It is all the rage in environmental circles to use large, reusable grocery bags instead of the regular plastic bags common at many grocery store and pharmacy chains.
The idea is that the sturdier reusable bags won’t clog landfills as the thinner plastic bags can.
Environmental activists are learning about serious downsides to some reusable bags, though. Many of the bags, which are often manufactured in Communist China, have been found to contain possibly unsafe amounts of lead. The lead may wind up in groundwater when the bags are finally disposed of, or lead from the bags may flake off onto food carried in the bags. The danger is serious enough that there are calls for a federal investigation of reusable bags.
Learning about the bags’ lead content, some shoppers in Manhattan said they were “chagrined that yet another good intention had gone awry,” The New York Times reported.
Whether to abandon traditional grocery bags in favor of reusable ones is not the main environmental issue our nation faces. But this episode should make us hesitate to embrace environmental fads on far larger issues – such as economically destructive “anti-global-warming” treaties. And it should make us remember that “good intentions” don’t always get “good results.”