Recently Los Angeles joined many others in banning plastic shopping bags:
In the first five months of the year, the number of plastic bag bans in the U.S. has doubled, from 37 to 75, after almost doubling, from 19 to 37, in 2011. The industry has been unable to stop major U.S. cities such as Seattle, Austin and now, most likely, Los Angeles, from banning its products.
ABOVE: Reusable bags are often free or low cost
Two-thirds of the bans are in California, and plastic bag bans are now in place in three of the 14 largest and five of the 29 largest cities in the U.S., with Los Angeles — the nation’s second-largest city, with a population of 4 million — set to join that group. (Plastics News)
However, such measures are not without controversy:
Many cities are imposing fees and bans on plastic shopping bags. Advocates argue these measures help the environment. But others say these measures are ineffective, and hurt the urban poor. (NPR)
Some stores, such as Aldi, don’t offer free plastic bags, customers must buy bags or bring their own. Other stores offer five cent discounts if you bring your own bag.
This is the topic of poll this week, the question is “Should the City of St. Louis ban plastic shopping bags?” The poll is in the right sidebar, results on Wednesday June 20, 2012.
Yes, we all should use our own reusable bags. We should also recycle more. Should city government make it “the law”? Absolutely, not! Watch what goes into any landfill every day. It’s not the plastic bags that are filling them up, it’s wasted food, discarded furniture, construction materials and tons and tons of “packaging”. And out on our city streets, I don’t see many plastic bags, but I do see a lot of trash from fast-food restaurants and a whole bunch of cigarette butts . . . .
Should the government outlaw plastic bags? Why not? They are clearly a hugely unnecessary addition to our garbage dumps. Helping the population move towards more environmentally responsible ways has always been a role in which the government has had a hand (EPA for an example). Sure it would also be nice to legislate away wasteful fast food packaging and other unnecessary rubbish but Americans (particularly here in the bible belt) can only handle change in baby steps (or at least that’s what I have observed).
There are multiple things that people do that they really shouldn’t. The real question is should the government outlaw every one of them?! And who gets to decide? First, incandescent light bulbs. Next, plastic bags. What’s next? Sugary soft drinks? Tattoos? Beer? Harleys? A thousand plastic bags are less than 3″ thick. Individually, they take up a miniscule part of our landfill space. Retailers pay very little to buy them and consumers pay very little to have them hauled away. If you want to live in a nanny state, move to Singapore!
I would be interested in learning a lot more about the problems with plastic bags. I saw a statement from cleanair.org that the city of San Francisco estimates that it costs 17 cents to handle each discarded plastic bag. So, banning these bags could save the city lots of money, but I would like to see more information on the subject per St. Louis.
In general, there are many reasons that using these bags has problems. Here is another example from cleanair.org, Recycling a ton of plastic bags cost $4,000, but the recycled product will only sell for $32 and few of these bags are recycled anyway.
A lot of the problem is that the bags are so light they fly away and cause litter issue on land and in the oceans – for example, the great garbage patch in the Pacific. So, if you must have a plastic bag to pick up dog waste, for example, and you buy a bag, at least you are buying a heavier bag without many of the problems of these light bags. Also, you are more likely to not litter with them, considering the cost of those little doggy bags.
The plastic bags are really getting ban a lot in last year and I personally also thing that this need to ban. Plastic is not good and is injurious and has many negative impact. Well, inspite of using plastic bag it is better option to take use of paper made bags and the bags made of clothes. I like to read more article on it this was really very useful and information.
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Yes, we all should use our own reusable bags. We should also recycle more. Should city government make it “the law”? Absolutely, not! Watch what goes into any landfill every day. It’s not the plastic bags that are filling them up, it’s wasted food, discarded furniture, construction materials and tons and tons of “packaging”. And out on our city streets, I don’t see many plastic bags, but I do see a lot of trash from fast-food restaurants and a whole bunch of cigarette butts . . . .
Should the government outlaw plastic bags? Why not? They are clearly a hugely unnecessary addition to our garbage dumps. Helping the population move towards more environmentally responsible ways has always been a role in which the government has had a hand (EPA for an example). Sure it would also be nice to legislate away wasteful fast food packaging and other unnecessary rubbish but Americans (particularly here in the bible belt) can only handle change in baby steps (or at least that’s what I have observed).
There are multiple things that people do that they really shouldn’t. The real question is should the government outlaw every one of them?! And who gets to decide? First, incandescent light bulbs. Next, plastic bags. What’s next? Sugary soft drinks? Tattoos? Beer? Harleys? A thousand plastic bags are less than 3″ thick. Individually, they take up a miniscule part of our landfill space. Retailers pay very little to buy them and consumers pay very little to have them hauled away. If you want to live in a nanny state, move to Singapore!
I would be interested in learning a lot more about the problems with plastic bags. I saw a statement from cleanair.org that the city of San Francisco estimates that it costs 17 cents to handle each discarded plastic bag. So, banning these bags could save the city lots of money, but I would like to see more information on the subject per St. Louis.
In general, there are many reasons that using these bags has problems. Here is another example from cleanair.org, Recycling a ton of plastic bags cost $4,000, but the recycled product will only sell for $32 and few of these bags are recycled anyway.
A lot of the problem is that the bags are so light they fly away and cause litter issue on land and in the oceans – for example, the great garbage patch in the Pacific. So, if you must have a plastic bag to pick up dog waste, for example, and you buy a bag, at least you are buying a heavier bag without many of the problems of these light bags. Also, you are more likely to not litter with them, considering the cost of those little doggy bags.
The plastic bags are really getting ban a lot in last year and I personally also thing that this need to ban. Plastic is not good and is injurious and has many negative impact. Well, inspite of using plastic bag it is better option to take use of paper made bags and the bags made of clothes. I like to read more article on it this was really very useful and information.