The reusable bag maker, ChicoBag, has committed a terrible, terrible crime: they’ve used facts and data to point out that plastic bags are bad for the environment.

Now, I know what you’re thinking, using facts and data is bad enough, but the worst part is, all of that information is cutting into the plastic bag manufacturer’s sales.  Hilex Poly Company, LLC, Superbag Operating, LTD, and Advance Polybag, Inc. are suing ChicoBag for “irreparable damage” to their business, based largely on Chico’s “Learn the Facts” page with bombshells like these:

Of more than ten million pieces of garbage picked up on ocean beaches in 2009 during International Coastal Cleanup Day, 1,126,774 were plastic bags. Plastic bag debris was second only to cigarette butts/filters (21%) in number and accounted for full 11% of ALL marine debris picked up.

The reason that turtles ingest marine debris is not known with certainty. It has been suggested that debris, such as plastic bags, look similar to, and are mistaken for jellyfish. Studies on dead turtles reported ingestion of marine debris in 79.6% of the turtles that were examined from the Western Mediterranean (Tomas et al. 2002), 60.5% of turtles in Southern Brazil (Bugoni et al. 2001) and 56% of turtles in Florida (Bjordal et al. 1994)

I mean how biased can they be?  They don’t even talk about how at least the turtles die with a full belly, or how the jellyfish population can now float through the ocean unmolested by those evil turtles.  Ingrates!

This is the inevitable last-resort for an industry that is clearly on its way out.  First, they ignored reusable bags as a fringe product for tree huggers, then, when it looked like people were actually moving away from disposable bags, the plastic industry sponsored several studies trying to show how “dirty” reusable bags could be.  If you can’t beat ‘em, scare ‘em, am I right?

This story is just begging for some equally ironic and silly headlines:

BP is suing ocean birds for trying to steal oil from the Gulf spill by absorbing it into their feathers.

The tobacco industry has filed suit against parents who warn their children not to smoke due to “lung cancer.”

Now you try to write a similarly ironic headline!  And stop using plastic bags already!

via Gizmodo