Simply making an unsupported statement calling me misinformed because I cited an authoritative source that did not back up your prejudices just makes you look silly. If you were one of my employees and you did that during project discussions, you’d be shown the door in short order.

William Rathje Director of the Garbage Project in the Bureau of Applied Research in Anthropology and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University has been studying landfills since the 1970’s. The data on the fact that paper in landfills degrades as slowly as plastic is from work there and elsewhere. The reason is that properly constructed landfills are designed to keep out groundwater to prevent groundwater contamination. Due to that, the moisture in them is relatively low which is why paper does not degrade in them.

http://www.uapress.arizona.edu/BOOKS/bid1369.htm

As for the energy and pollution aspects of paper vs plastic bags, no one with any real ecology/chemistry background (like myself) disputes the figures I cited that are easily viewable at http://www.reusablebags.com/facts.php?id=7 . The Sierra Club also agrees with them (http://www.sierraclub.org/bags/), which should indicate to the ignorant such as yourself that even informed politically motivated folks understand the difference between wishful thinking and scientific facts. You might want to try attending college (a real one, not A&W) some day. In the US, even IT guys, when at college, have to take freshman chemistry and other science courses so they are not completely clueless when it comes to science, facts, logical reasoning, etc.