The Disgusting Consequences of Plastic-Bag Bans

[longknife]

By Ramesh Ponnuru Feb 4, 2013

Conservatives often point out that laws, no matter how benign they may appear, have unintended consequences. They can reverberate in ways that not many people foresaw and nobody wanted: Raising the minimum wage can increase unemployment; prohibition can create black markets.

The efforts in many cities to discourage the use of plastic bags demonstrate that such unintended consequences can be, among other things, kind of gross.

Read more @ The Disgusting Consequences of Plastic-Bag Bans - Bloomberg

 

[AmyNation]

I never think to wash them. Sounds like a PSA is necessary.

 

[mamooth]

A compromise is more in order. Disposables should be allowed at any place that sells raw meat. It's nice to say "people should wash their bags", but it ain't always gonna happen.

Remember, liberalism is overwhelmingly about practicality, not emotionalism or ideology. If you run the numbers, you're going to get some sickness and a few deaths out of a total bag ban, and that outweighs the other gains. Therefore, you look for ways to mitigate the downside and get back into positive numbers (yes, men in suits run the numbers and coldly determine how many deaths are okay, but that's how everything in life works), and allowing the disposables for raw meat sellers is the way to mitigate harm.

The norovirus case is, of course, a red herring. You don't get norovirus from raw meat. A plastic bag left sitting next to a toilet used by a norovirus infected person would have been contaminated the same way as a reusable.