Plastic Bags

 One thing I wasnt aware of before was how the initial impact of the plastic bag had to be met with intense action to have any impact. I wasnt aware countries needed create task forces to enforce regulations on plastic bags or conduct raids to get illegal plastic bags out of stores in the country. While I know this is still an ongoing issue, I also do know it's lessened to an extent, and this has also been seen by others as well. According to an article by KQED, paper and plastic bag usage is going down while reusable bag usage or not using bags at all is going up.

I liked the way some towns have banded together as individual shops and banned the use of plastic bags on a very local level. Most change has to happen at this level considering higher levels are more likely to be influenced by people who plastic bags actively support. Many big businesses who use plastic bags have their hands in politics and influence the decisions of politicians with their money, so relying on them to pass a bill to ban the use of plastic bags is unlikely. However, if businesses just banded together to enforce small scale bans, things would be better off and then the blame would really be evident against the bigger businesses.

Plastic waste is a big problem and there are no good ways to solve it. Like most of humanities issues, we made this problem and now, we're too deep in to stop it reliably. Global efforts would need to be enacted to even do anything, but relying on all the governments of the globe to agree on something is like relying on a house of cards to stay stable in a hurricane. The last time anyone on earth was able to agree on something was likely during the days of the caveman, and even that is a stretch. While its not the case that every single person is selfish and self-interested, it definitely seems like that is the case for those in an already advantageous position, especially politicians and their big business benefactors. In almost  every scenario, you can bet on a politician voting in a way that favors the big businesses that line their pockets, meaning plastic waste in general (not just plastic bags) is going to keep getting worse and worse as trying to do something means no extra cash for your 10th golf trip of the year.

While its entirely possible to mitigate this impending plastic disaster on our end, we'd need the backing of the government to truly deal with the problem, and they have our back like Brutus had Caesar's. The plastic disaster is impossible to deal with on our own and there is nothing we can do but try our best to mitigate it before it all comes crashing down, since any attempt to slow down this disaster on a scale that would actually be impactful immediately comes crashing down.

As for the idea that plastic bags are "misunderstood," that's propaganda spouted from the mouth of someone who's livelihood depends on destroying the planet. Every plastic bag used is another dollar in his pocket and he actively benefits from watching consumers use and throw away his product, because then he can get another few dollars out of them.