And honestly, a little sketchy that ethylene cant handle sunlight. Adler, Ben. Because we do see such a strong response of having to pay for your bag, when you have to pay for your bag, it makes it an active decision, instead of just default, getting a whole bunch of bags that you dont really think about, we find that bag taxes are actually as effective as bag bans, and getting people to change their behavior, potentially without some of the unintended consequences of completely eliminating an option making people switch to other bags, which might actually be more harmful for the environment. Thats right, its always the one you most suspect. debut in season five. TAYLOR: Yeah, I would love to see the conversation, sort of move more. There are also policy options that dont involve bans. Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed by many retail businesses and require a charge of 10 cents or more for a recycled paper or reusable bag. Others, like in New York City, treat all single-use bags equally. If you want to take two minutes to help out The Sweaty Penguin, you can either leave us a five star rating and review or join our Patreon at patreon.com/thesweatypenguin. First off, I had a lot of cracker jokes, but more importantly being a heat intensive process, the production of plastic bags requires a good amount of energy, and it should come as no surprise that these petrochemical facilities typically use natural gas for their electricity source. It honestly sounds like a superhero, doesnt it? Were trying to get these deep dives a little bit shorter so you can listen to the whole thing during your commute or workout or walking your grandpa or what have you, and also make it a little bit more manageable for our team. In fact, eight states have gone so far as to ban single-use plastic bags, and over 200 counties and municipalities have enacted ordinances either imposing a fee on plastic bags or. ETHAN: Today we are talking about bags: a word that simultaneously means a container with an open top used for carrying things, a lot of money, and any goal youve ever had in your life. Produce sellers in this busy agricultural hub 95 miles. And thats definitely a behavioral effect that we find. Seeing how nuanced this issue is, I asked Dr. Taylor what the next steps could look like. Any time someone needs bags, make a trip to the back to get them and have them wait. Its vital reporting made entirely possible by loyal readers like you. TAYLOR: Yes, how much people actually reuse the various types of reusable bags has a big impact on their environmental impact. 1- Out of all the bags that are currently available in the market, plastic bags are the most convenient for consumers. [knock on door, door creaks open, then Laszlo starts coughing uncontrollably]. ETHAN: Like, come on, we dont need more toxic chemicals in one spot! A single mom, or someone working two jobs, is more likely to have to do her shopping in a rush on the way home from work than to go out specifically with a tote bag in hand. Lets start with paper: the only kind of bag that is, in the most literal tense, tearible. The U.S. is the number two producer of polyethylene in the world behind China, and in the U.S., 80 percent of our primary petrochemical supply is in Texas and Louisiana. AD READER: Is it 12:01am on November 1st? But advocates of these laws and journalists who cover the issue often neglect to ask what will replace plastic bags and what the environmental impact of that replacement will be. But sales of garbage bags increased substantially and especially those small garbage bags that you know, are around the same size as the carryout back. I took a look at a 2017 Congressional Report which found the petrochemical industry was, at the time, pursuing 48 new plastics-related projects in the Houston area. Again, Im not referring to carbon emissions, Im talking nitrous oxide, particulate matter, carbon monoxide, smog, Sagittariuses, really bad stuff. On the other hand, were using thicker bags, which might be emitting more carbon and pollution into the atmosphere. In addition to being my celebrity couple name with a girl named Polly, polyethylene is a string of carbon and hydrogen atoms. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. 500 billion plastic grocery bags are used worldwide. I asked Dr. Taylor how we can account for the cost of alternatives when we create policies to address plastic bags. They are not the largest sources of plastic pollution Plastic waste is indeed a. Now, Im not sure how far along plant plastic or CO2 plastic are in the development process, but certainly very exciting possibilities if they could scale up. Many supermarkets have experimented with bag bonuses trying to get people to reuse their either bags by giving them five cents, and they havent found them to be particularly effective. How many plastic bags are replaced by one cotton tote bag? Bag bans cut this litter off at the source: In San Jose, California, a plastic bag ban led to an 89 percent reduction in the number of plastic bags winding up in the citys storm drains. India followed the UK with a . That signals to customers that these arent reusable products. Plastic bags could also be more sustainable from the production side. The instinct to favor reusable bags springs from an understandable urge to reduce our chronic overconsumption, but the bags we use are not the big problem. Major funding forPeril and Promiseis provided byDr. P. Roy Vagelos and Diana T. Vageloswith additional funding from Sue and Edgar Wachenheim III,and the Estate of Worthington Mayo-Smith. You can learn more at pbs.org/perilandpromise. The past and future are tightly linked in conventional quantum mechanics. I also mistake plastic bags