{"id":1797,"date":"2015-07-21T14:01:36","date_gmt":"2015-07-21T18:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/?p=1797"},"modified":"2025-05-29T12:52:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T16:52:38","slug":"reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole\/","title":{"rendered":"Reusable Bags Only? The Single Use Plastic Bag Loophole"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/o-PLASTIC-BAG-570.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1798\" alt=\"o-PLASTIC-BAG-570\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/o-PLASTIC-BAG-570-300x300.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/o-PLASTIC-BAG-570-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/o-PLASTIC-BAG-570-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/o-PLASTIC-BAG-570.jpg 570w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>On July 1, Hawaii became the first state in the country to enforce a ban on single use plastic bags. However, a loophole in the law is opening the door to a plastic bag that\u2019s even worse for the environment than the old bags.<\/p>\n<p>The fault lies in the way a reusable bag is defined: &#8220;a bag with handles that is specifically designed and manufactured for multiple reuse&#8221; and is made of durable materials, including plastic that is at least 2.25 mils thick. So, plastic bag manufacturers starting making\u2014you guessed it\u2014THICKER single use plastic bags. Only now\u2026they\u2019re calling them reusable bags!<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Supporters of the bag ban are saying that this plastic bag loophole will ultimately undermine what the ban was working to accomplish.<\/p>\n<p>The thicker plastic are made of low-density polyethylene. They also take more natural resources to create than the more flimsy counterpart.<\/p>\n<p>Stuart Coleman, a Hawaii coordinator for the nonprofit environmental group Surfrider Foundation, says &#8220;We need to redefine the term &#8216;reusable bag&#8217; [in the ordinance] so that it does not include plastic.&#8221; He&#8217;s also guessing that the reusable bag imposters &#8221; \u2026will be littered like they were before, because that seems to be a perennial problem.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, we think Coleman is right. If it looks like a plastic bag, and acts like a plastic bag, people will treat them like a plastic bag. And they\u2019ll end up in trees, waterways, and landfills. Only this time, they\u2019ll take longer to go away, because of course, they\u2019re thicker than ever before.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the Huffington Post for the image above.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 1, Hawaii became the first state in the country to enforce a ban on single use plastic bags. However, a loophole in the law is opening the door to a plastic bag that\u2019s even worse for the environment than the old bags. The fault lies in the way a reusable bag is defined: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12,11],"tags":[28],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Reusable Bags Only? The Single Use Plastic Bag Loophole - Bulletin Bag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Reusable Bags Only? The Single Use Plastic Bag Loophole - Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On July 1, Hawaii became the first state in the country to enforce a ban on single use plastic bags. However, a loophole in the law is opening the door to a plastic bag that\u2019s even worse for the environment than the old bags. The fault lies in the way a reusable bag is defined: [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-07-21T18:01:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-05-29T16:52:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/o-PLASTIC-BAG-570-300x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bulletin Bag\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole\/\",\"name\":\"Reusable Bags Only? 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The Single Use Plastic Bag Loophole - Bulletin Bag","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.bulletinbag.com\/blog\/reusable-bags-single-use-plastic-bag-loophole\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Reusable Bags Only? The Single Use Plastic Bag Loophole - Bulletin Bag","og_description":"On July 1, Hawaii became the first state in the country to enforce a ban on single use plastic bags. However, a loophole in the law is opening the door to a plastic bag that\u2019s even worse for the environment than the old bags. 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