The other day I was doing some research into a bill now before the state Senate that would ban single-use shopping bags. As I was working in my office, my wife pulled up the driveway after a trip to the supermarket in nearby Point Pleasant.

She had gotten a large order, as is her habit. The entire trunk was filled with groceries. Fortunately they were in plastic bags. I could easily carry three in each hand.

“I sure am glad they’re not getting rid of plastic bags yet,” she said.

So was I. The modern plastic bag is a model of efficiency. Even though it weighs just a seventh of an ounce, it can carry up to 15 pounds of cargo

If that same order were in paper bags, I would have had to make twice as many trips. (Reason Magazine has a good piece on why plastic bags are better for the environment.)

I know that because I often go to the market in Point Pleasant Beach, a different town that town banned plastic bags in 2018. One reason given was that massive amounts of plastic bags are littering our beaches.

No, they’re not. I run or walk on the beach virtually every day. I see a fair amount of cigarette butts as well as quite a few discarded beer and soda cans. But I rarely see a plastic bag.

This comports with a 2009 study by the anti-littering group “Keep America Beautiful.” The study showed that by far the most litter comes from cigarette butts, food remnants and food wrappers. Plastic shopping bags made up less than 1 percent of litter, the study showed.

And when they go to the landfill, plastic bags take up a whole lot less space than paper bags. The typical paper shopping bag weighs about 25 times more than a plastic bag. (Reason Magazine has a good piece on this.)

To me that’s a good argument for leaving well enough alone. Jeff Tittel of the Sierra Club has a different take.

“Historically our position has been banning plastic bags and putting a fee on paper bags,” Tittel said. “But no one wants to put a fee on paper so we want to ban paper bags, too.”

I could survive that. When I go to the market I usually buy fewer than 10 items so I can use the express check-out. I don’t want to get stuck behind one of those people whose order takes up the entire conveyor belt.

But my wife is one of those people. How’s she going to get her order to the trunk if that bill passes?

The version that could come up before the state Senate today would ban both paper and plastic single-use bags. Not so fast, say a couple of state senators who voted against the bill in the Budget Committee.

Republican Steve Oroho of Sussex County said politicians like to impose total bans, but “I don’t like the idea of banning things, because when you ban something there’s no more innovation.”

A lot of people reuse those bags for such tasks as collecting recyclables, he said. He said it might make more sense to develop better systems for recycling the bags instead of banning them outright.

Another Republican on the committee, Declan O’Scanlon of Monmouth County, said that some of those systems are already coming on line. He noted that the bill would also phase out styrofoam food-service containers.

“Middletown just bought two machines that will enable recycling of styrofoam, and they’re incredibly efficient,” O’Scanlon said. “And there is a market for the end product.”

He emailed me a copy of a 2018 study by Denmark’s environmental authority in which all types of plastic and fabric shopping bags were analyzed for total impact on the environment in manufacture and usage. The plastic bag came out on top.

“Are we just jumping on a bandwagon here or are we gonna study the scientific impact?” he asked.

That bandwagon could go off the road if this bill goes through, he said.

“Most members of the public don’t realize the impact until it happens,” he said. “And the frustration is going to be, ‘I got to the store and I can’t believe they banned these things.’”

Fortunately for shoppers, the legislative session ends Monday. If the bill doesn’t pass both houses by then, the sponsors will have to start over.

I recommend they start at the local supermarket. Go stand at the end of the checkout line and try to figure out how the shoppers are going to get all those groceries home if this bill passes.

That should give them some food for thought.