What do you do when you see the tide turning in favor of your opponent?  Publicly question their personal hygiene, of course!

The plastics industry has clearly taken notice of the backlash against disposable plastic bags, and they’re in a desperate push to defend the status quo.  Cities like San Francisco have banned plastic bags altogether, while Seattle and others place a tax on the one-use wonders.  Across the nation and the world, consumers are switching to sturdier (and more comfortable) canvas, plastic, and mesh reusable bags.  And according to the plastics industry, those reusable bags just might kill you.

According to a Canadian Plastic Industry Association study,

“Testing of the reusable bag was done on a clean-looking 10 cm X 10 cm square (100 cm2, roughly equivalent to 4 inches X 4 in. = 16 sq. in.) of the reusable bag surface. Results showed an elevated bacterial count of 1,800 colony-forming units (CFU) on the test square – more than three times the level of 500 CFU considered safe per millilitre of drinking water”

I’m not exactly sure what they mean by this particular comparison, since 100cm2 has very little in common with 1cm3 (1 mL).  Nor is the drinking water analogy appropriate, as pointed out by this food safety blog, because indicators of water quality are not appropriate for every other surface on earth.

Bottom line: there are bacteria on absolutely everything, including the inside of your mouth, but most of them don’t make us sick.  So go ahead and carry your own bags to the store, wash them once in awhile, and rest comfortably knowing that your actions are making some industries very nervous.

Can't get enough? Try these related posts:

1. The Big Bag Battle: Can reusable bags make you sick?
2. BizBuzz: Plastic Bags into Oil
3. Plastic bag manufacturers sue reusable bag maker.
4. How bad could it be?
5. Better Bottles by Design