Although I am partial to this argument, I did not walk away from this article thinking that plastic bags are good. However, it did make a case for why they are

Although I am partial to this argument, I did not walk away from this article thinking that plastic bags are good. However, it did make a case for why they are "less bad" than most people think. Key points: - Plastic bags a technologically marvelous and poor people can use them to carry many groceries - Plastic bags make up only 0.6% of visible litter, and plastic grocery bags are but a subset of that -- other studies with higher numbers have unreliable methodologies. - As David Santillo, a senior biologist with Greenpeace, told The Times of London, "It's very unlikely that many animals are killed by plastic bags. The evidence shows just the opposite. We are not going to solve the problem of waste by focusing on plastic bags. With larger mammals it's fishing gear that's the big problem. On a global basis plastic bags aren't an issue." - Most plastic bags are made with natural gas, and not oil (and even if it were oil, 100 billion bags would be less oil than American consumes in one day) - Ultimately, the amount (in tons) of reusable bags thrown in landfills every year is greater than that of plastic bags. - Reusable bags can be unsanitary and have led to an outbreak of norovirus (and I assume other incidents as well, although no other figures were provided) I do think this is sufficient evidence to oppose bans on plastic bags (although -- as I said before -- I am biased). In order to make something illegal, a very strong case should be made against it. Banning plastic bags would have virtually no effect on liter, global warming, landfills, or animals life. That being said, I wish there were more of a comparison with paper bags, so we could determine which one is truly the best.