Certainly, but I'm not particularly concerned about the resource cost to create the bags. I'm more concerned about the fact that standard grocery store bags don't biodegrade, and end up sitting in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in an enormous floating trash-continent that kills fish, birds, and necessary plankton and algae. Unless you have reason to believe that the compostable bags are significantly more expensive and environmentally damaging to produce, then I see it as a net benefit. If they're about the same footprint and cost to produce, but one biodegrades and the other does not, then that seems to be a clear step in the right direction, wouldn't you say?And those bags have to be made. To the reusable grocery bag side of the tally you have to add the resource cost of the replacements people purchase.
I have no problem with replacing bags that won't degrade with compostable ones.
I question how long the ordinary bags survive in the environment, though. UV eats most any plastic that's not specifically designed to resist it.
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That 3% stat is meaningless--it's the % turned in to recyclers. It doesn't count the number used for other purposes such as trash bags.
..which would be a "reuse" and not recycled.
But any bag which is reused takes the place of a bag bought for the purpose and thus has a basically zero resource cost.