In defense of plastic bags

SciDev.Net : Plastic bags should be managed, not banned, writes Lilia Casanova, a former deputy director at the United Nations Environment Programme’s International Environmental Technology Centre in Japan. Although many cities worldwide have been trying to ban plastic bags because of their potential negative effect on the environmentâmdash;they can clog sewers and choke animals, among other thingsâmdash;plastic is superior to paper in many ways. Plastic is better for certain purposes, such as carrying wet goods, and can be reused, such as for lining trash cans. In addition, plastic is less polluting because it requires less energy than paper to be produced and recycled. The solution, Casanova says, is not to ban plastic bags but to better manage them: Make plastic bags out of biodegradable materials, such as the bioplastics that are now being produced in some European countries; reuse the bags as many times as possible; and recycle them properly when their useful life has come to an end.