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Over the retiring several age , U.S. cities and state have pass century of policies trammel the sale and dispersion of single - purpose charge plate bag . Anew reportsays these laws have mostly succeeded in their destination of decoct plastic bag use . The paper — copublished by three not-for-profit , Environment America , U.S. Public Interest Research Group Education Fund , and Frontier Group — draws on industry and governing information to suggest that plastic bag bans can do away with virtually 300 undivided - consumption plastic bags per mortal per year .
“ The bottom line is that moldable bag bans study , ” said Faye Park , prexy of the U.S. PIRG Education Fund , in a statement . “ People pull in quickly it ’s soft to live without formative bags and get used to bringing a bag from home or skipping a bag when they can . ”
Photo: Drew Angerer (Getty Images)
The news report looked at plastic bag bans nationwide but focus on five representative policy in New Jersey ; Vermont ; Philadelphia ; Portland , Oregon ; and Santa Barbara , California . New Jersey ’s , enact in 2022 , has had the greatest impact , eliminating more than 5.5 billion plastic bags annually . Policies in the other jurisdictions eliminated between about 45 million and 200 million charge plate bag per twelvemonth , depending on population size of it . The investigator arrived at their estimates using datum collected by municipal agencies , faculty member , and plastics and grocery industriousness mathematical group .
In sum , there are more than 500 citywide ordinances ostracise moldable udder in the U.S. , as well as 12 statewide bans — in California , Colorado , Connecticut , Delaware , Hawai‘i , Maine , New Jersey , New York , Oregon , Rhode Island , Vermont , and Washington . New bills could presently add Georgia and Massachusetts to that list .
The case against plastic bags is simple . They induce contamination at every point of their lifespan , starting with the origin of the oil and gas that ’s used to make them . They can not be recycled ; after being used just once — for an norm of about 12 minutes , concord to one approximation — they are either incinerate or sent to a landfill , where they can last for 100 of years .
Notoriously , bags can also become bedding that pollute the innate environment and pop wildlife . Plastic bag , alongside plastic pic , causemore deathsof ocean turtle , whale , dolphins , and porpoises than any other kind of plastic . They can also pour forth bantam fragment called microplastics , vulnerability to which may be connect tometabolic disorder , neurotoxicity , and procreative damagein humans , among other wellness problem .
“ It feels like there ’s a work a workweek show up that plastics are not just littering and polluting the environment , but digging into our blood stream , ” said Janet Domenitz , executive theater director of the nonprofit MassPIRG , the Massachusetts branch of the Public Interest Research Group . Plus , microplasticsrelease greenhouse gasesthat contribute to climate alteration .
Plastic bag bans have theirskeptics , however , including those who conceive it ’s “ narcissistic ” to endorse them while still engage in other environmentally destructive practices , like driving a gasoline - power auto . Others have argued that plastic bag ostracize arebad forbusinesses , or that they violateconsumers ’ freedomto choose charge card . As of 2021 , 18 states had go by so - called preemption laws , prevent local governing from take in their own bag bans .
Some research worker have counterintuitively concluded that plastic bags are good for the environment , compare to paper or canvas option . Oneviral studyfrom 2018 claim that a cotton plant old bag would have to be reused 20,000 times to offset the environmental impact of produce it , while other studies have knock formative bag Bachelor of Arts in Nursing for lead to a stiletto heel in the use of paper bags — which also use up imagination . Research show that newspaper publisher bagstake more energyandwaterto get than plastic bag .
Other expert , however , say the cotton bagful field of study make a “ false comparing ” between reusable and plastic old bag , failing to account for the full life cycle impacts of plastic once it is disposed of or litter into the surround . As for the plastic or paper public debate , environmental groups agree that the point of a “ well - designed ” plastic bag ban should be to reduce disposable bag economic consumption of any kind .
“ The intent of these laws is n’t to agitate from a exclusive - use bag to another single - use purse , ” Celeste Meiffren - Swango , Environment America Research and Policy Center ’s Beyond Plastic campaign director and a coauthor of the new report , enjoin Grist . “ Paper has its own environmental impact . ” She advocate that all plastic bag bans include a 10 - cent charge for paper bags to encourage customers to bring reusable option .
The report also urged policymakers to ban pliant bags of any kind — not just thin ones . In some jurisdictions , it identified a “ loophole ” that has allow grocery store and other retailers to supervene upon thin single - purpose fictile base with dense ace that are nominally reusable — even though research suggests that consumers do n’t reuse the thicker base in practice . In California , this loophole led to a net growth in the exercising weight of plastic bags used per person between 2004 and 2021 .
This clause originally appear inGristathttps://grist.org/solutions/plastic-bag-bans-have-already-prevented-billions-of-bags-from-being-used-report-finds/. Grist is a non-profit-making , sovereign medium organization dedicate to assure stories of climate solutions and a just future . watch more atGrist.org
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