Washington’s Plastic Bag Ban Won’t Help Diddly-Squat

Anyone who has even lightly paid attention in school or has watched a couple of episodes of How the Universe Works knows that matter can neither be created or destroyed. Mankind has found many different ways to change matter though. For instance, through certain physical and chemical changes, you can take some specific items of matter and turn them into plastic bags. Nothing was created and nothing was destroyed, everything was just rearranged.

Then how does a baby grow into an adult if matter cannot be created? The cells in your body do regenerate, change, and grow, but the particles that make up those cells have existed for millions and millions of years. Every glass of water you drink is has been on the earth for about 5 billion years and is even older than that.

Look, I'm a C-student, and even I can grasp the idea that garbage needs to be properly disposed of. A plastic bag blowing in the wind is certainly not a pretty sight and dangerous to Wildlife. But using plastic bags and disposing of them properly doesn't hurt the Earth one bit. All the materials used to make them came from the Earth and will be returned to the Earth.

By making and using those plastic bags, matter was neither created or destroyed. So I guess the Washington State ban on plastic bags that starts this Friday can be blamed on litterbugs. And people who don't understand how the universe works. Plastic bags do not change the weather, either.

But wait! If I pay $0.08 per plastic bag at the grocery store, I can still get them? YES! That makes it all better for our planet and our lawmakers...the almighty dollar. They'll generate millions of dollars this way.  I don't think I'll ever use more than 10 bags when I make a grocery store run so yes, the 80 cents will be worth it to me. Besides, I fill them with dog poop and throw them in the trash. Like you're supposed to.