Marika Weber wrote succinctly in favor of a ban on plastic bags and corresponding tax on paper bags. Here’s a counter argument. First, our family uses these free bags as trash can liners. Banning them would require us to buy commercial liners, which are of thicker plastic, and thus, worse for the environment. Second, all the grocery bags we don’t use get returned to the store, where a commercial recycler picks them up and they get made into other useful products (like  grocery bags). Third, back in the 70’s the environmental slogan was: “Reduce, reuse, recycle.” Thin-film grocery bags adhere to this credo in all three ways. And my family is not alone in this effort: according to the EPA an estimated one billion pounds of plastic bags, sacks and wraps were recycled in 2010, a 55 percent increase since 2005.

Fourth, unless reusable bags are washed in 140 degree soapy water they can accumulate some nasty bacteria. A study by the University of Arizona found that 50 percent of all reusable bags contained food-borne bacteria like salmonella. What’s more, 12 percent contained E. coli, indicating the presence of fecal matter and other pathogens. I wonder Marika, do you dutifully and thoroughly wash your reusable bag after each trip, or just hang it up in the garage, like my 20-something daughters do?

Finally, those jaunty, politically-correct reusable bags, with their whimsical sayings, fun slogans and artistic designs, are predominantly made in China. Those boring, brown, thin-film grocery bags, are made in America – often from recycle grocery bags – by 30,000 workers at 329 plants all (source: www.plasticsindustry.org) around the country. We should be proud of the vibrant recycling industry we have created, not seek to minimize it with loopy ideas like a bag ban.

If the Kirkland City Council has any lingering thoughts of implementing a misguided-but-feels-good ban on thin-film grocery bags, they should dispose of that idea immediately (in a landfill; no recycling). Summing up: Plastic bag bans do not improve the environment (because they force us to buy thicker plastic bags for our trash cans) but they do increase costs for everyone, and do increase the likelihood of spreading infectious diseases among our families. They do also help increase the trade deficit while helping to throw 30,000 citizens out of work, for a product that is largely recycled, and even when not, takes up just under 0.5 percent of our landfills.

Facts, not fashion.

Roger Clarke-Johnson, Kirkland