Pending Legislation - The Plastic Bag Issue

Hear Sam discuss the plastic bag issue on the Diane Rehm Show on Aug. 13 on WAMU 88.5 FM via podcast from wamu.org.

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Frequently Asked Questions About the Plastic Bag Ban Issue

I am proposing legislation (Ordinance O-27-07) that will totally prohibit the distribution of all plastic checkout bags in all retail outlets (large or small) within the City of Annapolis. They will be replaced by reusable bags or 100% recycled paper bags (requiring no deforestation). The City of Annapolis will conduct a campaign to encourage reusable bags of all sorts. On Monday, July 23, a public hearing was held in City Council Chambers on this legislation. The measure will come up for a Council vote on October 8. Read more to learn why I am sponsoring this legislation.

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Click on the image above to see video clips that explain
the environmental reasons behind this legislation.

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bags and waves
(Adapted from an article by landscape artist Karen Pearce)

With all due respect to Kermit the Frog, it's easy being green. Although we may be overwhelmed by the environmental catastrophes that seem to occur around us with alarming regularity, there is a simple way each and every person can make a difference. It doesn't involve traveling the world to clean up oil spills or standing in the path of bulldozers to prevent land clearing. It actually involves shopping...

Consider the ubiquitous plastic checkout bag: Light in weight yet capable of handling hefty items. Cheap to produce. They cost very little. Shoppers practically consider it a birthright to be queried, "Paper or plastic?" Yet production of the both plastic and paper bags consumes natural resources. Plastic checkout bags frequently end up as litter in our streets, storm drains, the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries. It requires a lot of cleanup. The plastic varieties are difficult for garbage haulers, recyclers and landfill operators to handle. And all of this costs money.

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Plastic shopping bags and the environment

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Once let loose into the environment, plastic bags can cause considerable harm, blocking storm drains and suffocating wildlife mistaking the bag for food.

The environmental issues associated with plastic shopping bags have featured in the news in the last couple of months, following the apparent success of the plastic bag tax in Ireland in reducing the number of plastic shopping bags that are used in that country. The same approach has also been suggested for addressing the problem in Australia, and other countries.

Alderman Sam Shropshire is proposing legislation that will totally prohibit the distribution of plastic checkout bags by Annapolis businesses. However, until we are able to put this law into effect, the best thing we can do for the environment is simply refuse plastic and use reusable mesh or canvas bags.  Easy!

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, plastic shopping bags have a surprisingly significant environmental impact. As well as being an eyesore (next time you are outside, have a look around - you'll be amazed at the number of plastic bags in Annapolis's streets and waterways) plastic checkout bags can fill with silt acting as sand bags clogging our storm drains, choking our creeks and waterways. They kill large numbers of wildlife each year. In the water, plastic bags can be mistaken for jellyfish by wildlife. This makes plastic bag pollution in marine environments particularly dangerous, as birds, whales, seals and turtles ingest the bags, then die from intestinal blockages. Disturbingly, it is claimed that plastic bags are the most common man-made item seen by sailors at sea!

The biggest problem with plastic bags is that they do not readily break down in the environment, with estimates for the time it takes them to decompose ranging from 20 to 1000 years. One of the disquieting facts stemming from this is that plastic bags can become serial killers. Once an animal that had ingested a plastic bag dies, it decays at a much faster rate than the bag. Once the animal has decomposed, the bag is released back into the environment more or less intact, ready to be eaten by another misguided organism. The incredibly slow rate of decay of plastic bags also means that each bag we use compounds the problem, because the bags simply accumulate.

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Not only an environmental strain but an economic one. Collecting plastic bags from our storm drains is only part of the cost.

Plastic bags also clog storm drains and waterways, threatening not only natural environments but also urban ones. In fact, plastic bags in drains were identified as major factors in the severe flooding in Bangladesh in 1988 and 1998. This has resulted in a ban on plastic bags being imposed there early in 2002.

On top of the significant environmental costs, widespread use of plastic bags is also costly in terms of dollars and cents. Apart from the price of the bags themselves, which is four to six cents each, a great deal of money goes into collecting the bags (i.e. cleaning up!) once they've been discarded.

Production of plastic bags

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Americans use around 15 billion plastic bags per year, about 9 billion of which are supermarket plastic bags.

Plastic bags are made from ethylene, a gas that is produced as a by-product of oil, gas and coal production. Ethylene is made into polymers (chains of ethylene molecules) called polyethylene. This substance, also known as polyethylene or polythene, is made into pellets which are used by plastic manufacturers to produce a range of items, including plastic bags.

