More than 230,000 tons Plastic waste. That's the burden of plastic bags that Californians threw away in 2021.
Given these numbers, it's clear that California's plastic bag ban isn't working as intended. Two bills within the state legislature could change that by actually banning plastic bags at food market checkouts.
Voters made it clear that they don’t need plastic bags in grocery stores once they Proposal 67 in 2016 and confirmed a nationwide ban on single-use plastic bags.
But the plastics industry quickly took advantage of the law and invented thicker plastic bags that supposedly met the legal definition of a reusable bag and were due to this fact exempt from the regulation. In fact, most of those bags are neither reused nor recycled across the country.
Plastic bags are typically used for less than a number of minutes and thrown away after the short walk home from the food market. Rarely are these bags recycled. Most, if not all, of CalRecycle's waste disposal centers don’t even accept plastic bags for recyclingThe few bags that make it to a specialised centre usually are not recycled into plastic bags, but “Downcyclinginto other products, resembling plastic Park benchesThis approach doesn’t address the foundation of the issue: reducing the variety of plastic bags produced annually.
Worldwide throw plastic into the ocean every minute, which is as full as two garbage trucksPlastic bags are probably the most common kinds of plastic waste consumed by or entangled in marine animalsincluding the endangered leatherback turtles, whales and dolphins. When this plastic breaks down, it never disappears. Instead, it breaks down into smaller pieces, so-called microplastics. Microplastics can now be found almost in every single place, from the Summit of Mount Everest for the Floor of the Mariana Trench and myself in our body.
Because we cannot recycle plastic bags, billions of latest ones are made yearly. Plastics are mainly constituted of fossil fuels, so producing more plastic bags requires more drilling for oil, gas and coal. The extraction and refining of fossil fuels releases toxic substances into the air, including known carcinogens and neurotoxinsand contributes to climate change. In 2019, plastics were liable for 1.8 billion tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions.
Plastic bags also cause enormous costs for waste disposal. Every 12 months, Californians Taking over the nearly 420 million dollar bill to stop plastic from polluting our seas, beaches and waterways, and 6.7 million US dollars in the prices of street cleansing and manual waste removal. The lifting of the state ban on bags is an ecological imperative and economically child's play.
Californians know the way harmful plastic bags are, which is why the state banned them in 2014 and voters defended the law in a 2016 ballot.
This law goals to finally eliminate plastic bags from supermarkets. The aim is to encourage people to buy with their very own reusable bags and to make use of them repeatedly. If they forget their bag, they may still be supplied with paper bags for a small fee. Unlike plastic bags, paper bags may be recycled nationwide and are even compostable.
Since California is probably the most populous state within the U.S., eliminating plastic bags will significantly reduce plastic waste in our surroundings and reduce the necessity to supply more plastic. It's time to eliminate single-use plastic bags once and for all by passing SB 1053 and AB 2236.
Laura Deehan is state director for the environmental group Environment California and lives in Richmond. Fiona Hines is legislative representative for the environmental group CALPIRG.
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