04-09-2020, 03:59 AM
Acer wrote:
Civilization advanced pretty far without plastic bags. My entire childhood we somehow managed to get heavy and wet (I assume you mean frozen things that pick up condensation) items home in paper. What's lost is the skill to pack a paper bag properly.
I could counter your initial claim with a list of other inventions we use every day that civilization got pretty far without, but I'll pass. My point was that even though they are much more environmentally friendly the production capacity for paper bags is no longer there, hasn't been there for many years due to lack of demand, and would take months if not years to put back into place whereas plastic bags are still in widespread production and a new or additional order of them can be shipped at a moment's notice without delay.
Referring to the Union Camp paper mill in my earlier post, assuming it wasn't torn down and the land sold and that it instead was carefully mothballed for possible future use, it still wouldn't be allowed to open again once it shut down without being upgraded to meet current environmental regulations which would be the equivalent of building a whole new plant from scratch.