Laws are starting to target single use non-degradable plastics. My county has outlawed plastic shopping bags and some localities have outlawed plastic drinking straws.

Eventually they may get around to shotgun hulls and wads. I am careful to not strew around my hulls, even when hunting, but the wads land everywhere.

Is there some danger that, in the future, we may have to revert to fiber wads and paper hulls? Will there be a better alternative?

I've long thought paper needs to be the future of hunting shells.

Our local duck hunting lake is littered with hulls.

And yet stainless steel straws kill people.

They seem do allright with fibre wads in the UK.

Also, millions of gamebirds have been killed with fibre wad ammo (including muzzle loaders here as well).

Fiber etc. wads are fine for lead shot, and probably bismuth, as well …. but what do you use as wadding for steel and other hard nontox shot to protect the barrel from scoring?

That has probably been the biggest improvement for steel, etc. - the newer wad designs for barrel protection, even for size 7 clay target loads where required.

Oregon just went to the "No Plastic" bag law..... Now you go through the line and guess what? For five cents you can buy a plastic bag.... different bag but still plastic. Larry

There are alternatives to plastic. I don't leave hulls in the field & for auto users, there are hull catchers if you don't like picking them up. I am sure there are fibers other than plastic that can protect bores. Plastic can be made biodegradable. I support the ducks. I will shoot soybeans if it will bring the ducks back! The biggest problem is the regulators. We have solutions already but the regulators won't allow them!

I agree with the "regulator" issue mentioned above. This could be just another method of regulating our use of shotguns in the uncontrolled environment out-of-doors. I don't believe they can just "outlaw" one time use of any plastic items. Think of all the one-time-use syringes that diabetics use for taking their life-saving insulin. But I do agree with the regulators that something needs to be done about all of these plastic bags and plastic cups floating around in the air and on the side of the road in front of my farm that the county chops up with their brush hogs on a regular basis. Its getting to be an extreme mess and I believe that certain throw away items like plastic shopping bags and any plastic food service items need to be eliminated and replaced with paper.

Ca land of the fruit and nuts outlawed plastic bags, but charge $.10 a shopping bag for paper bags and some cities on the coast use paper straws

I believe Lincoln Park Traps in Chicago was able to stay on life-support for a few years by using non-plastic wads in the ammunition used at the club. Plastic wads floated on the lake and attracted negative attention.

15c here, and they are thicker, take more resources and energy to make, take even longer to break down and you still only use the damn things once.

Bloody stupid, biodegradable thin plastic would be OK made from grain oil instead of crude oil.
I did think that bamboo paper especially waxed might be a good alternative too.

I live part time in Bangkok and the plastic and rubbish here is a joke, but then there are no public bins, everything comes in a plastic bag from groceries to a can of drink or even hot soup and takeaway foods.
The missus is that anti plastic I have to carry two of those folding reusable bags in a pocket just in case I buy something and she's that passionate "crazy" about it that she even uses cotton reusable sanitary pads.

Move towards fiber wads is not a terrible thing BUT the move towards steel makes it a no go.

I seem to recall a push for biodegradable hulls a while back. Anybody else? Anything to it?

s/f Steve

The people creating the regulations couldn't care less about barrel scoring, as a matter of fact they probably see that as a feature rather than a bug.

You go to the grocery store and buy a steak (sitting on a plastic tray and wrapped in plastic), 5 lbs. of potatoes (in a plastic bag), a pound of carrots (in a plastic bag), a loaf of bread (in a plastic bag), a gallon of milk (in a plastic jug), and a pie (in a plastic box), but you can't put it all in a plastic grocery bag because they're bad for the environment.

I remember when we made the switch from paper grocery bags to plastic ones. The reason given was that the plastic ones took up less space in landfills.

What the...?

Think of all the one-time-use syringes that SanFransh###co hands out for free to dopers use for taking their Heroin, so they won't 'share needles' and spread blood-borne diseases among themselves, that then lay in the streets amid the piles of feces.

Walk up and down the aisles in a grocery store and look at all the products in plastic bags and containers and they ban bags to put your purchases in. What the he ll is wrong with these people.

It's all about power....... The use of horsepucks to buy votes to get power...... It's all about power. Larry

I can't believe I said hulls when I meant WADS! Is there been an interest in biodegradable wads?

Sorry, hard to type with my Vizsla on my lap.

s/f Steve

Those laws are completely useless , "feel good" laws for liberals to pretend they are doing something good.

Did they outlaw loaves of bread in a plastic bag? How about plastic jugs of milk? etc, etc.