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Re: Plastic bag bans have spread across the country. Sometimes they backfire.
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CALIFORNIA STUPID
Feb 17, 2024, 7:10:02 PM2/17/24
to
On 12 Mar 2022, Rudy Canoza <notg...@gmail.com> posted some
news:l49XJ.60230$dln7....@fx03.iad:
> They call this, "CALIFORNIA STUPID".
The idea is simple: Reduce plastic waste by requiring shoppers to bring
their own reusable bags.
The reality is messy. Plastic bag bans have spread across the nation, but
some data suggests that switching to more durable, multi-use bags creates
some new problems – and in some cases means more, not less, plastic being
used.
Given how few single-use plastic bags are recycled – just 13% – cutting
plastic bag use could have a big environmental impact.
Now the nation is split on what to do: Strengthen bans or oppose them
entirely. Some areas are closing loopholes and making rules stricter —
Last week legislation was introduced in California to double down on bans.
Meanwhile, 20 states have banned the bans.
What prompted plastic bag bans in the first place?
It’s all about a fight over plastic pollution, a problem that’s grown to
epic proportions since the 1950s.
Thin, single-use plastic bags were first developed in the 1960s in Europe.
They only appeared in U.S. grocery stores in 1979, edging out paper bags
because they were significantly cheaper for grocers. By the 2000s they
were everywhere, including in the landscape, harming marine animals when
they got in waterways.
Every material has an environmental impact but plastic is especially
problematic, said Shelie Miller, professor of sustainable systems at the
School for Environment Sustainability at the University of Michigan.
“It doesn’t break down in the environment and can cause significant
ecological damage,” she said.
“When a plastic bag escapes into the environment, animals can see it as a
food source and ingest it, it can cause entrapment and entanglement and
there’s lots of questions about microplastics in the environment,” she
said.
Concerned about the growing plastic pollution problem, the first non-
compostable plastic bag ban went into effect in San Francisco in 2007. A
California-wide law followed in 2016.
By 2023, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New
York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington all had some form of statewide ban on
single-use plastic bags. Colorado and Rhode Island were added to the list
this year. About 500 cities and towns also have ordinances.
But there has been a backlash as well. As many as 20 states have passed
laws banning any plastic bag bans at all, under the argument that they
preempt local control. The conservative American Legislative Exchange
Council created a model bill for preemptively banning such bans in 2015.
Bans work, but not perfectly
Where they’re in place, the bans typically help but aren’t as successful
as proponents had hoped, in part because of compromises written into the
laws to make them palatable to shoppers and the plastics industry.
Which isn’t to say they don’t work. Areas with bans can eliminate almost
300 single-use plastic bags per person per year according to a study
released last month by Environment America.
According to the report, bans in five states and cities covering 12
million people have cut single-use plastic bag consumption by about 6
billion bags per year.
In the six months after California passed its bag ban, which ended handing
out thin plastic bags for free and required grocers to charge for paper
and thicker plastic bags, there was an 85% reduction in the number of
plastic bags to customers and 61% in paper bags, according to a 2019
report to the legislature on the program.
But the bans haven’t entirely dealt with the problem. In some places with
bans, the amount of plastic bag waste is actually increasing.
In California for example, this happens because of what politicians are
calling a "loophole" in the original bill, which allowed the sale of
thicker, reusable plastic bags at the checkout stand.
“The plastics industry has figured out a way of producing and selling bags
in places where there are these bans,” said Celeste Meiffren-Swango. She
is co-author of an Environment America report on plastic bag bans
published last month.
What seems to happen is that many consumers simply treat the thicker bags,
which were designed to be reused, as just as disposable as the thin film
bags that were available before.
A bag that’s double the weight “has double the impact, unless it is reused
more times or used to carry more goods,” a major United Nations
environmental report on plastic bags noted.
In New Jersey, a study funded by plastic bag manufacturers found that
while the number of single-use plastic bags sold declined by 60% after a
bag ban went into effect in 2015, the number of alternative plastic bags,
including the stiffer rectangular kind with handles that are often sold at
grocery stores at checkout now, increased.
The same thing has happened in California. The year its bag ban was
passed, Californians threw away 157,385 tons of plastic bags. In 2022 that
had increased to 231,072 tons, according to the report.
A new California law, proposed last week, would eliminate the option of
getting the thicker, theoretically renewable, bags at stores. Instead,
stores can sell 100% recycled plastic bags or let consumers use reusable
bags.
Is that reusable bag good for the planet? Depends on how many times you
reuse it.
Research by the United Nations Environment Program shows that simply
reusing bags enough times significantly lowers their environmental impact.
It doesn’t take a lot. “If a bag is used for shopping twice instead of
once, it has only half the environmental impact per shopping round,” the
UN report said.
4-8 times for paper bags
5-10 times for thicker plastic bags made of high-density polyethylene
10-20 times for durable “tote” style bags sold at grocery stores
50-150 times for cotton bags
“We want customers to buy a set of reusable bags and just use them until
they fall apart," said Miller.
Sometimes you don’t need a bag at all, said Meiffren-Swango.
“If I stop in at the grocery store and forgot my reusable bags, which I’ll
admit happens relatively often, and I’m just grabbing a few things, I’ll
say no bag for me and just carry my groceries to my car,” she said. “I’ve
even heard of people who take their grocery cart to their car and put them
in the trunk.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/17/plastic-bag-bans-
can-increase-or-reduce-plastic-use-heres-why/72522792007/
news:l49XJ.60230$dln7....@fx03.iad:
> They call this, "CALIFORNIA STUPID".
