I might get in trouble for saying this out loud, but I like plastic bags.
I enjoy the convenience of having my items of purchase sheathed in a single, stretchable, highly portable unit that magically pops up from behind a clerk’s counter.
I love having leftover plastic bags around the house for use as a small garbage bags. Not every clean-up job demands a big black trash bag that requires an arm-flailing, parachute-style opening. I also use plastic bags as makeshift packsacks for road trips.
More broadly, I prefer a world in which commoners, not politicians, are free to choose their preferred means of containing groceries, clothes, books and all other manner of goods until they can be transported from store to residence.
So it goes without saying that I believe Flin Flon city council would be wrong to ban plastic bags, a proposal that was recently placed on the agenda for discussion (though not an actual vote, as it’s unclear how many councillors are on board).
I’m not saying this is a one-sided debate. I know well-meaning people who are convinced that plastic bags, like leprosy and fascism before them, are a scourge that must be stamped out with force, or at the very least a series of by-laws.
To these people, the omnipresent nature of plastic bags demonstrates that folks just aren’t taking their role as stewards of the environment seriously. Often they point to the plastic bags blowing to and fro at the Flin Flon landfill as proof positive of the error of our ways.
But others make the argument that plastic bags actually help reduce our waste output because people often use them in place of much larger black garbage bags. And despite their status as “single-use,” plastic bags tend to be summoned for duty multiple times.
As for wind-carried bags at the landfill, we see lots of things blowing around there, including paper, diapers, black garbage bags and cardboard. Do we prohibit those everyday items next because they detract from the otherwise picturesque beauty of the dump?
And don’t forget that plastic-bag bans prohibit just that – plastic bags. The unsurprising consequence is that stores and consumers end up using more paper bags, whose production is not exactly environmentally neutral. Also, whatever happened to wanting to save the trees that lost their lives in the cause of paper bags?
Some ask whether we shouldn’t all just do the right thing and switch to reusable cloth bags. But research shows those bags soak up worrisome bacteria like sponges. One of many headlines on the subject appears above an online USA Today article: “Eww, reusable grocery bags’ germs can make you sick.”
Of course you could wash your reusable bag in hot water and disinfectant once a week, as the article suggests, but doesn’t this added use of water, electricity and chemicals open up a whole other front in the environmental debate?
The other factor at play is whether the people of Flin Flon actually want a plastic-bag ban.
It’s not good enough for one side to simply declare, “We’re doing the work of Mother Earth and cannot be trifled with.” The folks who foot the bill for our municipal government, and its bylaw-enforcement functions, ought to reign supreme. On that note, there have been reversals of plastic-bag bans in other communities because of public pressure.
Where do Flin Flonners stand? An unscientific online Reminder poll in June showed 51 per cent of 103 respondents favoured a ban while 45 per cent were opposed.
The poll suggests significant support for a ban, but also considerable opposition. City council will have to tread carefully.
Local Angle is published Fridays.
