Sweden has some good examples of how these laws are counterproductive. When the "party for the environment" was in the government (they stepped out of it a numb

Sweden has some good examples of how these laws are counterproductive. When the "party for the environment" was in the government (they stepped out of it a number of months ago) they pushed through a high tax on plastic bags ($1 on normal shopping bags, $0.05 on those flimsy bags used for fruit and vegetables). They expected to get a lot of extra taxes this way (the true reason for the law) but were warned the net effect would be an increase in the use of fossil-fuel derived plastic. Why? Because Swedish plastic shopping bags are to a large extent - somewhere around 95% - made from renewable materials like sugarcane. Those bags were used to take home shopping after which they did double duty as garbage bags. The tax specifically targets shopping and produce bags, not just any plastic bag. The net effect is that people have started buying plastic garbage bags which, unlike those shopping bags, are made from fossil sources. They more or less stopped buying renewable shopping bags since nobody likes to be punished for doing the right thing, no matter how much that "party for the environment" thought they would. The plastic bag tax has not nearly brought in the amount they thought it would and has led to an increase in the use of non-renewable plastics and a decrease in the use of decomposable garbage bags. It also functions as a warning for any company which wants to invest in creating renewable plastics, the government can pull the rug from under your business any time. These laws are not just ineffective, they are counterproductive.