The idea is simple: Reduce plastic waste by requiring shoppers to bring
their own reusable bags.
The reality is messy. Plastic bag bans have spread across the nation, but
some data suggests that switching to more durable, multi-use bags creates
some new problems – and in some cases means more, not less, plastic being
used.
Given how few single-use plastic bags are recycled – just 13% – cutting
plastic bag use could have a big environmental impact.
Now the nation is split on what to do: Strengthen bans or oppose them
entirely. Some areas are closing loopholes and making rules stricter —
Last week legislation was introduced in California to double down on bans.
Meanwhile, 20 states have banned the bans.
What prompted plastic bag bans in the first place?
It’s all about a fight over plastic pollution, a problem that’s grown to
epic proportions since the 1950s.
Thin, single-use plastic bags were first developed in the 1960s in Europe.
They only appeared in U.S. grocery stores in 1979, edging out paper bags
because they were significantly cheaper for grocers. By the 2000s they
were everywhere, including in the landscape, harming marine animals when
they got in waterways.
Every material has an environmental impact but plastic is especially
problematic, said Shelie Miller, professor of sustainable systems at the
School for Environment Sustainability at the University of Michigan.
“It doesn’t break down in the environment and can cause significant
ecological damage,” she said.
“When a plastic bag escapes into the environment, animals can see it as a
food source and ingest it, it can cause entrapment and entanglement and
there’s lots of questions about microplastics in the environment,” she
said.
Concerned about the growing plastic pollution problem, the first non-
compostable plastic bag ban went into effect in San Francisco in 2007. A
California-wide law followed in 2016.
By 2023, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New
York, Oregon, Vermont and Washington all had some form of statewide ban on
single-use plastic bags. Colorado and Rhode Island were added to the list
this year. About 500 cities and towns also have ordinances.
But there has been a backlash as well. As many as 20 states have passed
laws banning any plastic bag bans at all, under the argument that they
preempt local control. The conservative American Legislative Exchange
Council created a model bill for preemptively banning such bans in 2015.
Bans work, but not perfectly
Where they’re in place, the bans typically help but aren’t as successful
as proponents had hoped, in part because of compromises written into the
laws to make them palatable to shoppers and the plastics industry.
Which isn’t to say they don’t work. Areas with bans can eliminate almost
300 single-use plastic bags per person per year according to a study
released last month by Environment America.
According to the report, bans in five states and cities covering 12
million people have cut single-use plastic bag consumption by about 6
billion bags per year.
In the six months after California passed its bag ban, which ended handing
out thin plastic bags for free and required grocers to charge for paper
and thicker plastic bags, there was an 85% reduction in the number of
plastic bags to customers and 61% in paper bags, according to a 2019
report to the legislature on the program.
But the bans haven’t entirely dealt with the problem. In some places with
bans, the amount of plastic bag waste is actually increasing.
In California for example, this happens because of what politicians are
calling a "loophole" in the original bill, which allowed the sale of
thicker, reusable plastic bags at the checkout stand.
“The plastics industry has figured out a way of producing and selling bags
in places where there are these bans,” said Celeste Meiffren-Swango. She
is co-author of an Environment America report on plastic bag bans
published last month.
What seems to happen is that many consumers simply treat the thicker bags,
which were designed to be reused, as just as disposable as the thin film
bags that were available before.
A bag that’s double the weight “has double the impact, unless it is reused
more times or used to carry more goods,” a major United Nations
environmental report on plastic bags noted.
In New Jersey, a study funded by plastic bag manufacturers found that
while the number of single-use plastic bags sold declined by 60% after a
bag ban went into effect in 2015, the number of alternative plastic bags,
including the stiffer rectangular kind with handles that are often sold at
grocery stores at checkout now, increased.
The same thing has happened in California. The year its bag ban was
passed, Californians threw away 157,385 tons of plastic bags. In 2022 that
had increased to 231,072 tons, according to the report.
A new California law, proposed last week, would eliminate the option of
getting the thicker, theoretically renewable, bags at stores. Instead,
stores can sell 100% recycled plastic bags or let consumers use reusable
bags.
Is that reusable bag good for the planet? Depends on how many times you
reuse it.
Research by the United Nations Environment Program shows that simply
reusing bags enough times significantly lowers their environmental impact.
It doesn’t take a lot. “If a bag is used for shopping twice instead of
once, it has only half the environmental impact per shopping round,” the
UN report said.
4-8 times for paper bags
5-10 times for thicker plastic bags made of high-density polyethylene
10-20 times for durable “tote” style bags sold at grocery stores
50-150 times for cotton bags
“We want customers to buy a set of reusable bags and just use them until
they fall apart," said Miller.
Sometimes you don’t need a bag at all, said Meiffren-Swango.
“If I stop in at the grocery store and forgot my reusable bags, which I’ll
admit happens relatively often, and I’m just grabbing a few things, I’ll
say no bag for me and just carry my groceries to my car,” she said. “I’ve
even heard of people who take their grocery cart to their car and put them
in the trunk.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/02/17/plastic-bag-bans-
can-increase-or-reduce-plastic-use-heres-why/72522792007/
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