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A comment on Germany to meet EU guidelines to ban single-use plastics by 2021. Parent comment

Re:Germany to meet EU guidelines to ban single-use plastics ... by novia on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @05:05PM (#23764058)
> I guess you can argue that paper bags are compostable, but I'm not sure whether that matters much. Plastic bags that are sitting in the landfill doesn't harm the environment, and their bulk is negligible due to how thin/light they are.

The biodegradability of paper bags is the whole point here. You've seen the sides of the roads. You've seen the streams and rivers. People get done with their garbage and just throw it wherever. With garbage made out of plastic that doesn't break down, this is a big deal.

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Re:Germany to meet EU guidelines to ban single-use plastics ... by gruez on Tuesday July 07, 2020 @05:18PM (#23764201)
>You've seen the sides of the roads. You've seen the streams and rivers.

My local rivers are relatively plastic-free. Same with roads. They're not completely free of plastic, of course. Given that there are thousands of plastic bags being dispensed in my neighborhood every day and that the roads/rivers aren't being regularly cleaned, the fact that the neighborhood isn't completely filled with plastic bags makes me think that the overall disposal rate is pretty good.

Plastic litter might be the most visible externality of single use plastics, but I'm not quite sure whether tripling our co2 emissions from plastic bags is a worthwhile trade for eliminating plastic bags from our neighborhoods.

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