Gotte

I read in an article that said, in regards curtailing the use of plastic carrier bags, that it takes 11 barrels of oil to produce a ton of plastic bags. Now, I know nothing about the process of creating plastics, so forgive me if I'm way off here, but isn;t it better to consume as much oil as possible in the creation of plastic bags, rather than have it burnt by cars? Being non-degradable, aren;t they a perfect store for carbon store that would be otherwise be released into the atmosphere? Like I said, I know nothing about the production of plastics, other than a vague school-film memory of the production process involving a chemical process. I bet there;s heat involved, right, that negates the amount of carbon stored in the plastic.
Hmmm, thinking about it, I bet that's the score. I'd be interested, though, in opinions.