COUNTERPOINT | Hard data shows bag fees backfire

In a recent Colorado Politics opinion piece, a local resident and former candidate for City Council argues that bans and taxes on plastic bags can backfire.

According to the author, plastic bags are not “single-use” at all. Many people reuse these bags to pick up their pet’s waste or as trash bags in small receptacles in their homes. A bag law in California led to skyrocketing trash bag sales and an increase in paper bag usage.

What about reusable tote bags? The author cites a study by the U.K. government revealed that it would take reusing one of these bags 131 times to make up for the climate impact of single-use bags. A later study by the Danish government took other environmental factors, such as water use and ecosystem damage, into account and found that it would take reusing a tote bag 20,000 times to see an environmental benefit.

Read the full article on Colorado Politics.