Aplastic Bags

The West Side debate continues. After Seattle’s new law for a 20 cent tax on plastic bags, with high hopes of phasing out their use (or misuse) in grocery, and convenient stores, Los Angeles seems to be following suit. The City Council voted a resolution on July 22 to ban all retail plastic bags from stores starting July 1, 2010 if the state of California fails to impose a pending bill (AB 2058) that would force retailers to charge shoppers 25 cents for each plastic bag provided by supermarkets and large retail stores. So shoppers can either bring their own pre-purchased reusable bags from home, or choose the free paper bags.

So what impact will this have on us? There are quite vehement and opposing views on this. Some council members and environmentalists who agree with the proposed law, say that the end result would be a major cutback on plastic bags, eliminating them from stores, and thus eliminating them from city streets, rivers, oceans, and landfills. There is a lot of in-your-face information and propaganda directed solely at painting plastic bags as the enemy. In reality, these are all myths. Plastic bags as litter, plastic bags as damaging to the environment, plastic bags as a source of major energy consumption, these statements are all extremely misleading.

First of all, the major sources of litter, in order, are: Cigarettes, chewing gum, soda cans, beer cans, soda bottles, beer bottles, water bottles, disposable paper cups, newspapers, and so on. Secondly, environmentalists say that plastic bags take thousands of years to decompose and take up space in the landfills, when in reality, plastic bags generate 39% less greenhouse gas emissions than uncomposted paper bags, and 68% less greenhouse gas emissions than composted paper bags. Also, plastic retail bags consume 71% less energy during production than paper bags. Lastly, many environmentalists claim that the production of plastic bags is directly dependent on oil. The truth is, plastic bags are made out of polyethylene. Polyethylene is made of ethylene. In the United States, ethylene is made of ethane which is extracted from natural gas. As a result, plastic bags manufactured in the United States are not made out of oil. Perhaps they are referring to oil in terms of fuel, which is used in the transportation of plastic bags. Fact is, paper bags are 6 to 10 times heavier than plastic bags, which means 6 to 10 times more gas consumption in transporting them.

Perhaps the most tragic piece of information being overlooked by anti-plastic bag coalitions is that 85% of the plastic bags used here in the United States are made here as well. Taxing plastic bags will have a huge impact on the American manufacturing industry. Just in here in California, the proposed tax would cost an average family around $400 dollars per year. If plastic bags were banned all over the U.S. it would result in the loss of 4,000 American jobs. It is important to be smart about the use of plastic bags. Banning them seems a bit drastic, when all it takes is a bit of caution. Think twice before you throw away your bag. You can use it again as a trash can liner, to carry lunch or other items in, or to pick up after your dog. Don’t buy less, buy smart!

Source: savetheplasticbag.com.

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