Brian Dunning of Skeptoid has a very good podcast discussing plastic bag bans and answers what he thinks are the three most pervasive myths about plastic carryout bags that prompt virtuous people to advocate for bans.

Ultimately, bans on plastic bans aren’t just virtue signalling, but can be very bad for people’s health. This is largely due to people not cleaning reusable bags which are usually what replaces plastic ones. Reusable shopping bags, in turn, can expose people to food borne illnesses. Then again, that’s why environmentalists push for them since by making people susceptible to illness makes it more likely they will not only suffer, but also die.

You can listen to the entire podcast and read the transcript here.

PHOTO CREDIT: Peteruretz, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0