Swcamborne said: “The bags that consumers use represent less than 10% of the total packaging that end up in landfills. ”
T replied:  “Plastic bags make up 25% of the litter stream in the City of Pasadena!”

bag of trash more than 5 pounds

T took issue with my opposition to regulating plastic bags in Pasadena.  In my reply I focused on a clearly factual error he made either deliberately, because he was misinformed or by deviously conflating “landfill” and “litter stream.”  I assume it was said to heighten the sense of urgency since the rest of the reply is about the horror of a future with plastic.

Ralph’s Grocery bag 1/8 oz

There in no way that plastic bags are 25% of the waste stream

and it is a checkable fact.

Trash can liner bag 5/8 oz

Do the math:

• Plastic grocery bags weigh an 1/8 of an ounce.  (bags in trash are mostly these or smaller)
• Plastic trash bags weigh just over a half of an ounce.  (This hold the trash)
• Lets estimate that on the high end plastic bags average weight is 1/4 ounce.
• so there are 4 bags in an ounce
• 16 ounces in a pound=64 bags in a pound
• round down to 5o (margin for error)
• a five pound bag of trash x 25% = 1.25 pounds of bags
• 50bags/pound x 1.25 pounds=62 bags
• which means more than 60 plastic bags would have to be in a small bag of trash to meet “T’s” assertion.
• Conclusion “use common sense to test facts before passing them along”

BTW I read somewhere that the people who would benefit most from a plastic bag ban would be the pulp and paper industry.  Makes sense to me.  You are fighting a commercial battle with the passion of a true believer.

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