When shopping, I usually watch how many people reuse bags.

Finally, I asked some checkout people. Their answer: “a little less than half reuse bags.”

A study conducted by Freedonia Group found that plastic consumption in New Jersey tripled because of its plastic bag ban. Many New Jerseyans purchase reusable bags made of woven and non-woven polypropylene plastic, using 15 times the plastic of single-film bags, and then these shoppers fail to reuse these bags, buying them again and again.

Some, like me, might bemoan the loss of single-film bags to serve as lunch bags or line waste baskets, but the Legislature seems to care little about this. It would be nice if Maine would revisit the plastic bag ban.

Why can’t the Legislature review these mandates and make changes based on fact-finding? There seems to be little interest in making Mainers’ lives easier. Instead, the Legislature is plowing ahead with more controls with plans to restrict gas-powered vehicles (even though EV battery mining is environmentally destructive and EVs don’t work well in cold weather.)

There are also plans to restrict gas appliances, gas furnaces and gas supply to the state. Freedom is slowly but steadily being replaced by tyrannical rule; the end result of such rule is usually abject poverty, as totalitarian societies have demonstrated across history.

Timothy Michalak
Cumberland