FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – SEPTEMBER 23, 2008
For more information, contact theplasticman@hushmail.com
Plastic bag industry group to request State bailout
Pledges to “bridge the check-stand chasm” and work with paper bag makers for relief
Seattle — In a major development late Monday night, Plastic Bag Makers for More Plastic Bags (PBMforMBP) has announced their decision to request a preemptive bailout for the plastic bag industry in the face of the possible Seattle bag tax.
“20 cents per bag — frankly, we could afford that,” explained group spokesperson T.P. Mann. “What’s really going to hit us hard is the way the tax will encourage re-use over disposability. That, we simply can’t afford.”
The State faces a multi-billion dollar budget shortfall, but as with the analogous Federal deficit and Wall Street bailout, plastic bag industry leaders explain, this just makes the need for a bailout all the more pressing, serious, and time-sensitive.
“The Feds want to bail out Wall Street,” said Mann. “But what about the makers of the bags that are blowing down Main Street?”
The situation is dire, and Washington’s political leaders need to act with haste. That’s why PBMforMBP has announced our willingness to “bridge the check-stand chasm” by teaming up with our onetime rivals in the paper bag industry, which also needs relief in these tough times for purveyors of grocery sacks of all disposable sorts.
Preserving the Environmental Choice
The bailout request is especially pressing in light of a new Johns Hopkins study, which shows that re-using bags is not necessarily better for the environment than using them once and then throwing away.
The data suggests that when you take into account the efficiency with which garbage trucks transport plastic bags from back alley refuse receptacle to solid waste disposal station, single-use plastic film products stack up positively against the several-grams-heavier reusable bags. The issue is that the reusable bags are inadvertently taken along on numerous unnecessary trips, weighing down the trunks- and therefore the gas mileage- of Seattle’s hundreds of thousands of consumer-owned automobiles. Mounting desperation to avoid a 20-cent tax will only exacerbate this destructive caution to have a reusable bag on hand “just in case.”
In the end, the soon-to-be-published Johns Hopkins study shows, the inefficiency of reusables actually *adds* to greenhouse gas emissions, which is why so many environmentalists who work for plastic bag manufacturers explain that plastic bags are a great choice for the environment.
PBMforMBP pledges to work hard for the financial relief we need to offset the burdensome 20-cent bag tax. With the economy getting tight and the environment on everybody’s minds, now is hardly the time to say goodbye to the most environmentally responsible free & disposable product out there.
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Plastic Bag Makers for More Plastic Bags is the leading lobby group representing the interests of Plastic Bag Makers. For more information on us, visit us online at theplasticman.wordpress.com, or email theplasticman@hushmail.com
Plastic Bag Makers for More Plastic Bags 
Posted by JTS on September 24, 2008 at 1:10 pm
Haha
This John Hopkins study is BS. The weight of a reusable bag is less than a pound, how is that weighing down tunks? Plastic manufacturers are flooding the internet with these lies to convince people they are needed. Whats needed is a single use biodegradable bag for $0.05 charge, that way people will still BYOB and if they forget its not a huge charge and wont affect the earth. Single use bags still have a very high demand as people use them for kitchen garbages, dogs, etc.
Stop with the plastic is good.