SiliconBeat

Using last week’s dismal jobs report as a news hook, an organization called SaveThePlasticBag.com called for a suspension of anti-plastic bag initiatives to “Protect American Jobs During Economic Crisis.” Pictured here are some employees of an unnamed Los Angeles plastic bag manufacturer who traveled to the California state senate in Sacramento and are “deeply worried about the misinformation being spread about plastic bags.”

Taxing or banning plastic bags will result in the loss of about 4,000 “high wage paying American jobs, along with health insurance and retirement benefits,” according to the group’s press release, and is estimated to lead to the loss of another 8,000 jobs in the supply and distribution chain.

Did you know that 85 percent of the plastic bags used in America are made here? And that “most reusable bags are made in China and other parts of Asia.”? Wasn’t that the same place that popularized small fuel-efficient cars that wreaked havoc on Detroit?

Although the group believes that the anti-plastic bag campaign is based on “myths and misinformation”, it also believes the more important imperative at the moment is saving jobs.

“We need to pull together as a nation and not allow our high wage manufacturing jobs to
disappear. Banning plastic bags means banning jobs. People come first!” pleads the press release.

SaveThePlasticBag.com says it is asking San Francisco, Malibu and Manhattan Beach to suspend their anti-plastic bag ordinances, and wants Los Angeles County to suspend its plastic bag reduction program. It also wants the California Legislature not to introduce or act on any statewide anti-plastic bag bills.