended consequences.

The new analysis suggests that plastic bag ban policies — while well-intentioned — may end up having the opposite effect.  The issue that comes up is that grocery bags are viewed as single-use items, but they often get a (brief) second lease on life as liners for small trash cans.  Without the shopping bags available, people look for alternatives — which the researchers suggest means they buy small plastic garbage bags.

And there you are.  Do state legislatures not have research organizations?  People who look at the long term conseuences.  I would give a pass to local elected bodies, but if it is a city the size of Lowell, Mass, don't they have a Department of Planning and Development, with people capable of asking questions?.

The plastic bag ban is another triumph of hope over reality.

Hat tip to the InstaPundit.

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  From our time living in the Naples, Italy, area, in the mid 1970s, the NATO Allied Community (US, British, French, Greek and Turk) referred to the small plastic bag as an "Italian Attache Case," in that they were (re)used on the local economy to carry just about anything.