Stop the plastic “reusable bags" in Hawaii

On July 1 2015, the country applauded Hawaii for being the first state in the country to enforce a plastic bag ban.

The next day, some shoppers in the City and County of Honolulu — where nearly 70 percent of the state’s population lives — were given free “reusable bags,” like the one on picture, at checkout

If it looks like the bag is made of plastic, that’s because it is. And, according to experts, these thicker, “reusable” bags are actually worse for the environment than the flimsy, single-use bags used before the ban.

The City and County of Honolulu’s law allows “reusable bags” as an exception to the ban, defining them as “a bag with handles that is specifically designed and manufactured for multiple reuse” and is made of durable materials, “including plastic that is at least 2.25 mils thick.”

Plastic in general is produced out of the raw material of oil. So if they're producing a thicker material versus a thinner, naturally, it’s going to take more of that resource than it did when they were making the thinner bags.

They were trying to target the most wasteful of all: plastic bags, but we need to redefine the term ‘reusable bag’ [in the ordinance] so that it does not include plastic.