Sneaky "Coalition to Support Plastic Bag Recycling"

Sounds like a progressive, pro-environment group, right? Yeah, not so much. They are "a group that includes seven plastic bag manufacturers, a plastic recycler in Texas and Kevin Kelly, 'a taxpayer, residing in the city of Oakland,' who also is the president of the California Bag and Film Federation." (Bag and Film? I don't know). They are fighting Oakland's ban on nonbiodegradable plastic grocery bags by claiming that the city should have conducted an environmental impact review for the legislation because

the ban will force consumers to use more paper bags, “which are more costly, generate more pollutants during manufacturing and require more energy to produce and recycle than plastic bags.” It also alleges that the continued use of biodegradable plastic bags, allowed under the ban, would “contaminate” recycling programs for disposable plastic bags.

Hmm... I find it odd that they consider the only alternative to plastic bags is paper sacks.
(Full story here.) That link also links to a "paper vs. plastic" interactive presentation (which requires audio, which I don't have at the office) but I hope the answer is "neither-- bring your own cloth bags."

Speaking of plastic shopping bags, the Portland Press Herald reports that "[t]he Maine Legislature passed a joint resolution to encourage the public to reduce the use of disposable plastic shopping bags by 50 percent by Earth Day, April 22." Unfortunately "encourage" basically means, well, damn little. But I was pleasantly surprised at this nugget: "An estimated 10 percent of Maine consumers bring their own shopping bags, according to the House Majority Office." (Full story here)