Before Bend city councilors get their knickers in a twist over the horrors of plastic shopping bags, they should breathe deeply and look into the issue more closely. If they do they’re likely to discover that Bend — or Portland or Corvallis, for that matter — would serve its citizens and the environment better with a good education program than with a ban on the ubiquitous bags.

Councilors will have a staff review of a potential plastic bag ban in their materials when they meet Wednesday night.

Here’s something the review simply skims over that’s worth paying closer attention to: Plastic bags, for all their bad press, are more environmentally friendly to produce than either paper or cloth.

They have the smallest carbon footprint, by far, of other bags, a good thing in the age of global warming. They can be recycled more often than paper bags can. Their manufacture uses much less water than paper, and, unlike cotton, they require no pesticides.

As for the ocean, fishing gear is by far the largest contributor to what’s been called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, according to National Geographic, with most of it coming from Asia.

That doesn’t mean Americans should ignore plastic’s problems. Escaped grocery bags are unsightly, but that’s fixable. We’re generally taught as kids about the horrors of littering. Perhaps it’s time for a refresher.

We could also use some education on the value of reusing plastic grocery bags, and not just to line wastebaskets or to pick up dog droppings. They make great lunch sacks, for one thing, and they can be used more times than paper before they wear out.

And, they’re recyclable. Most grocery stores have receptacles for plastic bags in plain sight near entrances; we should all think more seriously about using them (only, of course, after we’ve retrieved the shopping receipts and dumped out the crumbs from our bags).

The Council should take a creative approach and help Bend become a leader in the “no to litter, yes to reuse and recycle” method of dealing with plastic bags. It’s more efficient, cheaper and, done well, better for the environment.