We are throwing them away. "Reusable" is a term of art. We're not talking about the actually reusable canvas-like bags. We're talking about heavy sheets of plastic.
The situation is complicated, and nobody wants to have an honest conversation about it.
The reason why the switch to heavier bags is important is mainly to stop them from blowing away in the wind when people litter, where they end up in the water system. I don't think anyone really has any serious concerns about the density of plastic that ends up in our landfills, ideally, never to be seen again. The idea that plastic is bad, without concern for whether or not it ends up in a landfill, I think is misplaced concern. There are some decomposition GHG concerns, but again, those are insignificant compared to something as common as just driving ever day. Here we must remember that recycling plastic is generally a bad idea altogether if we care about GHGs.
The only people that seem to be pushing back against the bans are people with sudden and politically surprising (fake) environmental concerns because they are annoyed that they have to pay 10¢-25¢ for a bag (and absurdly trivial amount), and having to ask for one, instead of getting them for free without asking. This also has the effect of making paper bags competitive with plastic.
The entire debate is between most people on this issue seems to be people who either don't understand what it's about or don't actually care. Virtue signalling on the left or fake concern on the right.
I don’t know what kind of reusable plastic bags you have over there. Our fee was introduced in 2020. I bought two reusable plastic bags (made from some plastic-tarp-like weave) then and have been using them for five years without issue.
You still have no proof at all on the table for your speculation about the plastic items on the beaches.
It’s hard to understand why we can’t do a lot of sensible things, like not blasting tiktok on the bus or not speeding on local streets the in our cars.
Most people are happily ignorant of anything that doesn’t reinforce their priors.
But then the people using them can pay that 400x price rather than making society as a whole pay for the externalized environmental cost of a plastic bag.
The situation is complicated, and nobody wants to have an honest conversation about it.
The reason why the switch to heavier bags is important is mainly to stop them from blowing away in the wind when people litter, where they end up in the water system. I don't think anyone really has any serious concerns about the density of plastic that ends up in our landfills, ideally, never to be seen again. The idea that plastic is bad, without concern for whether or not it ends up in a landfill, I think is misplaced concern. There are some decomposition GHG concerns, but again, those are insignificant compared to something as common as just driving ever day. Here we must remember that recycling plastic is generally a bad idea altogether if we care about GHGs.
The only people that seem to be pushing back against the bans are people with sudden and politically surprising (fake) environmental concerns because they are annoyed that they have to pay 10¢-25¢ for a bag (and absurdly trivial amount), and having to ask for one, instead of getting them for free without asking. This also has the effect of making paper bags competitive with plastic.
The entire debate is between most people on this issue seems to be people who either don't understand what it's about or don't actually care. Virtue signalling on the left or fake concern on the right.