There is No Scientific Proof Reusable Bags Contribute to the Spread of COVID-19
Lawmakers are Being Mislead by the Plastic Bag Lobby
For immediate release:
Friday, March 27, 2020
For more information contact:
Louis Rosado Burch, Connecticut Program Director- 475.434.1606 (mobile), lburch@citizenscampaign.org
Hamden, CT- Governor Ned Lamont signed an executive order suspending Connecticut’s 10 cent fee on plastic bags yesterday, in response to the plastic industry promoting fears about the use of reusable bags.
Connecticut’s bag fee has successfully curbed plastic pollution and encouraged reusable bag use across the state, making Connecticut a national leader on protecting our water from plastic pollution. The announcement comes as the plastic industry presses states and the federal government to outlaw reusable bags as a way to prevent the spread of Coronavirus. The EO clarified that reusable bags would not be prohibited as part of this initiative.
Louis Rosado Burch, CT Program Director for Citizens Campaign for the Environment, issued the following statement:
“The decision to suspend the 10 cent fee on single-use plastic bags is based on political science, not public health science. Incentivizing a return to polluting, disposable plastic bags will do nothing to protect public health. This is a time to base policy decisions on good science, and not succumb to the plastic industry’s efforts to capitalize on this pandemic for their own benefit.
Research shows that viruses last longer on non-porous surfaces like plastic than they do on fabrics and paper. Single-use plastic bags are handled multiple times before they are used to pack groceries, and are in no way sterile or resistant to viruses and bacteria. In fact, the irony is that the plastic bag industry is condemning reusable bags made of plastic while praising their bags, also made of plastic.
The good news is that the EO does not prohibit the public from continuing to bring their own bags in Connecticut. In truth, there is no peer reviewed scientific evidence to support the claim that reusable bags contribute to the transmission of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases.
This effort is more nefarious than it seems. Behind the scenes, plastics industry lobbyists in Connecticut and around the country are fighting hard to capitalize on this stressful crisis to undo the recent wave of plastic bag bans and fees that have swept the U.S. creating measurable changes in public behavior. Their actions are about profits, not health. If the industry cares about public health, they should not be promoting disposable plastic bags. In the end, this is little more than a shocking and heartless effort to capitalize on a pandemic to promote wasteful and environmentally harmful plastic bags.”
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