Remember a few years ago, when lots of places decided to ban plastic bags? Remember how we all stopped using them? Yeah, me neither.

Far from reducing the consumption of polymers and the associated pollution, prohibiting single-use shopping sacks may well be increasing both problems. Usage of plastic for grocery bags in New Jersey increased threefold after a 2022 ban, according to a study earlier this month by Freedonia, a market research company, pushing the emissions used in manufacturing them up about 41%.