(12-08-2020, 06:35 PM)jagibelieve Wrote:

(12-08-2020, 05:55 PM)mikesez Wrote: They do get eaten by whales and sea turtles.  That's a big problem.
But that's not because we use too many of them.
That's because we litter.
If those things just end up in the landfill, no harm no foul.  Who cares if they take up space underground? Those petrochemicals were taking up space underground before we extracted them.
We had problems with poorly designed landfills in the 1970s, and a lot of old landfills were all filling up.
But now there are lots of new, much safer landfills with plenty of room.
Plastic in landfills is way way way down the list of environmental concerns.

Once again you are wrong (as usual).  Here's a little experiment for you.  Bury a plastic bag and a few yards away bury a paper bag.  Go back a year later and see which one is still there and intact.

The paper bag (if any of it is left) will have decomposed and added nutrients to the earth.  The plastic bag will still be intact and will still be made of toxic petrochemicals should their composition end up in the water table.

The bottom line is "environmentalists" were wrong when they phased out paper bags.  They wanted to "save trees" which are a natural reproducing resource.  You also see places like California having issues with wildfires every year due to mismanagement of forests.  Thinning trees and burning underbrush regularly would prevent a lot of their problem.

Why anyone thinks that plastic in a landfill is "no harm no foul" is beyond me.

Most single use plastic bags are HDPE.
If you bury them, yes they remain there for thousands of years.
But nothing is leeching. There are no plasticizers or solvents there.
It's inert.
Even if things are leached, there are layers upon layers of Liners in modern landfills (the liners also are generally HDPE, sometimes LDPE). The groundwater is not getting contaminated, at least not by them.
I agree that paper bags might be a better choice.
My dad was always irritated that paper bags were getting harder and harder to find when I was growing up. so I do understand where you're coming from.
But plastic bags are not harming the environment, as long as they make it to the landfill.

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