Why Does California’s Newest Plastic Bag Ban Make A Difference?

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California has handed a brand new modification that provides to its authentic plastic bag ban. The state banned single-use plastic baggage starting in 2016 however allowed thicker “reusable” plastic baggage to be offered for a ten cent charge. Officers there thought that the unique legislative design, with just a few caveats, can be sufficient to cease plastic film-based air pollution.

They did embody an allowance for the thicker gauge plastic baggage, and most of the people thought that the accepted plastic baggage can be stuffed throughout a number of purchasing journeys. Nonetheless, customers handled the thicker gauge plastic baggage as in the event that they have been single-use. The plastic air pollution downside wasn’t alleviated in any respect.

So California went again to the legislative drafting board. Governor Gavin Newsom lately signed SB 1053 into legislation, which is a plastic bag ban that actually prohibits plastic movie baggage.

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Single-use plastic baggage are widespread alongside the roadsides, rivers, and coastal areas the place many find yourself after being discarded.

Single-use plastic bag bans have considerably lowered the variety of plastic baggage utilized by customers. However loopholes like these within the authentic California laws can dilute the environmental advantages of plastic bag bans, as they encourage the distribution of different forms of baggage that carry with them important environmental impacts. The swap to thicker plastic baggage, usually obtainable for a small charge on the checkout, continues the dilemma of single-use plastics.

The quantity of plastic bag waste discarded per particular person (by weight) in California really elevated within the years following the primary legislation’s implementation to the very best stage on document, so the ban was ineffective at decreasing the overall quantity of plastic waste.

On common, plastic grocery baggage are used for less than 12 minutes earlier than being thrown away, and US residents use 100 billion plastic grocery baggage annually, a lot of which find yourself polluting the atmosphere. As a result of they’re not biodegradable, plastic baggage proceed to pollute the atmosphere with dangerous microplastics for a whole bunch of years after use. Plastic baggage are among the many top five deadliest forms of ocean plastic pollution, in line with Ocean Conservancy analysis.

They’re additionally one of many high 5 deadliest types of plastic air pollution to marine life. They’re turning up within the stomachs of whales, birds, and different animals that ingest them. That’s as a result of, because the plastics are tossed about within the white caps and currents, plastics break into tiny items, known as microplastics. These small particles have a poisonous impact on fish and different aquatic life, together with decreasing meals consumption, delaying development, and inflicting oxidative harm. Microplastics usually penetrate the marine animals’ organic barrier and accumulate in tissues, affecting life on the molecular stage.

“But we have a simple solution that has been shown to reduce this type of plastic pollution: banning them,” says Ocean Conservancy’s director of plastics coverage, Anja Brandon. Brandon is an environmental engineer who has helped draft landmark state and nationwide laws regulating plastic air pollution. Since 1986, Ocean Conservancy’s Worldwide Coastal Cleanup (ICC) volunteers have collected almost 3 million plastic grocery baggage from seashores and waterways in the USA — sufficient to cowl 150 soccer fields. Plastic grocery baggage have ranked within the high ten mostly collected objects by California Coastal Cleanup Day volunteers in 7 of the final 10 years. Over a decade, volunteers have cleaned up sufficient plastic baggage to span the size of the Golden Gate Bridge almost 30 instances.

The manufacturing, use, and disposal of single-use plastic baggage releases water and air air pollution that harms human well being, too. Greater than 16,000 chemicals are utilized in manufacturing plastics, and no less than 4,200 of those have been recognized as hazardous to human well being and the atmosphere. 1000’s extra chemical compounds utilized in plastic manufacturing have by no means been examined. Many of those chemical compounds migrate out of plastic packaging into our meals, drinks, family merchandise, and our bodies.

Plastic Bag Bans Work!

As of 2021, greater than 500 cities and cities throughout 28 states had a plastic bag ban ordinance in impact. Ten states — California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington — had some type of statewide plastic bag ban by 2024.

States and cities with well-designed single-use plastic bag bans have efficiently lowered plastic bag use and related litter and air pollution. A plastic bag ban might be anticipated to eradicate nearly 300 single-use plastic baggage per particular person per 12 months on common. Bans in 5 states and cities that cowl greater than 12 million folks mixed have minimize single-use plastic bag consumption by about 6 billion bags per yearin line with the Public Curiosity Community. That’s sufficient baggage to circle the earth 42 instances.

Such reductions, significantly in coastal areas, cut back the danger plastic baggage pose to marine animals. Nicely-designed bag bans encourage customers to undertake sustainable bag choices. 4 research of single-use plastic bag bans — from San Mateo County, Calif.; Mountain View, Calif.; Philadelphia; and Santa Monica, Calif. — present important will increase in reusable bag use and will increase within the variety of prospects not utilizing baggage in any respect after a single-use bag ban was carried out. For instance, in San Mateo County, the proportion of shoppers with no less than one reusable bag at 13 surveyed retailers elevated 162% after the county’s ban was carried out, and in Mountain View, the proportion of shoppers utilizing no bag almost tripled as soon as a ban was imposed.

To scale back the plastic air pollution that threatens our well being and our surroundings, policymakers ought to undertake robust bans on single-use plastic baggage to attenuate plastic waste and will shut loopholes that weaken or counteract the effectiveness of current bans. Plastic bag bans cut back litter and air pollution.  The necessity to develop a standard understanding of what constitutes a healthy, circular economy for plastics should be developed and carried out — quickly.

Remaining Ideas About Implementing A Plastic Bag Ban

I reside in Florida, in a state wherein freedom of speech has been translated into allowing particular person actions that hurt a number of others. A easy legislative act like a plastic bag ban is unlikely to seek out itself on my state’s legislative agenda.

So my beachfront group has a method to make single-use plastic baggage no less than a little bit helpful. We take part within the Blue Tubes program, the place passersby can stuff designated containers with their plastic baggage. Then, when seaside walkers head on their day by day strolls, they will cease, seize a plastic bag, and place seaside litter they encounter in it. In that means, the seaside turns into cleaned, and the single-use plastic movie baggage are put to a slight good use.

Is the Blue Tube program an answer to plastic pollution? Completely not. However it’s a small step toward recognition of an enormous problem.