Connecticut Environmentalists Angry Over Wording of Plastic Bag Ban Proposal

I thought banning plastic bags was a good thing for the environment. Maybe I was mistaken.

From an article on ctinsider.com, word has it that environmentalists are angry about the plastic bag tax and ban included in Connecticut's budget proposal. But why you might ask?

The proposal exempts so-called compostable bags and restricts towns from enacting and enforcing previous bans. It appears there might be a misunderstanding in the wording of the proposal. There is a difference between nonbiodegradable plastic bags and compostable plastic bags.

Nonbiodegradable plastic bags like the bags at grocery stores take around 1,000 years to break down which is nasty for the environment. According to greenliving.lovetoknow.com, Compostable plastic bags are made of vegetable matter and will compost when exposed to enough moisture but will still contaminate the environment with plastic chemicals.

Senator Christine Cohen who co-chairs the Environment Committee thought that after meeting with everyone from legislators to environmentalists to retailers that everyone involved had agreed upon the language of the proposal. She went on to say Connecticut residents should contact the Governor's office and urge him not to exempt compostable bags from the ban and not to preempt towns from passing their own tougher bans. Why are plastic bags bad for the environment?

1. They are not biodegradable
2. They clog stormwater infrastructure
3. Birds and marine mammals mistake them for food
4. Made from fossil fuels
5. They cause environmental pollution
6. Harmful to human health

The budget proposal establishes a 10-cent tax on single-use plastic bags until June 30 of 2021 and then bans them starting on July 1, 2021. If we can't come to an agreement on the dangers of plastic bags and their detriment to our civilization, how are we going to get a grip on climate change before it's too late?