You have probably noticed that there are two types of plastic shopping bags - the lighter, filmy bags you get from supermarkets and other food outlets, and the heavier bags you get from other retail outlets, like clothing stores. The supermarket bags are made from high density polyethene (HDPE), while the thicker bags are made from low density polyethylene (LDPE). Unlike HDPE, LDPE cannot be recycled.

While plastic bags may not be the most high tech application of plastics technology, it is certainly one of the most prevalent. According to the Environmental Protection Agency Americans use in excess of 20 billion plastic bags per year. If tied together these bags would form a chain that is long enough to go around the world more than 100 times. More than half of these bags are made from HDPE.

Management of plastic bag usage

With this number of plastic bags in circulation, it is of little surprise that plastic bags are a significant pollutant

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Plastic Bags on the Thames foreshore. Photo by Thames21 (www.thames21.org.uk).

Different countries have adopted a range of approaches to discourage the use of plastic bags in an attempt to cut down on the number of bags finding their way into the environment. In South Africa for instance, where an estimated eight billion plastic bags are used annually, the government has implemented new regulations that will see only thicker, more durable plastic bags produced. As well as making them more suitable for reuse, it is hoped that the extra cost associated with their production and supply will prevent retailers giving the higher quality bags away, making their use a more expensive option for consumers.

The use of plastic bags is being discouraged in other countries such as Singapore, Kenya, Ireland and Taiwan. The tax imposed on the use of plastic shopping bags in Ireland has resulted in the use of plastic shopping bags being reduced by 90% in just six months. Prior to the 15 euro cent per bag tax, it was estimated that 1.2 million plastic shopping bags were being handed out in Ireland per year. The money raised from the tax will be used to fund environmental initiatives.

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noSam’s Legislation

The legislation that Sam is proposing will simply prohibit the retail distribution of plastic checkout bags in Annapolis. This will serve to protect and preserve our waterways for future generations. And Annapolis will provide a positive example for Maryland and the nation. The alternatives to plastic checkout bags are reusable shopping bags or 100% recycled paper bags. Reusable bags can be easily stored for future shopping trips. They are more durable and more convenient. Some are especially made for frozen and refrigerated foods--insulated and leak-proof. These reusable bags are already in use around the world.

Recycle, Reuse, Reduce

Recycling your plastic shopping bags is one of the most obvious courses of action, however only 10% of the millions of bags used in America are being recycled. While recycling is desirable it hasn’t worked.

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Refugees from Ethiopia help keep the environment clean by using their weaving skills in a most unique way - creating useful household items, like these baskets, from used plastic bags.

Prior to recycling, of course, the aim should be to reuse your bags. Unfortunately its estimated that only 1% of America’s billions of plastic bags are reused.

If you don't want to take your bags back to the supermarket to use again next time you buy your groceries, there are a multitude of ways you can use them around the house, limited only by your imagination. One thing they should not be used for is lining garbage cans. It doesn't matter if you put them straight in your can as waste or put your other garbage in them, the plastic bags will still end up in landfills, and potentially at large in the environment.

Given the costs and inconvenience associated with recycling, and the fact that reuse only delays the plastic entering the environment, the most sensible option is to cut down on the number of plastic bags that you use, or stop using them altogether. It is estimated that it takes the average American family four shopping trips to accumulate 40 plastic shopping bags. If everyone accepted one less plastic bag every time they went shopping, the number of bags used would be reduced substantially.

Alternatives

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If each American family used only one less plastic shopping bag each week, this would reduce the use of plastic bags by more than a million a year.

There are a range of alternatives to plastic checkout bags. Some retailers save the cardboard cartons that stock is packaged in, so customers can use them to pack their groceries. Others may offer paper bags. Some major supermarket chains have mesh or canvas bags available for sale at a very small price. These bags can be kept in the car and used again and again. The advantage of canvas and mesh bags is that they are stronger than the plastic bags, and also much easier to carry. Some are actually insolated to protect frozen and refrigerated foods.

It takes a little thought to get used to bringing your own bags, but it is an easy habit to fall into, and it is such a relief not to have to pack the groceries away, and then find room to pack away the plastic bags as well!

So next time you go shopping, hold your head up proudly as you reuse or refuse a plastic bag. You may not be in a rubber dinghy chasing a whaling boat or pursuing ivory poachers, but you have made a contribution to the future of the Chesapeake Bay, its tributaries and planet Earth.

Plastic bags in the news:  (Click below to read or watch...)