Of Plastic and Bans

In the last few days I’ve been asked by a few people to comment on Chico’s new plastic bag ban. I’m happy to comment and hope it isn’t repeating much of what others have said.
The plastic bag ban in Chico is an attempt to control our actions. That’s usually something to be very cautious of with government. There are laws and regulations whose existence makes common sense. Speed limit laws (we can debate where they should be set) unquestionably lead to less traffic accidents. Laws against murder and violence for example protect citizens from the potential heinous actions of others. These laws and their benefits are clear. The plastic bag ban is none of those. First of all, there is no exact science anywhere showing that taking all things into consideration plastic bag bans do anything to help the environment as a whole. Will there be less plastic bags flying around? Maybe. Will anyone notice? Doubtful.
In addition, while some people will begin using cloth bags (that need energy to be cleaned, dried, etc.), many will just go with the easier paper option. Guess what? It takes more energy to produce and distribute paper bags. They are heavier (by a wide margin) than plastic. How do we transport these bags? In trucks that use gasoline (read petroleum). On asphalt roads that break down the more they are used that are also made of, you guessed it, petroleum. Where does America get the bulk of its petroleum? Yup, foreign sources of oil. And this is a good idea? But wait you say! Plastic is made of petroleum so this argument is baseless. Actually, the plastic bags Chico is banning are generally made of natural gas. Care to guess which country in the free world has an abundance of that? The USA.
So why the ban? Like other things our council has tackled of late, it is a feel good initiative that wastes time and creates an economic drain on limited resources.
In turbulent economic times, with many cities on the brink of bankruptcy, we’ve got to ask ourselves:
“Is this something our city should be doing?”
-Sean Morgan