who makes more sense? judge for yourselves

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/commentary/your-views/letters-june-26.html

26 June, 2011

Truth about bags

The County Council wants to ban plastic bags, but their reasons are bogus.
They supposedly expect less litter, to save marine wild life, and to save the environment from the dangers of plastic in general.
But all the trash pick-up studies on this island show that plastic bag litter is a small minority of the trash problem.

There is no reason to expect litter to decrease, and all the more reason to expect plastic bag litter to be replaced by paper.
That so-called Great Pacific Garbage Patch? They found zero plastic bags and only a handful of plastic particles after hundreds of miles of trolling.

Litter is a behavior problem, not an object problem. How about increasing littering fines instead making everyone suffer?

No studies show plastic bags are an actual (not a theoretical) threat to marine wildlife. None.
Only speculation, and a few famous, endlessly recycled photos of wildlife with a bag.
Studies proving the full wildlife threat, with data? None. Only unsubstantiated speculation.
Wildlife dies way more from fish hooks than plastic bags.
Is banning hooks next?

Plastic bags break down to nasty chemicals.
So do tires, machinery, shoe soles, road surfaces, plastic bottles.
Are they going to be banned, too?

Plastic bags are a tiny percentage of plastics in general, which activists deliberately ignore.
They are not a proven health hazard, and no study proves they are.
Again, only speculation and wild exaggerations.

Many actual scientific studies show replacing plastic bags with paper bags is a huge hit to the environment, in carbon dioxide production, landfill expansion and other aspects. How about due diligence?

In their haste for a politically correct bandwagon of “plastic bags are bad, and people are too stupid to know better,” our council should use real science and not make hasty decisions based on bogus pop-science and exaggerations by noisy activists.

Pauline Brault
Keaau

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections/commentary/your-views/letters-june-29.html

29 June, 2011

Ban plastic bags

Regarding the letter to the editor of Sunday, June 26 [Tribune-Herald], by an apparently misguided Pauline Brault and the very real need for a plastic bag ban: Would fewer plastic bags mean less litter? Absolutely.

I routinely ride my bicycle, and, in addition to paper, I also pick up a lot of different forms of plastic. Save marine life? Absolutely. I challenge Pauline and anyone else who may be concerned to join me in a Ka'amilo Beach clean-up sometime down at South Point. I have personally been picking up beach trash in Hawaii for roughly the past 25 years, usually on my own, but also as part of the "Get the Drift and Bag it" campaigns, and more recently the Ka'amilo Beach project.

She mentions the "so-called" Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Identified over the last few years by shipping, airplane fly-overs and also by satellite imagery, this floating garbage is much larger than the state of Texas. I challenge Pauline to come and pick up garbage currently accumulating at South Point. We have another clean-up scheduled soon.

I think we use plastic bags mostly because we are too lazy to reuse cloth bags. I am reminded of the fact that plastic in any form is made from refined oil. The more oil we use, the higher the demand and the price.

Gasoline costs in Hawaii quite recently were well over $4 a gallon. Next year, perhaps $5 or 6 will seem common.
People in Europe currently pay well over $7 and, in many cases, over $8 a gallon.

Was the BP oil spill in 2010 a health hazard? Is global warming real or a myth?
When are we going to get responsible about our past, present and future?

Arthur Varady
Pahoa

A waste of resources

Pauline Brault's refreshing and well-written letter [Tribune-Herald, June 26] was the most concise treatise yet published on the proposed plastic bag ban. Unfortunately, facts rarely receive consideration in the rush to achieve political correctness.

A pox on the County Council for such an abhorrent waste of county resources.

Richard Hoeflinger
Keaau