Darwin, reusable grocery bags and the greenies

Whole Food shopper

Filthy reusables, never very smart, pose an even greater danger now

John Tierney:

TO AVOID COVID-19 AND OTHER ILLNESSES, DON’T USE “SUSTAINABLE” GROCERY BAGS: Greening Our Way to Infection.  The campaign to eliminate single-use plastic bags at the supermarket could prove deadly during the coronavirus outbreak. It has forced shoppers to switch to reusable tote bags that have proved quite “sustainable” for viruses and bacteria from food. The pathogens can linger for days — and then be spread all over the supermarket, especially at the checkout counter.  Researchers have repeatedly demonstrated that the pathogens in the bags are a serious public-health hazard unless grocery shoppers wash the bags regularly, which few people do.

[And the only safe way to wash these bags is in a washing machine; hand-washing won’t work, because of the crevasses and folds in the material. 97% of Americans don’t wash the bags at all, and of the few who do wash them,the number who use washing machines is infinitesimal, which is a good thing for our energy consuption: Bags wear out after 6-7 runs through the laundry, yet consume 100X more energy to produce than plastic one-timers.]

The plastic-bag bans have never made any sense, because the replacement bags are harmful not only to people but also to the environment, as I’ve written. I compared the bag bans to medieval sumptuary laws — which forbade commoners from wearing certain clothes or using certain products that offended their social superiors — but perhaps I was unfair to the medieval rulers who made the laws. At least their edicts didn’t sicken or kill their subjects.

This would be an excellent opportunity for self-selection; greens can use their filthy bags and die, the rest of us will bury the poor, earnest dears and get on with our lives, except in towns where the use of sterile plastic bags is prohibited, like Greenwich. Oh well.

Reusable cups have been banned at Starbucks’ and other woke companies’ stores, now it’s the hemp bag that should go. Will reusable straws be next? Ironically, for all the hysteria it’s engendered, this Wu Hu Floo may mark a turning point in a return to common sense. At least for the 10% of the population still alive in May, when all this frenzied panic has died.