Based on the primary photo of refuse in the article the problem is not plastic bags but garbage in general. My city (Portland, Oregon) outlawed plastic bags yea

Based on the primary photo of refuse in the article the problem is not plastic bags but garbage in general. My city (Portland, Oregon) outlawed plastic bags years ago and messy parts of the city are still messy while clean parts of the city are still clean. The bag-ban made no difference. Visiting neighboring Beaverton, where plastic bags are still allowed, one is not overwhelmed by a mass of plastic bags in the streets... It has always been my understanding that if a store is going to provide disposable bags plastic bags are far superior - functionally and environmentally - to the alternative (generally paper): http://www.appropedia.org/Paper_versus_plastic_bags http://www.appropedia.org/Paper_versus_plastic_bags