New Jersey has become the latest to either ban or charge a fee for paper and plastic bags. Like other places (like Washington, DC, to name one) stores will add a five-cent surcharge to purchases if the customer requests a bag, but will grant a five-cent rebate if they bring their own bag.

In New Jersey, it’s projected that between $22 million and $28 million a year could be raised by the surcharge on single use bags, some of it to be used to restore Barnegat Bay. It has been estimated that since the fee was instituted in 2010, Washington DC raises $2.1 million a year, which funds education, outreach, and cleanup efforts.

I do use reusable shopping bags, but often find that canvas trade show bags work perfectly well. On the other hand, I have occasionally seen reports and warnings about high levels of bacteria in reusable grocery bags. And now, new research has confirmed this. From the abstract:

Recently, many jurisdictions have implemented bans or imposed taxes upon plastic grocery bags on environmental grounds. San Francisco County was the first major US jurisdiction to enact such a regulation, implementing a ban in 2007. There is evidence, however, that reusable grocery bags, a common substitute for plastic bags, contain potentially harmful bacteria. We examine emergency room admissions related to these bacteria in the wake of the San Francisco ban. We find that ER visits spiked when the ban went into effect. Relative to other counties, ER admissions increase by at least one fourth, and deaths exhibit a similar increase.

It’s not a bad study, but I think there is a danger in conflating two different things: a ban on plastic bags and people not regularly cleaning their reusable bags. As the authors state:

This study suggests there may be large risks associated with using reusable grocery bags, though it does imply that fastidiously washing bags can virtually eliminate the risks. However, the survey results suggest that virtually no one washes these bags.

I have mixed feelings about these bag bans/surcharges in general, and they do seem more like environmental theater than anything else. (You can actually return plastic bags to most grocery stores for recycling.) I am unsure that the comparison of “meager” environmental benefits to “high” public health costs is a fair one to make. But I am a fan of anything that helps reduce material—especially plastic material—sent to landfills.