for food sometimes, and let me tell you, Walmart makes a delicious tall kitchen. And so in terms of ranking those, that would be my order, taxes, hybrid bands, and then least preferred standalone bands. Despite the good intentions of these new rules, plastic bag bans are problematic for a few reasons. Cracker plants release air pollutants such as benzene which is linked to cancer and childhood leukemia, toluene which is linked to birth defects and brain, liver, and kidney problems, formaldehyde which is a known carcinogen, and particulate matter which is linked to cardiovascular and respiratory disease and lung and bladder cancer. Maybe call the manager over or fly the CEO in on a helicopter or pull the fire alarm so everyone starts screaming and running. ETHAN: Beyond climate though, crackers cause a lot of issues for surrounding communities. Monthly or one-time, donate now when all donations will be matched by a generous group of donors. In fact, it may not even be the most effective option. TAYLOR: So an interesting thing with local policies, and theres a lot of debate about whether policies like these should be implemented at the state level or at the local level. Come on, why have we not tried this yet? Not a fan of arcade games, I guess. This really needs to be top priority. I guess the name does make sense. ETHAN: And the list of policy approaches goes on and on. Paper does have its own environmental consequences in terms of how much energy it takes to generate, acknowledges Emily Norton, director of the Massachusetts Sierra Club. People still need bags to bring home their groceries. Some bills, like in Massachusetts, try to reduce the use of paper bags as well as plastic, but still favor paper. The Massachusetts proposal may not become law this year, but its the latest sign that the plastic bag industry is losing this war. Eat one less meat dish a weekthats what will have a real impact on the environment, says Tyler. Its like when your boss bans YouTube at work, so everyone jumps to Discord. Obviously, a cotton tote does have a much longer life than a plastic or paper bag, but we also have to be honest with ourselves. All three counties are majority minority, the first two are over a third low income, and according to data from Texas Rising, if you rank all 254 counties in Texas for the overall environmental and social burdens they face, these three counties come in at #3, #8, and #53. 2- From a retailer's perspective, the thin plastic bags are the most economical of all. Not so fast. As the Australian study noted, a cotton bag has major environmental impacts of its own. How Do We Protect Them? Problematic degradation 4. Thats one idea that Ive seen floated all over the internet. Last month, the New York City Council passed a 5-cent-per-bag fee on single-use bags handed out by most retailers. Oil and natural gas are also made of carbon and hydrogen, so in addition to using them for energy, we process them into plastic. In the case of using a tax, the government is also then able to raise some money, which can be used to either lower taxes elsewhere or go toward environmental cleanup efforts or most importantly, turning Niagara Falls into a waterslide. As part of our commitment to sustainability, in 2021 Grist moved its office headquarters to the Bullitt Center in Seattles vibrant Capitol Hill neighborhood. And these different dimensions? But studies conducted in Australia or Europe have limited applicability in the US, particularly when youre considering climate impact, because every country has a different energy mix. Plastic bags should be banned as it pollutes the water and land. Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? All rights reserved. ETHAN: When something causes as many issues as plastic bags, it may seem tempting to ban it. Donate today tohelp keep Grists site and newsletters free. Facebook, Follow us on If a plastic bag is reused in the home as the garbage bag in a bathroom waste bin, does that reduce its footprint by eliminating the need for another small plastic garbage bag? Not So Fast | WIRED Plastic Bottles Plastic Bags There are eight states that ban single-use plastic bags, and these are Oregon, Vermont, California, Hawaii, Delaware, New York, Maine, and Connecticut. Studies of bags environmental impacts over their life cycle have reached widely varying conclusions. Thats the intended goal of the policy. You can order the T-shirt plastic bags in wholesale from Bags . All donations doubled for a limited time. Last month, the New York City Council passed a 5-cent-per-bag fee on single-use bags handed out by most retailers. And in pretty much any case, people shift to an alternative type of grocery bag, and while plastic is unique in that it does not decompose, other types of bags have issues of their own. So what this tells us is that people were actually doing this very green thing. As far as I know, nobody has done the definitive analysis, which would necessarily need to have a large number of caveats and qualifications. Did you just finish trick or treating? How do we make polyethylene? The measure now under consideration in Massachusetts, for example, would mandate that single-use paper bags contain at least 40 percent recycled fiber. ITS COMPOSTABLE! ETHAN: Plastic bag bans also can negatively affect businesses. Our world faces increasingly severe hurricanes, wildfires, floods, heat waves, and more, but grocery bags have somehow become one of the hottest environmental topics. Often they need to be reused at least 100, if not more times, to be more environmentally friendly than those thin plastic bags that were so familiar with. Thats leading to a split in the anti-bag movement. So the unintended consequences. TAYLOR: Yeah, well, Ill circle back to the three Rs. The reasons for papers higher carbon footprint are complex, but can mostly be understood as stemming from the fact that paper bags are much thicker than plastic bags. New York's ban will take effect in 2020 but will apply to single-use plastic bags you can get at grocery stores or retailers. Yes, this was a paper that was interested in how sometimes we dont always think about how people respond to policies, theyre sort of the obvious response. Right now! Businesses may be reluctant to engage in default choice modification because customers might not realize the law and think theyre just getting bad service. Are Plastic Bag Bans a Solution? Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? "Banning Plastic Bags Is Great For The World, Right? Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? And the question that I had was, how does banning this plastic carry out bag affect the use of other types of plastic bags, and in particular, garbage bags, because as a consumer myself, I knew that I reused many of my carry out grocery bags as garbage bags. A Canadian Gas Field Is Polluting First Nation Communities, How Climate Change, Poverty, and Social Stigma Affect Menstrual Hygiene. The U.S. is the number two producer of polyethylene in the world behind China, and in the U.S., 80 percent of our primary petrochemical supply is in Texas and Louisiana. Not So Fast" by Ben Adler focuses on the states attempting to end giving out plastic bags for free hoping to reduce plastic waste. Some social justice activists who work in low-income urban neighborhoods or communities of color also argue that plastic bags are a particular scourge. And thats not purchasing garbage bags. Advocates for plastic bag bans often neglect to ask what will replace plastic bags and what the environmental impact of that replacement will be. ETHAN: Clips today came from 23 ABC News. If we do that, well see less polluted oceans, improved public health, and maybe, for the first time in history, Polly wont want a cracker. Have a listen. So I often tell people, if theyre choosing a bag, you want to choose a bag that you are going to reuse that could be a thin bag, then plastic bag, or it could be a nylon bag, which is technically still plastic, but is a woven plastic thats fairly lightweight, and thus, perhaps not going to have the same environmental impact as a heavier plastic or a cloth bag. Cotton tote bags dont fare well either. And as you mentioned, tote bags can be actually more harmful. The Australian study concluded that the best option appears to be a reusable bag, but one made from recycled plastic, not cotton. The breakthroughs and innovations that we uncover lead to new ways of thinking, new connections, and new industries. Washington, DCs government estimates that its 5-cent bag tax has led to a 60 percent reduction in the number of these bags being used, although that figure is contested by other sources. Nielson & Associates Manhasset, NY : Banning Plastic Bags Is Great for the World, Right? [slam the wrong buzz several times, then rewind], Okay, okay cracker? Some are funded by plastic industry groups, like the ironically named American Progressive Bag Alliance. Of those 48, 16 had publicly available air pollution data, so I took a look at that group. TAYLOR: When I put my economist hat, the sort of first tool that I really think that policymakers should consider is a small fee, or a tax on all the different types of carry out bags. Back to those three Rs we learned when we were in elementary school, the reduce the Reuse and Recycle. Polyethylene, however, is recyclable. According to the Ocean Conservancys 2020 Coastal Cleanup Report, plastic grocery bags ranked number 6 for trash in the ocean. What if they used solar or wind? This material which is widely used worldwide has been an issue for years now and these readings gives some explanation on why. Already in Massachusetts, 32 towns and cities have passed bag bans or fees. the more right . Spoiler alert: plastics parents got divorced at age eleven and it still isnt over it. But that understanding of each bags impact is not taken into account when we make a sweeping plastic bag ban. So if its not effective, and its expensive, its not a recommended policy tool. So some of my recent research was looking at to what extent do we actually see border shopping occur? We talked about a whole list of issues in our first segment, and those dont vanish. And cotton, unlike paper, is not currently recycled in most places. Spoiler alert: plastics parents got divorced at age eleven and it still isnt over it. With respect to the bonuses we talked about. Plastic bags are not biodegradable and can do great harms to wildlife. But for UPROSE, that concern is outweighed by the negative impacts of plastic bags on disadvantaged communities. Two weeks ago, the Massachusetts State Senate passed a measure that would ban plastic bags from being dispensed CLIP: Its been more than five years since single-use plastic bags like these were banned from grocery stores, a ban advocates say made strides for the environment. One reason plastic bags should be banned is that they hurt the environment. Heres Dr. Taylor discussing some of her research on that front. Nakuru, Kenya In the open-air Wakulima Market thin plastic shopping bags have disappeared, banished by Kenya's national bag ban. In fact, eight states have gone so far as to ban single-use plastic bags, and over 200 counties and municipalities have enacted ordinances either imposing a fee on plastic bags or banning them. Microsoft quietly supported legislation to make it easier to fix devices. Yeah, that was even rough for my standards.
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